To Die For

Thomas Lombe, the eldest son of Henry Lombe, a worsted weaver from Norwich, was born on 5th September 1685. His father died when he was a child, and as a teenager, he travelled to London, where he was apprenticed as a mercer and went on to become the country's most celebrated silk merchant.

Thomas had a younger half-brother, John, a skilled mechanic who had worked in the textile industry. He was a clever draughtsman, as well as being intelligent and fearless. Together, at the dawn of the 18th century, in a tale of religious persecution, industrial espionage, and assassination, the Lombe family established the British silk industry.

Their silk mill, built in 1722 on the River Derwent in the city of Derby, was the first instance of British workers being gathered under one roof to operate machinery driven by an inanimate power source — pre-dating the Industrial Revolution by almost half a century.

The development of the English silk industry owes much to the specialist weaving skills introduced by Huguenot immigrants who had fled religious persecution in France.

In 1685, the Catholic King Louis XIV issued the Edict of Fontainebleau, which outlawed the practice of Protestantism. Huguenot services were banned and their churches burned down, yet it was illegal to leave the country. Those who tried risked execution or a life of forced labour as galley slaves.

The St Bartholemew's Day Massacre of Huguenots in Paris

Despite such risks, around 200,000 French Protestants — mostly Calvinists — fled abroad, smuggling themselves out hidden in bales of straw, empty beer barrels, or wine vats. Approximately 50,000 to 80,000 of them settled in London, particularly in the Soho and Spitalfields areas.

Many of the Huguenots who made Spitalfields their home came from Lyon, the centre of the French silk industry. They established businesses as silk weavers, using handlooms to weave fabric from organzine (spun silk yarn) imported from Italy.

Silk weaving in Spitalfields: Hogarth (1747)

Organzine, or thrown silk, was produced principally within the dominions of Savoy, described by one observer as being made "by means of a large and curious engine, the like of which did not exist elsewhere."

In the late 1400s, Leonardo da Vinci created drawings of spinning devices, including twisting and winding mechanisms, but it was Vittorio Zonca who, in the early 17th century, published the first complete design—one that became the blueprint for the Italian silk industry.

Spinning Machine: Vittorio Zonca (1607)

The Italians held a virtual monopoly on the production of organzine and, for a long time, succeeded in keeping their craft a closely guarded secret through the imposition of strict laws.

Thomas Lombe stated in a letter to Parliament:

"The punishment prescribed by one of their laws , for those who discover, or attempt to discover, anything relating to this art, is death, with the forfeiture of all their goods, and to be afterwards painted on the outside of the prison walls, hanging to the gallows by one foot, with an inscription denoting the name and crime of the person; there to be continued for a perpetual mark of infamy."

A reconstructed 17th-century spinning machine at the Filatoio Rosso di Caraglio (Red Spinning Mill of Caraglio) in Piedmont, founded in 1676

Despite the inherent danger, the Lombe brothers were convinced that if the secret spinning process could be brought to England, it would yield a fortune from the high-quality yarn it produced.

John therefore travelled to Italy in 1715 to source the production of Piedmontese organzine — the finest double-twisted silk yarn, favoured by French weavers — and, disguised as a peasant farmer, secured employment in one of the many mills that were long established in the Piedmont region at the time.

John Lombe at the Piedmont silk mill in 1715

Believing John to be homeless, the owners allowed him to sleep on the floor of their building, from where he stole into the workshops at night and carefully diagrammed the engines by candlelight. However, while conducting his investigations, rumours began to circulate that he was prying into the secrets of the silk mill, and he was forced to flee for his life.

He managed to board a merchant ship bound for England, taking with him a travel chest containing the notes and drawings he had compiled, along with both original and paper patterns of the machine parts he had successfully secured. An Italian brig was dispatched in pursuit, but the English vessel fortunately proved the better sailer of the two, and escaped capture.

The Old Piedmont Chest remained undisturbed at the Derby Silk Mill for over a century until it was auctioned c.1856

John, together with his treasure chest, arrived in London in 1716 and, after conferring with his brother, had a specification prepared. A patent for the “organzining of raw silk” was taken out in 1718 and it was granted for fourteen years.

Thomas Lombe explained:

"The machine has 97,746 wheels, movements, and individual parts (which work day and night), all which receive their motion from one large water-wheel, and are governed by one regulator." 

Following the success of their patent application, the Lombe brothers engaged the legendary George Sorocold—considered Britain’s first civil engineer—and work began on the construction of their silk mill in Derby.

Lombe Silk Throwing Machine (1718)

Lombe’s activities had not escaped the attention of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy and later King of Sicily. Not only did he ban the export of Piedmontese raw silk to England, but, as legend has it, upon becoming King of Sardinia in 1720, he instructed an assassin to travel to Derby to kill the brothers.

Tragically, John Lombe did not live to see the birth of the mill in Derby. He died on-site on 16th November 1722, aged just 29—reportedly the victim of poisoning. A mysterious Italian woman, newly arrived in the city, was questioned by local authorities but released for lack of evidence.

Victor Amadeus II. King of Sardinia (1720-1730)

Following John's death, Thomas continued to run the silk mill, and by the 1730s it employed over 300 people. When his patent expired in 1732, he petitioned Parliament for an extension. Lombe's proposal was rejected, but he was awarded 14,000 guineas by the government on condition that he should deposit a model of his machine for reference in the Tower of London.

He was honoured with a knighthood by King George I and went on to serve as a London alderman and the city's Sheriff. Sir Thomas Lombe had secured a place among the nation's most respected figures. His daughter Mary married James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale, whose silken robes are beautifully captured by Sir Joshua Reynolds in the portrait below.

James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale (1750)

Following the expiry of Lombe’s patent, the factory model he pioneered was copied in cities across England, and by 1852 over 130,000 people were employed in the English silk industry. 

Thomas died on 2nd June 1739, and the mill passed through several owners, maintaining its association with the silk trade throughout the 19th century.

Lombe's Mill by William Caxton Keene (c.1890)

Following the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty of 1860, the English silk industry went into steep decline. The Anglo-French agreement ended tariffs on the main items of trade between the two countries — coal, iron, and industrial goods from Britain; and from France: brandy, wine... and silk goods!

French silk weaving — particularly in Lyon — had continued to develop since the departure of the Huguenots some 150 years earlier, while rising production costs in Britain rendered the British industry uncompetitive once tariffs were removed. 

First known photograph of Lombe's Mill (c.1900)

The English silk industry never recovered, and by the turn of the century, it had dwindled to a shadow of its former size and influence. In 1908, the mill's association with silk production came to an end when F.W. Hampshire & Company, a firm of chemists, took over the premises to manufacture fly papers and cough medicines.

This fall from grace was compounded in the early hours of 5 December 1910, when a fire broke out at the neighbouring Sowter Brothers flour mill and swiftly engulfed the Silk Mill.

The Mill Fire by Alfred John Keene (1910)

The borough fire brigade made great efforts to save the structure, managing to preserve the shell of the tower and the outlines of the original doorways that once led to five floors. These features can still be seen today on the tower staircase.

The building was rebuilt to the same height, but with three storeys instead of five — a configuration that remains to this day.

The Lombe's Mill Tower (2025)

During the 1920s, the building was acquired by the Electricity Authority and subsequently repurposed for use as storage, workshops, and a staff canteen. Obscured from public view by the adjacent power station, its presence gradually receded from public awareness until the demolition of the power station in 1970.

Subsequently, the building was adapted to house Derby’s Industrial Museum, which officially opened on 29 November 1974. In 2001, it was recognised as part of the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Lombe's Mill Gates (2025)

The magnificent, Grade I listed wrought-iron gates, installed in 1725 by the renowned ironsmith Robert Bakewell, are the crowning glory of the mill. They feature an intricate arrangement of scrolls, foliage motifs, and floral garlands — hallmarks of early Georgian craftsmanship.

At the centre of the overthrow, a finely wrought cartouche bears the intertwined initials of the founders, John and Thomas Lombe, serving as a symbolic expression of familial unity and strength.

The Lombe's Mill Grotesque (2025)

The most unusual feature of the gates is the grotesque positioned above the door leaves, acting as a stop. Symbolically, such figures serve as warnings—intended to ward off evil spirits—and as memento mori, reminding us of our mortality.

In honour of the risks, sacrifices, and unwavering commitment to excellence shown by all those connected to the Lombe story, the name has been revived and celebrated—exactly 300 years after the mill gates first opened—with a collection of peerless finery designed to create a bespoke wardrobe to die for.