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The Boots building was built in 1912 in the Arts and Crafts style. It was Boots’ main site in the city for decades until the company moved into the Eagle Centre. John Lombe was an international spy and co-founder of the Derby Silk Mill. By the turn of the eighteenth century, commercial stocking making was a major source of income in Derby. Determined to transform it from a cottage industry to a more organised form of manufacture, engineer John Lombe and Thomas, his half-brother, secretly drew schematics of Italian machines and smuggled them back to England in bales of silk. In 1718, Thomas Lombe successfully applied for a patent on a 'new invention of three sorts of engines never before made or used in Great Britain'. This restricted use of the machines to the factory in Derby for the next 14 years.
Title
John Lombe (1693–1722)
Medium
plaster
Accession number
DE1_HC_S014
Acquisition method
commissioned by Boots
Work type
Statue
Owner
Boots UK Limited
Custodian
Boots UK Limited
Work status
extant
Listing status
Grade II (England and Wales)
Listing date
24/02/77
Access
at all times
