One of the first steam driven mills was the Albion Mill in London which was powered by a Boulton and Watt rotary steam engine built at the Soho works at Soho in Birmingham.

The spread of the railways in Great Britain and North America allowed cheap corn to be distributed all over the country causing mills like Sarehole to turn to bone grinding to make a living. Animal bones were powdered into fertiliser by the old millstones and sold to local farmers to spread on their soil.