Birmingham and the Industrial Revolution – ‘In Tudor times both banks of the Rea were filled with water mills and the workmen of Digbeth, Deritend and the nearby boroughs of Rea used the water wheels to turn the early machines.’ An odd but informative blog post by Katie West about ancient Birmingham.
That seems to be a cut&paste dump from:
http://www.digitalezines.com/education/birmingham-and-the-industrial-revolution.html
although with errors introduced.
Cheers, have changed the link.