As one of Bntain's best preserved industrial heritage sites, Coldharbour Mill Working Wool Muse.um houses an impressive array of working Victorian spinning and weaving machines.
Coldharbour Mill plays an important role in education, especially in areas concerned with the Industrial Revolution. Of particular interest are the various forms of power used to drive the Mill's machinery.
The 'power trail' starts with the water wheel which was turned by water from the leat fed by the River Culm.
The trail then leads to the Boiler House where the 30ft 1910 Lancashire boiler is fired up to supply steam for the Mill's two giant mill engines.
The Lancashire boiler holds a staggering 5,000 gallons of water which is necessary to provide enough steam for the 1910 300hp Pollit and Wigzell drop-valve horizontal cross compound steam engine.
The Engine House also contains a restored 1867 Kittoe and Brotherhood Beam Engine, which completes the story of motive power at Coldharbour Mill.
The Engine House is complete with the original Rope Race which converts the steam power into energy which would have driven the machinery on all five floors of the factory.
Regular 'steam up' of the engines is guaranteed to draw a large crowd of enthusiastic visitors.
Over the decades the Engine House has generated an atmosphere of loving care by dedicated engineers. A lasting memory of which are the initials engraved over the Engine House doorway — the last engineers to work there when it was fully operational.
Today the engines are cared for by a loyal team of volunteer
engineers.
Situated in the heart of rural Devon, Coldharbour Mill has been spinning yarn for the weaving industry for 200 years.
Originally it was owned by Quaker woollen manufacturers, the Fox Brothers of Wellington, Somerset, who produced a worsted spun yarn on the site from 1799 to 1981.
It was opened as a Museum in 1982 with independent charitable status, and has continued the spinning tradition of both the worsted and woollen processes.
Today visitors can take a guided tour of the Mill and enjoy exciting demonstrations of its machinery in action, turning raw wool into yarn and cloth.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the machinery, working conditions and environment remain much as they were at the end of the 19th Century when the Mill was in full production.
Coldharbour Mill Wool Museum
Coldharbour Mill was a major employer in 19th century Uffculme
with up to 170 people working here. Your tour will tell you about the
lives of these people, many of whom were children, working 12 or 14 hours
a day for a few pence a week.
Coldharbour Mill
The New World Tapestry is the biggest embroidery in the world. It consists
of 24 panels, each 11ft * 4ft making up a 264ft long panorama containing
over 38 million stitches. The tapestry, which was started in 1980, is
still being worked on and you can help by putting in your stitch.
Coldharbour Mill has been spinning worsted and woollen for 200 years. Built by Thomas Fox in 1799, the mill was an important centre for employment and played an integral part in establishing Fox Brothers & Co. as renowned global exporters of high quality worsted yarn and cloth.
When closure came in 1981, a result of a national recession and the popularity of man made fibres, the mill was already a museum piece - a time capsule of techniques and rare machinery dating from the reign of Queen Victoria.
In 1982 the Coldharbour Mill Trust bought and reopened the factory as a textile museum, so preserving a unique piece of social and industrial history.
As such it has been visited by many thousands of school children as part of their National Curriculum Keystage studies in line with the Trust`s founding statement that it should "....provide for the advancement of public education (in particular in the woollen industry) by the provision of a public working museum.....".
Since it reopened as a museum, the mill has won a series of prestigious awards.
The 1991 Steam Heritage Award for Stationary Engines.
The 1992 National Heritage Museum of the Year Award.
The 1989 and 2002 Sandford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Heritage Education, from the Heritage Education Trust
Wool and Worsted Production
We have been spinning wool and worsted yarn for nearly
200 years. You will see the old machines in action, hear the clacking
of the line shafting and feel the softness of the newly spun wool. Our
faithful team of bobbins wind up the yarn as we make it. |
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