Trowbridge Museum, in the town of

Trowbridge Trowbridge ( ) is the county town of Wiltshire, England; situated on the River Biss in the west of the county, close to the border with Somerset. The town lies south-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, south-west of Swindon and south-east of Brist ...

, Wiltshire, England, is a centre for the history of West of England cloth production.

History

The museum began as one small room in the Town Hall until it moved to the purpose-built Garlick Room in the Civic Hall in 1974. It remained there until July 1990, when the developers of

The Shires Shopping Centre The Shires Shopping Centre is the central, covered shopping centre in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England. The centre incorporates the county town's main museum and has a 1,000-space car park. , approximately 120,000 shoppers visited the centre each ...

allowed it to take over the first floor of the Home Mills building. The museum closed to the public in June 2018 and reopened in May 2021 after renovation and expansion to include a second floor, doubling its size, and the addition of a lift to improve access. These works were made possible by £1.1m in funding from the

National Lottery Heritage Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

, £900,000 from Trowbridge Town Council, and funds from The Friends of Trowbridge Museum and many members of the public.

Exhibits and collections

The 2012 exhibition ''Rare Machinery'' presented the story of

woollen Woolen (American English) or woollen (Commonwealth English) is a type of yarn made from carded wool. Woolen yarn is soft, light, stretchy, and full of air. It is thus a good insulator, and makes a good knitting yarn. Woolen yarn is in contrast t ...

cloth production in Trowbridge from its domestic beginnings through to the mechanisation of the process. As well as a complete

Spinning Jenny The spinning jenny is a multi- spindle spinning frame, and was one of the key developments in the industrialisation of textile manufacturing during the early Industrial Revolution. It was invented in 1764–1765 by James Hargreaves in Stan ...

– one of only five examples left in the world – the museum's displays included a

fulling Fulling, also known as tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelt waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven cloth (particularly wool) to eliminate ( lanolin) oils, ...

machine patented by Trowbridge engineer, John Dyer, in 1833. It was such a technically accomplished design that the machine remained unchanged and was still in use in the 20th century. A fine teazle gig, which was used to raise the

nap A nap is a short period of sleep, typically taken during daytime hours as an adjunct to the usual nocturnal sleep period. Naps are most often taken as a response to Somnolence, drowsiness during waking hours or as a means to supplement before ...

of the cloth, was also on display. The machine contains numerous "handles" of teazles (this was the name for the frames into which the teazles were fixed) which were dried out in the Handle House which can be found near the town bridge and Blind House, and is almost as rare as the Spinning Jenny. As of 2021, the museum has around 25,000 items in its collections. One of the staff's favourites is Joanna Turner's pocket watch, in silver and

tortoiseshell Tortoiseshell or tortoise shell is a material produced from the shells of the larger species of tortoise and turtle, mainly the hawksbill sea turtle, which is a critically endangered species according to the IUCN Red List largely because of its ...

, engraved inside with her name and the whole of the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manusc ...

and

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early ...

's Universal Prayer. She was a local evangelist in the 18th century.

Textile and Weaving Festival

The Museum organises a bi-annual Textile and Weaving Festival which highlights the town's woollen cloth related architecture and the work of contemporary local textile artists.

References

External links

* {{coord, 51.3208, -2.2092, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Museums in Wiltshire Textile museums in the United Kingdom Trowbridge