The carpet business in Kidderminster has not entirely disappeared but it is much diminished from the time it employed more than 12,000 local people and produced over 30 million square feet of carpet every year.
Just how much the Midlands town has changed can be judged by the fact that this new museum chronicling an industry that dominated its fortunes for more than 300 years shares its entrance with a large Morrisons superstore.
Local industry
Funding from the supermarket chain has enabled the fabric of the 19th-century Stour Vale Mill building to be restored, allowing the museum to be established inside the elegant Grade II-listed structure. The collections of the Carpet Museum Trust are housed on two floors, with its archive and library upstairs, and the exhibition space downstairs.
The proximity of the superstore, full of shoppers rushing in and out on a busy Saturday, could be a distraction. But once visitors are through the shared foyer they are quickly drawn into the museum and away from the hustle and bustle of modern Britain.
While the building conversion is clearly of a high quality, it is not this that you notice walking into the exhibition – instead it is the distinctive and evocative smell of woollen carpet that hits you, a welcome change from the bland environment experienced in many museums.
Historical context
The internal layout of the building provides the structure for the interpretation. A large doubleheight space houses a number of larger exhibits, including two enormous working looms, while a longer narrower gallery runs the length of the building and contains the bulk of the museum and interactive displays.
As one might expect from a museum chronicling the development of an industry that became such an important part of the town, the exhibition provides plenty of historical context and a broadly chronological approach to the story of carpet making in Kidderminster.
While the history and growth of the carpet industry from its roots in the 18th century to modern times is told through graphics and interactive exhibits, it is the material on the impact of the industry on local people through the years that is most striking.
Photographs and oral history provide evidence of what it was like to work in the industry and the social impact of local companies and the facilities they provided for their staff.
I was particularly impressed by the short films that used actors to recreate key periods of the town’s past. These include its role in the second world war as a home for evacuees, and the swinging 60s, when the carpet industry was still booming.
The historical content is brought to life by numerous interactives and visitors have many opportunities to participate rather than just look. Enthusiastic and friendly volunteers also provide welcome assistance.
There is also much for families and children to do in these initial displays and further down the gallery, where the more general story of carpet and how it is made is described.
A “browsing area” divides the two parts of the exhibition, and contains a small library of books for visitors to consult along with photograph albums and excerpts from period carpet catalogues from the museum archive.
There is also a full-sized laminated copy of the local newspaper (aptly called the Kidderminster Shuttle) from the 19th century. Visitors can handle samples of yarns and carpet.
Design to delivery
The second part of the exhibition concentrates on the processes involved in carpet making, from design to final production and then delivery. The production cycle is told in a sequence of graphics and a large number of interactives and hands-on exhibits.
These include a microscope showing samples of the different types of yarn used in carpet production and a clever display describing how the colour of a carpet changes in different light conditions.
The process of designing carpets is explained and a set of drawers housing lots of pattern samples are available for visitors to browse through. Much effort has gone into helping visitors to understand some quite complex and technical concepts and processes in this section of the museum. On the whole there is much to discover, but the layout was a little confusing in places.
While the interpretation clearly succeeds in telling the story of carpet production in Kidderminster as well as the impact the industry had on the population of this small market town, it is only when the museums working exhibits are demonstrated that the visitor experience is complete.
The largest gallery houses Jacquard Wilton and Axminster Spool looms, and other machinery used in carpet production. The looms are large and complex pieces of equipment that only really make sense to the visitor when they are in operation.
They are not run at full speed but, even so, the noise generated is more than enough to illustrate what it must have been like to work in one of Kidderminster’s carpet factories at the height of production.
Manifest enthusiasm
Many of the volunteers who demonstrate the looms have long experience in the industry and, as well as explaining the processes involved, they also tell stories about life in the carpet factories.
The sight, sound and smell of carpet being produced in front of me really brought the story to life.
It is clear that the involvement and enthusiasm of volunteers and staff set it apart from many museums of its type. Their participation will ensure that it is not only a museum telling the story of an industry, but a true community asset that will help local people understand their heritage better.
Tim Bryan is the head of collections at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon
Just how much the Midlands town has changed can be judged by the fact that this new museum chronicling an industry that dominated its fortunes for more than 300 years shares its entrance with a large Morrisons superstore.
Local industry
Funding from the supermarket chain has enabled the fabric of the 19th-century Stour Vale Mill building to be restored, allowing the museum to be established inside the elegant Grade II-listed structure. The collections of the Carpet Museum Trust are housed on two floors, with its archive and library upstairs, and the exhibition space downstairs.
The proximity of the superstore, full of shoppers rushing in and out on a busy Saturday, could be a distraction. But once visitors are through the shared foyer they are quickly drawn into the museum and away from the hustle and bustle of modern Britain.
While the building conversion is clearly of a high quality, it is not this that you notice walking into the exhibition – instead it is the distinctive and evocative smell of woollen carpet that hits you, a welcome change from the bland environment experienced in many museums.
Historical context
The internal layout of the building provides the structure for the interpretation. A large doubleheight space houses a number of larger exhibits, including two enormous working looms, while a longer narrower gallery runs the length of the building and contains the bulk of the museum and interactive displays.
As one might expect from a museum chronicling the development of an industry that became such an important part of the town, the exhibition provides plenty of historical context and a broadly chronological approach to the story of carpet making in Kidderminster.
While the history and growth of the carpet industry from its roots in the 18th century to modern times is told through graphics and interactive exhibits, it is the material on the impact of the industry on local people through the years that is most striking.
Photographs and oral history provide evidence of what it was like to work in the industry and the social impact of local companies and the facilities they provided for their staff.
I was particularly impressed by the short films that used actors to recreate key periods of the town’s past. These include its role in the second world war as a home for evacuees, and the swinging 60s, when the carpet industry was still booming.
The historical content is brought to life by numerous interactives and visitors have many opportunities to participate rather than just look. Enthusiastic and friendly volunteers also provide welcome assistance.
There is also much for families and children to do in these initial displays and further down the gallery, where the more general story of carpet and how it is made is described.
A “browsing area” divides the two parts of the exhibition, and contains a small library of books for visitors to consult along with photograph albums and excerpts from period carpet catalogues from the museum archive.
There is also a full-sized laminated copy of the local newspaper (aptly called the Kidderminster Shuttle) from the 19th century. Visitors can handle samples of yarns and carpet.
Design to delivery
The second part of the exhibition concentrates on the processes involved in carpet making, from design to final production and then delivery. The production cycle is told in a sequence of graphics and a large number of interactives and hands-on exhibits.
These include a microscope showing samples of the different types of yarn used in carpet production and a clever display describing how the colour of a carpet changes in different light conditions.
The process of designing carpets is explained and a set of drawers housing lots of pattern samples are available for visitors to browse through. Much effort has gone into helping visitors to understand some quite complex and technical concepts and processes in this section of the museum. On the whole there is much to discover, but the layout was a little confusing in places.
While the interpretation clearly succeeds in telling the story of carpet production in Kidderminster as well as the impact the industry had on the population of this small market town, it is only when the museums working exhibits are demonstrated that the visitor experience is complete.
The largest gallery houses Jacquard Wilton and Axminster Spool looms, and other machinery used in carpet production. The looms are large and complex pieces of equipment that only really make sense to the visitor when they are in operation.
They are not run at full speed but, even so, the noise generated is more than enough to illustrate what it must have been like to work in one of Kidderminster’s carpet factories at the height of production.
Manifest enthusiasm
Many of the volunteers who demonstrate the looms have long experience in the industry and, as well as explaining the processes involved, they also tell stories about life in the carpet factories.
The sight, sound and smell of carpet being produced in front of me really brought the story to life.
It is clear that the involvement and enthusiasm of volunteers and staff set it apart from many museums of its type. Their participation will ensure that it is not only a museum telling the story of an industry, but a true community asset that will help local people understand their heritage better.
Tim Bryan is the head of collections at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon
Project data
- Cost £2.9m
- Main funders Heritage Lottery Fund £1.9m; Wm Morrison; J Paul Getty Jr; Biffa; Foyle Foundation
- Exhibition design Headland Design
- Architect Brock Carmichael Associates
- Fit out RS Displays
- Interactive and multimedia production Fuzzy Duck
- AV hardware Fusion LX
- Project manager Peter Reed
- Consultant L&R Consulting
- Quantity surveyor Robinson Low Francis
- Display cases ClickNetherfield
