Bradford Industrial Museum facts for kids
Museum entrance on Moorside Road
|
|
| Established | 1974 |
|---|---|
| Location | Moorside Mills, Moorside Road, Eccleshill, Bradford BD2 3HP |
| Type | Industrial museum, Mill museum, Textile museum, |
| Public transit access | Bus and train: Bradford Interchange |
The Bradford Industrial Museum opened in 1974. It's located in Moorside Mills, a former factory in Eccleshill, Bradford, United Kingdom. This museum is special because it shows off old machines from local industries, especially printing and textile machinery. Many of these machines still work! You can often see them in action during demonstrations. The museum also has a "Horse Emporium" and a gift shop. The best part? Entry is completely free!
Contents
Discover the Museum's History
The building where the museum is now, Moorside Mills, was once a busy textile factory. It was built in 1875 by John Moore for making worsted yarn. This factory grew quite big, employing about 100 people.
At first, the mill used steam power, but it switched to electricity in the early 1900s. In 1908, Clifford and Arnold Wilson bought the mill. They installed a new steam engine in 1910. During World War I, there was a huge need for worsted fabric for military uniforms. This led to the factory expanding, adding two more floors and a clock tower in 1919. The clock tower was built as a war memorial.
In 1929, the mill was sold to W & J Whitehead. They used a special ring spinning machine, which you can still see in the museum's spinning gallery today. Finally, in 1970, Bradford Council bought the mill. It officially opened as the Bradford Industrial Museum on December 14, 1974.
Ground Floor Adventures
How Things Move: Motive Power
This part of the museum shows how machines were powered during the 19th-century Industrial Revolution. You'll see waterwheels, steam engines, oil engines, and gas engines. There's also a display of an engineer's workshop.
One interesting exhibit is a large millstone from an old corn mill. It shows how grain was ground into flour long ago. The museum's main highlight here is the Linton engine. This steam engine was saved from another mill and was one of the last ones made in Bradford. You can also learn about the history of steam power and how it changed the world.
Wheels and Rails: Transport
This gallery is full of cool vehicles! You can see cars and vans made by the Jowett company, which was from Bradford. There are also Scott motorbikes and Baines bicycles. Look out for a Wallis & Steevens steam roller from 1928, which was used by the Bradford City Council to build roads.
The biggest exhibit is a locomotive named Nellie. This saddle tank engine was built in 1922 and used at a sewage works to carry materials. Nellie is quite large, weighing 28 tons! She used to carry 700 gallons of water in her saddle tank.
Inside the tram shed, you'll find the only tramcar left from Bradford, along with a Bradford trolleybus. Horse-drawn trams started in Bradford in 1882, followed by steam trams and then electric trams. Trolleybuses ran from 1911 to 1972. You can see tramcar no. 237, built in 1904, which could carry 38 passengers on its top deck.
The Art of Print
In this gallery, you'll discover different types of old printing machines, many of which still work! You can also see various printing tools and equipment.
This section features machinery from old "hot metal typesetting" print shops, like those used for newspapers. There's a monotype keyboard that created special paper tapes. These tapes then told another machine how to cast each letter. This system was widely used for commercial printing. You can even see a "forme" (a block of text) that was the front page of a newspaper from 1981.
You'll also see lead letters, called glyphs, used for typesetting. These would be arranged backwards and upside down, then inked and pressed onto paper using a printing press. The display includes different kinds of printing presses, like a large Wharfedale stop cylinder press.
First Floor: Textile Wonders
In the 1800s, Bradford was famous for its worsted cloth. These displays show you the journey of a sheep's fleece as it was turned into fabric for a suit.
Spinning Gallery
Getting Ready: Preparing Wool
"Preparing" is a process used for long wools and hairs. It's like getting the wool ready before it's combed. The museum shows machines that did this, like the "maker-up" and the "single screw can preparer." These machines turn the wool into a continuous strand, called a sliver, which is then ready for combing.
Combing the Fibers
Combing makes the wool fibers straight. It separates the long, good fibers (called tops) from the short, unwanted ones (called noil). You can see different types of combing machines here, including the French comb, the Lister comb, and the Holden comb. The Noble comb was very popular because it could comb many types of wool.
Each comb works a bit differently, but their main job is to make sure only the best, longest fibers go on to the next step. For example, the Lister comb was used for very long fibers like mohair, while the Holden comb was better for shorter wools.
Shaping and Finishing the Yarn
After combing, the thick slivers of wool need to be made thinner. This is done by machines called "gill boxes" or "drawing machines." They stretch the wool between rollers, making it into a thinner strand called a roving. This roving is then twisted onto a bobbin using a flyer.
This process, called "finishing," also makes the wool uniform in thickness and adds moisture to make it soft and supple. The final product, called a "top ball," is what spinners buy to make yarn.
The Art of Spinning
Spinning is the last step to turn wool into yarn. The roving is stretched to its final thickness, and twist is added to make it strong. There are three main types of spinning machines used in the United Kingdom: flyer, cap, and ring.
- Flyer spinner: This is an older type of machine, good for making thick, smooth yarns. The yarn goes through a porcelain ring and around the arms of a "flyer" onto a bobbin.
- Cap frame: Introduced around 1828, this machine allowed for faster production and finer yarns. The yarn spins around a stationary "cap" and onto a bobbin.
- Velox ring spinner: This is a more modern type of ring spinning machine. The yarn goes directly from the rollers to an elongated spindle, helping to create a smoother yarn.
The museum also shows "twisting" machines. These machines take two or more single yarns and twist them together to make a stronger yarn, often used for weaving or knitting.
Weaving Gallery
This gallery explores the world of Industrial Revolution weaving machinery. You might hear some old Yorkshire words related to weaving, which can sound funny! For example, a "treadle" was a foot pedal that powered parts of the loom.
Looms for Home and Design
- Hand loom with witch: This type of hand loom was used by cloth designers to create new fabric patterns. It has a "witch," which is an early form of a dobby, allowing it to make very complex patterns. The "flying shuttle" method, invented in 1733, was used to put the weft (crosswise threads) into the fabric.
- Hand loom with jacquard: This wooden hand loom is like the ones used in homes across the British Isles before factories became common. It has a "jacquard" attachment, which means it could weave very complex designs, unlike simpler looms.
- Hattersley Domestic Loom: This loom was specially made for home use around 1900. It was designed to replace older wooden handlooms and was much faster. Even though it's powered by foot pedals (treadles), it's still considered a handloom.
Powerful Factory Looms
- Hattersley 6 x 1 revolving skip box: This loom was used for weaving fabrics like suit material. It has a "dobby," which is a device that helps lift and lower the threads to create patterns. Hattersley also invented the "skip box," which allowed the shuttle to skip compartments and pick out a different colored shuttle.
- Dobcross H.K. box loom: Made around 1950, this was a very popular power loom for wool and worsted fabrics. It could weave many different types of cloth, from light suits to heavy blankets. Its "dobby" device lifts and lowers the warp threads to create the weaving pattern.
- Sowden worsted coating loom: This loom has several special features to make weaving more efficient. For example, its dobby allows the threads to stay open longer, giving the shuttle more time to pass through. It could also weave a brand name or country of origin into the edge of the fabric, called the "selvedge."
Explore Outside
Outside the main museum building, you can visit Moorside House. This was the home of the mill's first owner, John Moore, and later owners. Today, it's set up to look like a 19th-century mill owner's house.
You can also see Gaythorne Row, a row of Victorian back-to-back houses. These were rebuilt here in 1986 and are furnished to show how mill workers lived in the 1870s, 1940s, and 1970s.
The Horse Emporium used to be the mill's canteen. Now, it has displays all about horse power. You can see a heavy-duty British Railways dray (a large cart), tools for cutting hay, and equipment for horses like saddles, horse brasses, and horseshoes. There's even a stable with a blacksmith's workshop and farriery display, showing how horseshoes were made and fitted.
The Stables
This building was originally a car garage in 1918. The museum used to keep dray horses here until 2011. Now, it displays restored horse-drawn vehicles.
You can see a reproduction of an 1890 "garden seat omnibus" with wooden seats on top. These types of buses were used in the UK until 1931. There's also a "brougham," which was a light, one-horse carriage used by gentlemen in the 19th century.
Another cool exhibit is a "steamer," or Shand Mason steam fire pump from around 1880. A team of horses would pull it, and steam powered it to pump 250 gallons of water per minute! Firemen could get it ready in just 7 minutes. These steam pumps were very successful and sold worldwide, but they were expensive to run and were replaced by motor pumps around 1900.
Special Events and Exhibitions
The museum often hosts fun events like living history days and family activity days. Every year, they have a Victorian-style Christmas craft market. There are also regular temporary exhibitions. For example, in 2003, there was a motorcycle exhibition, and in 2009, a display of rag-rugs.
The museum offers educational workshops for schools and groups. You can experience a Victorian classroom, a World War II classroom, or even a "washday" session to see how clothes were washed long ago.
In 1973, the museum held the first solo exhibition of Edna Lumb, an artist known for her paintings of industrial scenes like engines and quarries.
From December 2013 to November 2014, the museum had an exhibition called "A Masonic Experience." This exhibition explored Freemasonry, a social group that started in 1717. It included a replica of a Masonic Lodge, a piece from a Falklands warship, and a colorful display of Masonic items like aprons and banners. One special item was a robe worn by a character in Mozart's opera, The Magic Flute. Mozart himself was a Freemason, and some believe his works have Masonic themes.
|
