Tour of a Victorian Bobbin Mill, Stott Park, Cumbria from Richard Elen.
Whilst looking for a film about the cotton producing process for a school project, I came across this film from a museum in my region about the history of the beautiful wooden bobbins made for the textile industries of the Industrial Revolution and into more recent times. Despite having heard many many times about the intensity of life and work in those times, it's still an eye opener. Wonderful work from Stott Park Victorian Bobbin Mill in Cumbria.
Stott Park Bobbin Mill was opened in 1835 to supply the cotton mills of Lancashire (of which the Lake District was a part at the time) with bobbins to carry the thread which was spun into cloth. It was originally powered by a water wheel, later by a water turbine and then by a steam engine. Ultimately, electricity arrived. The mill finally closed in 1971 and then reopened in 1983 as a museum.
Today, Stott Park Bobbin Mill is in the care of English Heritage. The video gives a 20-minute guided tour of the mill by one of the English Heritage staff members to see the different stages of the bobbin-making process, including some of the machines being used by a veteran mill worker.
You'll see the steam engine and get a feeling for what life was like for the mill workers – who, in this case, came mainly from the workhouses of Liverpool and Manchester.
