Non-practitioners tend to see the world of textiles through the doily tinted spectacles of the BBC’s The Great British Sewing Bee or else through the soot-filled eyes of William Blake’s “dark satanic mills”. The filter of postindustrialisation frames the spinning rooms and weaving sheds as bygone, other; demolition and development have sought to erase the epoch-making heritage.
But textiles and the industry that grew up around them in the former colonies and north of England continue to inform artistic creation and debate. In October, the third edition of the British Textile Biennial will trace the routes of fibres and fabrics across continents and centuries to and from the north of England in a series of commissions and exhibitions in museums, galleries, former mills, theatres and historical buildings across east Lancashire.
The buildup to the big showcase is an opportunity to embark on a summer tour of the spaces left behind by the textile industry. If Pennine Lancashire was first shaped by geology, weather and ruminants, it was given its present-day contours largely by the makers of cloth and thread. Even before the landmark innovations of the 18th and early 19th centuries, such as the water frame, spinning jenny, flying shuttle and factory system, flax was harvested and sheep were shorn for the linen and wool markets. Then came slavery and American cotton, and a revolution that was not limited to economics or business; the rhythms of human life were changed, capitalism was king, towns and cities burgeoned.
Lancashire’s textile trail is a lopsided, reverse V from Preston through the valleys of Blackburn and Burnley and down to Bacup, Bolton and Bury (if you get lost, think “B”), splintering off to Oldham, Rochdale and, of course, Manchester, where bulk trading and shipping were consolidated. The smoking chimneys and clatter of clogs are long gone, but everywhere you look are vestiges of labour history.
A 21st-century visit takes in canals and conservation areas, abandoned and repurposed mills, and stately homes and museums – plus innovative online resources such as the digital Lancashire Textile Gallery. There is living culture all around, from artisanal schemes such as the Northern England Fibreshed and its Blackburn-based Homegrown Homespun regenerative fashion pilot project, to schools’ programmes like the one at Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, to the region’s many independent retailers and artists.
The expression “social fabric” was coined in the 1790s to denote what the textile industry was taking away, as machinery and mass production eroded community life. But out of the convulsions came radical politics, trade unions and, eventually, leisure and recreation. The story is one of beautiful manufactures and beastly conditions, but Lancashire only makes sense if you grasp its complicated boom years as the hub of a global economy based around cotton bales.
Gawthorpe Hall, Padiham
With an Elizabethan core, this country house – managed by the National Trust and Lancashire county council – was remodelled in the 1850s by architect Charles Barry, best known for rebuilding the Houses of Parliament. He collaborated with the designer and architect Augustus Pugin and the decorative firm JG Crace to create a splendid Victorian gothic pile. The landscaped gardens, with ornamental terraces, are equally beguiling. The hall houses the region’s largest collection of portraits on loan from the National Portrait Gallery, as well as the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, established by Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth – though there’s only space for a small sample of the 30,000 items. Gawthorpe Hall was rented to one of the descendants of Pendle witchfinder Roger Nowell, and was regularly visited by Charlotte Brontë; it marks the western end of the Brontë Way long-distance footpath.
Open Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Adult £6, 16 and under free, nationaltrust.org.uk
Padiham street art
Artists Chris Butcher and Gavin Renshaw, in collaboration with Mid Pennine Arts and Gawthorpe Hall, recently adorned gables wall on Church Street and Station Road in Padiham with two murals – one conflating the town’s industrial heritage, old trams and textile history, the other celebrating Whit walks and traditional parades.
Centenary Mill, New Hall Lane, Preston
Repurposing has saved some monumental mills. This Grade II-listed redbrick, steel-framed beauty, built in 1891 for local firm Horrockses, Crewdson & Co, is especially imposing, and its chimney neck-crickingly tall. The main spinning mill is now an apartment building. The antiques centre in the adjacent offices is worth a mosey for the fabulous old furniture and other treasures on display. Tulketh Mill on Balcarres Road, built in 1905, is also listed and worth an admiring gawp.
Pendle Radicals’ Gandhi in Bowland walk
Textiles played a role in Britain’s colonial rule in India and became central to Gandhi’s mission to enable his nation to manage its economic fortunes. In September 1931, while attending a conference at St James’s Palace in London, he travelled north to visit Greenfield Mill (since demolished) in Darwen to observe the impact of the Indian boycott of British goods on workers. He took time out at Heys Farm, West Bradford, the home of socialist mill owner Percy Davies, which doubled as a Quaker guest house and adult education centre. Read a blog about the visit here and use this OS map to locate the property – the walk can be combined with a longer River Ribble and villages pub walk for a day out. In late summer, Mid Pennine Arts will organise a guided walk as part of its Pendle Radicals series; the organisation recently published the book Banner Culture, containing 213 campaigning banners previously displayed at Brierfield Mill.
Helmshore Mills Textile Museum, Rossendale
Encompassing Higher Mill and Whitaker Mill, this museum recounts the stories of the woollen and cotton industries through an original waterwheel, carding engines and spinning mules, and child-friendly interactive displays. At the former Wavell Mill on Holcombe Road, note the blue plaque commemorating the power loom riots of 1826, when workers fearful of losing their jobs attacked new-fangled machinery with hammers and picks.
Open Fri-Sun 12-4pm. Adult £4, 16 and under free, lancashire.gov.uk
Barrowford village
This village was a former farming settlement that evolved into a thriving manufacturing and transport centre; it has an old toll house and packhorse bridge, and is situated close to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Some shops on the main road are in former weavers’ cottages, and a much older one was unearthed during excavations for the Pendle Heritage Centre. A water mill was mentioned in legal documents in 1541, later described as a cloth or fulling mill. On Gisburn Road is Higherford Mill, a Georgian-era water-driven spinning mill later adapted to incorporate steam power that was saved from demolition in 1999 and now houses artists’ workshops, with occasional exhibitions.
More info and walking guide at visitpendle.com
Blackburn and Darwen
More than 200 chimneys pierced the Blackburn sky during this city’s cloth-making heyday, supported by factories turning out shuttles, reeds, healds and steam engines. The social history section of the local museum contains textiles-themed panels and exhibits, including locally built looms. A Blackburn Heritage trail takes in 31 sites, including the Cotton Exchange, opened in 1865, the Old Bank – where millworkers rioted over reduced wages and hours in 1878 – and Richmond Terrace, where prominent mill owner John Baynes resided. Another good walk in nearby Darwen takes in India Mill and a wallpaper surface printing machine. Blackburn hosts a Festival of Making on the weekend of 8-9 July 2023, which includes workshops, exhibitions and talks covering textile-based crafts along with printmaking, bookbinding, pottery and recycling.
Open Wed-Sat 12-4.45pm. Free, blackburnmuseum.org.uk
Peel Park and Gatty Park, Accrington
Some textile magnates sought to compensate for decades of pollution by donating or selling at a reduced rate their parklands, which were turned into municipal green spaces. Parsley Peel and his son Robert made their fortunes from calico printing; Robert’s son, also named Robert, was twice prime minister and was the founder of the Metropolitan police and modern Conservative party. Peel Park in Accrington opened in 1909 and was part-donated, part-sold by the family. The Gatty family’s wealth also derived from textiles, especially dyeing; French immigrant Frederick Albert Gatty created a deep red dye known as Turkey red that made him heaps of money and, after a visit to British India, developed a mineral-based khaki dye, which he patented in 1884. Small but lovely, Gatty Park is home to the family mansion, Elmfield Hall, which contains Mr Gatty’s Tea Room (Mon-Fri 9.30am-4pm). The hall and grounds, plus £500 for maintenance, were donated by the family to the people of Accrington in 1920.
The Weavers’ Triangle Visitor Centre, Burnley
Burnley’s chaotic eyesore of a town centre is itself a must-see for anyone who wants to understand what postindustrial decline did to once booming districts. The Newtown Mill chimney is listed, while its namesake mill is part of a University of Lancashire scheme to turn the Weavers’ Triangle into part of is campus. The visitor centre beside the canal has a small museum, containing a replica weavers’ dwelling.
Open Sat-Sun 2-4pm. Free, weaverstriangle.co.uk
Prism Contemporary, Blackburn
This independent, maker-run gallery regularly hosts shows featuring embroidery, knitting, printmaking and experimental textiles work.
prismcontemporary.co.uk
Queen Street Mill Textile Museum
As the sole surviving steam-powered mill in the world, Queen Street merits its Grade I listing. The guided tour, included with tickets, covers coal-fired boilers and other handsome machines that would have impressed Brunel, as well as a weaving shed housing 308 working looms – sometimes switched on so visitors can imagine what it was like to toil in a working mill. Employees learned to mee-maw – dramatically mouthing their speech, like Cissie and Ada in Les Dawson’s sketches.
Open Wed-Sat 12am-4pm. Adult £3, under fives free, lancashire.gov.uk
Super Slow Way workshops
The Super Slow Way is a cultural programme taking place along 20 miles of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal from Blackburn to Pendle. It has a lead role in the regional revival of textiles and offers a series of workshops, including sashiko, spinning, dyeing, macramé, brooch-making and flax-growing.
superslowway.org.uk
British Textile Biennial 2023, various locations
The third edition of this major festival, running from 29 September to 29 October across many of the above venues and others, will look at fibres and fabrics through historical, cultural, environmental and creative lenses. Highlights of this year’s biennial include installations by Nairobi’s Nest Collective, Victoria Udondian, Tenant of Culture and Thierry Oussou, along with a new performance by Common Wealth theatre company, commissions by Christine Borland, Nick Jordan and Jacob Cartwright, performative sculpture by Jeremy Hutchison, and a major exhibition by south Asian artists from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Britain.
Goodshaw Chapel will house an installation that shows up the building’s links with so-called “slave cloth” – the coarse, hard-wearing hand-spun and woven woollen and flax cloths that were sold for use on plantations in the colonies. Rossendale’s Whitaker Art Gallery will showcase work by contemporary South Asian artists. Blackburn Cathedral’s Material Memory will feature a display of much-loved textile items in the crypt, which have been loaned by members of the public and contain stories that challenge throwaway culture.
britishtextilebiennial.co.uk
Getting around
The 464 bus links Accrington and Rochdale via Bacup and Rawtenstall. Hotline 152 runs between Preston, Burnley and Blackburn. The No 2 goes from Burnley to Barrowford via Nelson and Colne. The East Lancashire, Calder valley and Ribble valley railway lines connect the main towns to Manchester Victoria and Preston.
Where to stay
Accommodation apt for a textile-themed tour includes Rosehill House hotel in Burnley, which has doubles from £95 B&B, and Spinning Block, Clitheroe, with doubles from £105.
