The Macclesfield Museum Trust

Discover the history of the Silk Industry

Some of the Museums to visit include:

The Silk Heritage Centre: The Silk Heritage Centre is located within the former Macclesfield Sunday School, built in 1814 to educate the children who worked in the mills. The Museum tells the story of the silk trade and early manufacture with special reference to the Macclesfield mills. Special exhibits include an audio visual programme, graphics, models, costume and textiles.
Paradise Mill: As featured in on TV in ‘What the Industrial Revolution did for us’ and ‘More industrial Revelations’ a typical 19thc Macclesfield silk mill of about 1860 … but uniquely still equipped with its original jacquard handlooms. The looms - demonstrating the original ‘punched card’ technology that led to the birth of computer programming, produced short runs and samples for the local firm of Cartwright and Sheldon until the firm ceased production in 1981. Guided tours take place three times daily, by experienced and knowledgeable guides.
The New Park Lane Galleries:Finished only in 2002 the museum uses five fine galleries to tell the story of silk manufacture, the properties of silk and the people that worked with it. Fantastic machines from the birth of the factory age feature in spacious new galleries softened by the richness of fine silk thread and cloth still on the loom that wove it. Rich in child friendly hands on and computer interactives, archive film footage Silk moth caterpillar rearing in the galleries.As well as fine permanent galleries the new museum boasts an extensive silk library, stored costume, education room and an pattern book archive of fabric samples from the 1820s to the 1980s – over half a million individual designs and colour ways.
All opening times and ticket prices are available on the Macclesfield Museums Trust Website

SK11 6UT The Macclesfield Museum Trust , The Heritage Centre , Roe Street
Macclesfield , Cheshire
Web http://www.macclesfield.silk.museum/visit-our-museums/silk-heritage-museum.htm