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Interpretation and access at Helmshore Mills

A study commissioned to look at access and interpretation issues at Helmshore Mills Textile Museum, in Lancashire, was the catalyst for a complete overhaul of this visitor attraction.

Despite holding an important Designated collection of 19th-century mill equipment the Rossendale Valley attraction knew it could do much to improve access.

As Susan Liddell, Museums Manager for the Lancashire Museum service, said, “We knew there was a lot more we could do in order to meet Disability Discrimination Act compliance and this report was the stimulus to do so.”

Not only did the 2004 report by Haley and Sharpe highlight this it also said more could be done to interpret the collection for a wide variety of audiences, ranging from school children to enthusiasts with some specialised knowledge.

The three acre site near the River Ogden reopened in 2008 with improved access to visitors with specific mobility needs. The collection has also been reinterpreted with the innovative use of colour coding to differentiate between the stories of the two different mills on the site – Higher Mill, which processed wool, and Whitaker’s Mill which produced cotton yarn.

But redevelopment of such a historically complex collection of buildings (the site is Scheduled as an Ancient Monument) was never going to be easy and took longer than anticipated. The design brief was intended to be flexible as the site crew did not know what they would discover. Evidence of two earlier waterwheels, in the form of stone arches and blocked up openings, was found in the internal architecture, which required a strict documentation process under the supervision of English Heritage.

The reinterpretation of the collection – which has built upon the regular working-machinery demonstrations given by staff with hands-on interactive and videos – ran concurrently with building work to minimise the museum’s closure time. As a result, the stories of both mills are now signposted more clearly and the stories of actual mill workers can be listened to via listening posts.

More has been done to entice visitors into the museum with an introductory video, demonstrating some of the objects that lie within, such as the original and complete Arkwright water frame and the Hargreaves Spinning Jenny and a new visitor services building between both mills.

Tourism in the region has also benefited as a result of the facilities revamp. One example is the fact that Helmshore Mills has integrated with its sister site, Queen Street Mills, providing a new and unique heritage trail in the region.

For more information on this case study, visit the case study section on the MLA research website.

September 2009