Places to Visit

Museum details:

Derby Industrial Museum is located on the site of the world's oldest factories, built at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The museum records the development of the City's industries including Rolls-Royce aero engines, the railway industry, mining, pottery and foundry work. A knitting frame is also on display.

How to find the museum:

The museum is located about 400m to the north of the city centre.
Address: Silk Mill Lane, off Full Street, Derby, DE1 3AF.

Further Information:

http://www.derby.gov.uk/museums/

Museum details:

The Derwent Valley Visitor Centre and Museum are housed in the North Mill, Belper. The Centre provides visitor information for the area and the museum has one of the finest collections of hosiery on show along with examples of early hosiery knitting machines.

How to find the museum:

The Centre is located just off the A6 at the northern end of Belper.
Address: Belper North Mill, Bridgefoot, Belper, Derbyshire, DE56 1YD.

Further Information:

http://www.belpernorthmill.org

Museum details:

Sir Richard Arkwright's Masson Mills, on the banks of the River Derwent at Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, were built in 1783 as the showpiece mills of Sir Richard Arkwright when at the height of his entrepreneurial power. Yarn produced here supplied, amongst others, the hosiery industry. These beautifully restored buildings house a working textile museum, containing a unique and comprehensive collection of authentic historic working textile machinery.

How to find the museum:

On the A6, half a mile south of Matlock Bath.
Address: Derby Road, Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, DE4 3PY

Contact Details:

Museum Reception Tel. (01629) 581001, Fax (01629) 581001

Further Information:

http://www.massonmills.co.uk

Museum details:

Pickford's House was built (1769-70) as the home and workplace of the local builder and architect, Joseph Pickford. Following restoration by Derby City Council, the house opened as a museum in 1988. Some of the rooms have been furnished as they might have been in the early nineteenth century. The museum has a lively programme of temporary exhibitions and also houses the City's costume collection dating from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century.

How to find the museum:

Pickford's House is a short walk from the centre of the town. Follow the pedestrian sign along Friar Gate, the museum is on the right, 50m after walking under Friar Gate bridge.
Address: 41 Friar Gate, Derby, DE1 1DA.

Contact Details:

Elizabeth Spencer. Tel. (01332) 255363, Fax. (01332) 255277
Email: pickford.house@derby.gov.uk

Further Information:

http://www.derby.gov.uk/museums/

Museum details:

Wigston Framework Knitters Museum is an independent museum located in what was once a Master Hosier's house. To the rear of the property is located a two storey frameshop dating to the nineteenth century. The site contains evidence for a range of different structures, including an earlier frameshop, and buildings record the gradual evolution of Number 42-44 Bushloe End. The museum retains many of the original machines operated at the frameshop up to the middle of the last century. Facilities include a shop and refreshments.

Further Information:

For further details, please contact the curator on 0116 288 2632.

Museum details:

The Abbey Pumping Station is Leicester's Museum of Technology. The museum collects and displays Leicester's industrial heritage. Situated adjacent to the National Space Centre, the two attractions tell the story of over 200 years of science and technology. Opened in 1891, the Abbey Pumping Station pumped Leicester's sewage to the treatment works at Beaumont Leys. When it closed in 1964, the site was preserved because of the four massive beam steam engines that were used to pump the sewage. The engines were built in Leicester by Gimsons and today are rare working examples of Woolf compound beam engines.

Further Information:

http://www.leicester.gov.uk/museums

Museum details:

Ruddington Framework Knitters Museum is a small independent working museum , operated by a charitable trust. It is based on a complex of workshops, cottages, and outbuildings arranged around a garden courtyard, together with a former chapel in which many of the knitters worshipped. The site has been restored to show the working and living conditions of 19th century framework knitters and their families. Facilities include a small library, study centre, shop, and tearoom.

Further Information:

http://www.rfkm.org