Queen Street Mill Textile Museum

Who we are

Queen Street Mill Textile Museum is the home of the world’s last surviving operational steam powered weaving mill, built on the outskirts of Burnley in 1894, a town once dominated by the textile industry. Packed full of sights, smells and loud sounds to stimulate the senses, the mill is a time capsule of the late Victorian age, which produced cloth using steam driven power looms and offers a unique experience to re-live the days when steam ran the world. Owned by workers co-operative “The Queen Street Manufacturing Company,” the mill vividly brings alive the story of cotton cloth production and engages pupils in the lives of the people who worked in these mills including local children, the conditions they worked in and the jobs they had to do. The mill’s boiler man and engineer is also on hand to help pupils understand how this incredible steam engine, named ‘Peace’ in 1918 out of respect of the soldiers killed in World War One, powers the 300 looms in the weaving shed. Pupils can also discover the ingenious ways in which water is collected, stored and recycled to power the boiler and steam engine. The mill was recently featured in Oscar award winning film ‘The Kings Speech’ starring Colin Firth. The scene shows an episode from the king’s younger days, in which his weakness in public speaking became apparent when he tried to deliver a speech to northern mill workers. Alongside hands-on activities demonstrating the principles and techniques of weaving, pupils can take part in Victorian themed activities discovering what a Victorian schoolroom was like, what toys Victorian children played with and what it was like to dress as a mill worker.