Armley Mills Industrial Museum
This is a wonderful little museum.
Tucked away on Canal Road in Armley, it deserves to be far better known than it
is, and because it seems to attrract so few visitors you have all the time in the
world to marvel at some of the quite amazing exhibits. It's also thought provoking,
because it catalogues the demise of the Leeds engineering industry, that has gone
from world-beating to extinct in less than a generation.
Before it closed and the council took it over in 1969, this was one of the largest
woollen mills in the world. And it shows. This is a massive site, and there's no
shortage of space to expand it further.
On arriving, the first thing to see is the Manager's house and the worker's cottage.
These are kept locked, but an interpreter meets you as you buy tickets and
takes you round. Now, I thought the interpreter's history was a bit dodgy, being far too
influenced by the Victorian Social Reformers propaganda, but I'm probably being
picky. The houses are nicely furnished and well worth a look.
After that
you're free to wander round the museum unaided, but virtually the first
thing you encounter is the "spinning mules". These are enormous machines that left
me awestruck. Unfortunately they'd broken down when I visited on a "working weekend"
so I couldn't see them in action. Fortunately they had another interpreter
to explain all about them, and it really was interesting.
That's the last of the interpreters. After that they have more vast weaving and
spinning machinery including some monstrous jacquard looms. All in rooms so atmospheric
it's brilliant.
On the floor below there's a good exhibition about the Leeds tailoring trade. That's
all gone now, but just a few decades ago it was world-leading. My great-aunt spent
her entire working life in the Burton's canteen on Hudson Road, and I worked at
Hudson Road myself for a couple of years. And that brought home to me what's missing.
This museum is about industries that have vanished within a working lifetime, but
there are no personal testimonies. That's a shame because it would have added so
much, and time's running out to collect them.
Moving on, there's an exhibition about early cinema in Leeds, featuring Louis Le
Prince who made some very early movies here. And there's a recreated cinema showing
reels about local history. That was really good.
On the ground floor, there's a really impressive collection of static engines, most
of them made locally, and all of them made by firms that don't exist anymore. And
having come back from the museum today, one of my favourite blogs featured a report
by PWC (Price Waterhouse Coopers) explaining that manufacturing industry hasn't
declined in the last 30 years, it's just become more productive. I don't know what
world they're living in, but it's not the same one I am.
Also on the ground floor are the waterwheels, and a rather good selection of steam
locomotives made by a whole bunch of companies in Leeds. Far more steam locos than
I expected to see, and one of them, a small engine caled Jack was in steam - though
you couldn't ride on it. Lots of them still need restoration, and the more engineering
companies we lose, the less skilled men we'll have available to do that.
Shame there wasn't an exhibition about the war economy in Leeds, I know that Fowler's
made tanks, Barnbow made ammunition (and tanks?), Burton's made uniforms, optical gunsights were made in
harehills, Kirkstall Forge made axles and Greenwood & Batley presumably made
ammunition as well. Now that would make a great exhibition, and there's still people
alive who could provide living testimony to flesh it out. And I bet I haven't even
touched on what was actually made.
Still, a great little museum with very friendly staff, and well worth a visit.