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Visit to the Museum of Carpet
Tuesday 23rd August saw members of Threads visiting the Museum of Carpet in Kidderminster. Following a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £1.7 million which was given to the Carpet Museum Trust in 2008, the museum opened in 2012. It is housed in the former offices of Stour Vale Mill which was owned by Woodward, Grosvenor & Co.
An illustrated introductory talk informed the group about the growth of carpet making in the area. As early as 1700 when Kidderminster was just a small, rural market town with a population of around 3,000, there was an established cloth weaving industry with many hand looms in the houses around the town. The valley of the River Stour provided a good climate and location for the industry, and sheep grazing on the surrounding hills provided the raw material.
The ability to take on board new techniques, the building of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and later the railway and improved road links, led to a huge growth in carpet production. In 1851, an American, Erastus Bigelow, exhibited his power-driven carpet weaving loom at the Great Exhibition and, four years later, William Grosvenor persuaded Lord Ward to put up £20,000 to finance the first purpose-built steam powered carpet factories in the town. By 1873, there were 25 carpet and rug manufacturers in Kidderminster, supported by suppliers of shuttles, twine etc. The town was known as “The World’s Carpet Centre”.
There were periods of ups and downs and times when manufacturers had to adapt e.g. during the war years, and when fashions changed e.g. wall to wall carpets. The 1970s saw the greatest change with some companies failing. More carpets were being imported from places such as Belgium and America. Today, there are just two companies operating in Kidderminster – Adam Carpets Ltd. and Brockway Carpets Ltd. - both supplying tufted carpets.
The group was shown some Art Deco themed designs for carpets from the museum’s archive material. This collection includes work produced by many famous people such as Voysey and Lucienne Day. We saw demonstrations of hand loom weaving and spinning and were introduced to terms such as bombazine, linsey-woolsey and Kidderminster stuff. Finally, we saw a Griper-Spool Axminster power loom which could produce carpet with an unlimited number of colours.
The Museum holds an extensive collection of objects, books, photographs and design archives relating to the carpet industry. It has a programme of talks, activities, walks and special exhibitions.
As one member said, “This is a real gem”. The visit was fascinating and I am sure that members will return again to learn more.
