History

Coldharbour Mill has been spinning worsted and woollen for 200 years. Built by Thomas Fox in 1799, the mill was an important centre for employment and played an integral part in establishing Fox Brothers & Co. as renowned global exporters of high quality worsted yarn and cloth.

When closure came in 1981, a result of a national recession and the popularity of man made fibres, the mill was already a museum piece - a time capsule of techniques and rare machinery dating from the reign of Queen Victoria.

In 1982 the Coldharbour Mill Trust bought and reopened the factory as a textile museum, so preserving a unique piece of social and industrial history.

As such it has been visited by many thousands of school children as part of their National Curriculum Keystage studies in line with the Trust`s founding statement that it should "....provide for the advancement of public education (in particular in the woollen industry) by the provision of a public working museum.....".

Since it reopened as a museum, the mill has won a series of prestigious awards.
The 1991 Steam Heritage Award for Stationary Engines.
The 1992 National Heritage Museum of the Year Award.
The 1989 and 2002 Sandford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Heritage Education, from the Heritage Education Trust.