Why not close wool week and put wool centre stage this Autumn and will be host to our Woolly Craft Fair, where an array of West Country based woollen crafters will be showcasing their craft. Join us for a great day out on the 16th October from 10am – 4pm at Coldharbour Mill. You’re entry to the fair includes access to the Mill and a place on a Mill tour, where you’ll catch a glimpse of our machines working!

The West Country is becoming a hive of woolly activity again with plenty of thriving businesses, which will be showcased at this event. It’s a great opportunity to stock up on wonderful yarn for that special project, buy that unique gift for someone special or just be inspired to get your needles going again.

While away a few hours in this special place and see Coldharbour Mill evolve into a hub of creativity and learning for all.

After all that, why not pop into our Waterside Café during your woolly day out, what better location next to the river Culm and in the shadow of Coldharbour Mill? The café team will be working hard to bake a selection of fresh, yummy cakes and scrumptious sandwiches whilst you plan your next creative creation!

Normal admission applies, which does include access to the Mill, engines and tours of the factory that run throughout the day.

For all Steam enthusiasts large and small make a date at Coldharbour Mill for our September steam day when our steam team be lighting the boilers and running  the Mill by steam. Steam powered from 1865, today Coldharbour Mill still has most of the original machinery rescued when the Mill closed in 1981 and is now beautifully preserved regularly running on Steam Days.

Open from 10.30 until 4pm a Steam Day at Coldharbour is a unique experience for all the family to bring history to life with visitors able to experience steam power first hand with a genuine 1910 Lancashire boiler generating the steam to run the Mill.  Amongst the engines in steam will be will be the Brotherhood Beam Engine and the rare Pollit and Wigzell mill engine which demonstrated how the factory translated steam into power to run the mill engines across the factory. The waterwheel will also be in action.

Inside the Mill visitors will be invited to follow the journey of wool from fleece to carpets, rugs and Coldharbour Mills own knitting yarn lovingly produced on a wide range of heritage looms and machinery.  For younger visitors the sheep trail will be available at no extra cost.

Throughout the day the Waterside café will be open serving a range of homemade hot and hold snacks, morning coffee and afternoon tea. There is also a dedicated picnic area by the mill stream.

Hope to see you there!

Mill Pond & Leat Restoration Project

Project Splash is an exciting project to restore our Mill Pond and Leat and recover
its capacity to drive the waterwheel. As a result our beautiful water meadow will be
acessable to visitors and villagers without entry to the mill.

We are looking for volunteers to help with the following:
-Scrub Clearing
-Path Laying
-Event organising/participation
-Volunteer recruitment
-community liaison/networking

In return we promise!
-local community involvement
-wildlife preservation / enhancement
-FREE tea, coffee & biscuits!
-FREE fresh air and healthy work out!

If you are able to help – whether a few hours or more at a time to suit you, please contact Ben Fox
info@coldharbourmill.org.uk

A Great British Day Out in the Park’, is the perfect chance to celebrate all that is great about Britain.

Hosted at Bridwell Park, Uffculme on the 17th and 18th September, visitors to the event will be greeted by a wide range of exhibitors including our ‘Camden Market’ vintage section showcasing clothes, kitchenwares, memorabilia and furniture. We will be joining the talented artisan sellers, from all over the South West, and proudly display our unique products,

Come and Join us!

We are delighted to say that we have fended off competition from businesses across the region to win money to help improve access to visitors being the latest winner of RGB Building Supplies’ Well Built Community Fund following a public vote where the local community was asked to show their support.

Up against groups based in Paignton and Wiveliscombe, people across the South West were asked to vote for who they would like to be the lucky recipients of £1,000 worth of building materials from RGB. More than 400 votes were received with the museum coming out on top.

Coldharbour Mill is one of the oldest woollen mills in the UK having been in continuous production since 1797. Today the rich heritage lives on as one of the finest working wool museums where visitors are not just able to relive the sights and sounds of the industrial revolution, but also see crafts people making traditional textiles, beautiful knitting yarn and hand woven rugs.

We now have  £1,000 to spend on building materials, which they are planning to use to repair and relocate the bridge over the Mill stream to improve access.

Ian Gammon, who has been Mill Manager for the past 30 years, said: “We are all extremely grateful to receive the Community Fund grant and would like to say a huge thank you to RGB Building Supplies and everyone who voted for us.

“This really will help us move forward with our maintenance plan for the museum and improve the access for visitors.”

Geoff Dobbs, Branch Manager at RGB Tiverton, added: “This is the first time we have asked the local community to decide who should be the recipient of the Well Built Community Fund and were delighted with the way everyone got behind the three finalists.

“Congratulations to Coldharbour Mill, we look forward to returning to see how the building materials were used.”

Coldharbour Mill will be welcoming the very talented ‘Professor Bumble’ this July to host a wondrous array of party games, balloon animals and circus workshops to enjoy.

Join us on the 31st July from 11am – 1pm at Coldharbour Mill.

Enjoy a special admission price for this exclusive event of only £10 per family which included full admission to the Mill. A saving of £10 per family on normal admission! Families, grandparents, children and even big kids are invited to not only get crafting with all sorts of materials but they even get the chance to make a BIG SHEEP with wool straight from the Mill! Children can get creative and a bit messy, whilst parents while away the afternoon in our fascinating working wool Mill, one of the last in the UK.

With all the running around, why not pop into the Waterside Café and have a picnic during our fun day feast, what better location next to the river Culm and in the shadow of Coldharbour Mill? The café team will be working hard to bake a selection of fresh, yummy cakes and scrumptious sandwiches whilst Professor Bumble creates creative chaos .

Children of all ages can help Proffessor Bumble, a local entertainer make their favorite animals out of balloons, learn a new circus trick in his wacky workshops and dance off all that cake to some terrific tunes.

Tickets are on sale for £10 per family and include access to the Mill and an afternoon with the Professor. For more information about this event or to buy admission tickets, please visit www.coldharbourmill.org.uk

IMAGES celebrating the work carried out at Coldharbour Mill over the last year have gone on display thanks to the Wellington and District Camera Club.

The club will be showcasing ‘Coldharbour Mill – A photographic journey’ in the Fox Gallery from Sunday, May 1 and will be there most days this week and throughout May.

The club are a mixed ability group of photographers and say the display is a completely new experience.

Diane Rowe of the Wellington and District Camera Club said: “We really hope that the exhibition will draw more feet to the Mill.

“In early 2015 Wellington and District Camera Club were approached by the trustees of Coldharbour Mill Museum and asked to photograph the mill before, during and after a process of redevelopment and renovation due to take place in 2015–2016.

“Images produced would be used both to support funding applications and as publicity for the mill.”

The photographic project started in February 2015 and continued throughout the year, including the winter when the mill was closed – except for Bank holiday steam ups – while it underwent the redevelopment and repair.

“To celebrate the reopening of Coldharbour Mill, the members of Wellington Camera Club are delighted to be staging this exhibition in the Fox Gallery,” Diane said.

“Our exhibition gives a brief insight into the story of the mill. Starting with ‘Why here?’ and moving on through the equipment, processes and people involved in converting the raw material into the finished product, it ends with images of the recent renovation project.

“Working in the low light of the mill has been challenging. Some of the participants were at the start of their own photographic journeys and have learnt a great deal from this opportunity.

“The team from WDCC would like to thank Coldharbour Mill trustees and volunteers for their unfailing support during the time spent around the mill during the past year.”

For more information about the camera club and photographs on display, visit the website www.wellingtoncameraclub.co.uk

DRAGONS and castles are coming to Coldharbour Mill thanks to an Uffculme author and her new book which has gone on sale there.

Jenny Scott, 35, penned Sammy Rambles and the Floating Circus, the first of a series of five children’s books following ten year old Sammy.

It follows the boy who is bullied at school because of his parents’ successful careers and is moved to a new school where they meet Sir Lok Ragnarok, headmaster of Dragamas School for Dragon Charming.

As he settles in, Sammy learns of a dark fate hanging over the school. An emery known only as the Shape is trying to destroy all the dragons and close the school. The story then tells how Sammy and his friends can find out what is behind the Shape and ensure the school can continue.

Jenny, who moved to Uffculme from Exeter three years ago has been a volunteer at the mill since January. The book has now gone on sale in the shop as well as on the Amazon website.

“The opportunity came up to the put the book in the shop so it’s really gone from there,” she said.

“It took six months to write and I had all my ideas on hundreds of notepads which then had to be written up.

“I then spent ten years finding a publisher. I sent it off to agents and publishing houses who have either been slow, didn’t reply or it wasn’t quite their thing.

“I then found some tools online to do it myself so in partnership with Amazon I put the book together, designed the cover, the back, the front and everything inside and gave it the ISBN number. It’s now gone on sale and it’s down to me to promote it.”

Since its release in January, the book has been read by youngsters across the country as well as by parents and grandparents.

“It’s been really good, very encouraging, lots of children take it into their schools for show and tell and to get their classmates to read it.

“Parents and grandparents are enjoying reading it to younger children and I’ve had some international sales in Belgium, Australia and America.”

Jenny says she draws inspiration from her childhood where Gill Murphy’s Worst Witch and CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia gave her ideas, as well as frequent trips to National Trust properties and castles when she was young.

Sophie Nicholls who runs the shop at Coldharbour Mill added: “We’re very proud to be able to support Jenny as a local author. It’s a great opportunity to launch a new book in conjunction with our new shop.

“Jenny has been a brilliant member of the team since she started at the beginning of the year, helping us with so much in terms of getting maps and posters and various things all up and running and I was only too happy to support her when she came to me about showing her work here in the shop.”

Come and join us for all the fun of a steam up. John and the team will be firing up the boilers and cranking up the machines ready for action. This unique experience brings history to life for young or old and we will again be running bus rides courtesy of WHOTT – it’s going to be fun!

AND – don’t forget our new cafe will be open serving drinks and a range of delicious cakes, light lunches and afternoon tea….

…and don’t panic, if you miss this one there is another one at the end of the month – where we will be host to WHOTTs annual gala.

We are all very excited about the new combing shed – after months of preparation the shed is now open to the visitors.

These displays show how fleece is prepared ready for spinning into yarn.

Why not pop and see it!

After months of refurbishment we are delighted that our new cafe is now open. Offering light snacks, morning coffee and afternoon tea you can pop in without entering the mill.

Why not combine with a visit to our new mill shop?

There is always something to see at the Mill…

 

Plan your visit – and see something special

Enjoy a cracking Easter at Coldharbour!

Good Friday marks the grand reopening of Coldharbour Mill, Uffculme. After months of hard work over the winter the Mill come and see the new  new welcome centre funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Over the weekend there will be Easter themed childrens activities and a special Easter Steam Day where all the machinery will not only be powered by the waterwheel but by our very own Lancashire Boiler. – see the steam pages for more information on steam at Coldharbour. Our popular pop up cafe will be also on hand for refreshments throughout the whole weekend while the builders finish our exciting new cafe.

 

The new shop will also be open where a large range of gifts and items made at the Mill will be available to purchase

…. and don’t panic if you don’t see everything, from Easter the Mill will now open weekends!

 

 

New Year Success at Coldharbour

A record number of visitors to Coldharbour Mill’s New Year’s Steam Day kick-started its exciting plans for 2016. Despite the rain, visitors were treated to the sights and sounds of a working Mill taking wool to yarn and cloth exactly as it was in Victorian times.

Steam Curator John Jasper was delighted to see so many people:   “it was fantastic to see so many people at the Mill on such a cold and wet day – needless to say the Lancashire Boiler proved very popular not only demonstrating the making of steam to power the Mill but also to warm up cold and wet visitors.”

New for 2016 are the free historic bus tours organised by WHOTT (West Country Omnibus and Transport Trust) who are now based at the Mill. The 40 minute round trip also connects with the trains at Tiverton Parkway carrying those who come by train to and from the Mill.

The bus tours were repeated at the February Steam Day, and will be available again at the Easter Steam Day on Sunday 27th March. See the WHOTT website for timetable.

On Steam Days, local Jazz musician Charlie Hearnshaw provides a musical tour at 1pm,  using the sounds of the machines to compose imaginative improvised pieces with the various looms, line-shafting and spinning machines providing a percussive element to the pieces.

Also at Steam Days, the Culm Valley Model Railway Club displays its ‘SOLDOR’ layout, which can be operated by chidlren of all ages!

The Mill, recently awarded a Heritage Lottery grant to invest in its facilities, has been closed to the public since last November (except for Steam Days and pre-booked group tours) in order to carry out refurbishments. It will reopen to the public on Friday 25th March (Good Friday).

Coldharbour Mill is delighted to be one of the first sponsors of the Tivvy Bumper Sculpture Trail for 2016.

As one of the stops on the original line the Tivvy Bumper was a crucial link for the Mill to the rest of the country and beyond to transport both raw and finished material.

The trail presents an excellent opportunity to explore the local area and enjoy it’s unique history.

The trail runs between July and October 2016.