Historic Mill Reopens With New ‘Listen And Touch’ Tours
A historic mill in Newby Bridge will be decked out with new features for blind or visually impaired visitors when it opens its doors for the new tourist season on Saturday 1 April 2006.
English Heritage has revamped the visitor experience at Stott Park Bobbin Mill to include new features to help visitors make sense of the 19th Century factory through hearing and touch. Staff have been retrained to make their tours more visually descriptive and new displays set up which include raised line drawings outlining the shape and workings of the bobbin making machines.
Other innovations include guide packs being produced in Braille and large print format.
Built in 1835 for the manufacture of wooden bobbins for the Lancashire textile industry, the mill once employed around 250 men and boys. At its peak it churned out 13 million bobbins a year.
English Heritage Outreach Officer Patrick Burke said: “The North West and particularly Lancashire and parts of southern Cumbria were built on the back of the cotton industry. The beauty of Stott Park is that it gives people a chance to understand how previous generations earned a living. We wanted to enable people with visual impairments to enjoy this marvellous part of the region’s history using the other major senses. The clank and whirl of the steam driven machinery creates some very evocative sounds and by putting other resources in place, such as special raised line maps and diagrams, we can help create a very vivid impression of a key part of the local heritage for all sections of the community.”
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