Masson Mills

I entered expecting a typical dusty museum experience and got a much more lived and engaging one than that. This mill is notable for being very well preserved and well stocked, and for still being partly operational - some examples of the thread mixing machines, looms and so on are still maintained and used. Hydroelectric has replaced straight water wheel power, but it is otherwise all genuine 19th century technology in working condition.

The staff include a brilliant and highly knowledgeable young lady who (in period-accurate attire made on these exact machines) will fire up, demonstrate and explain the looms for you. I went from having no idea how a loom works to feeling like I had a pretty good working grasp of it in about 5 minutes, and the intricacy and engineering prowess of these machines is something you just can't appreciate until you see one in action. The Wallace & Gromit complexity and savage industrial frenzy made me grin uncontrollably, and I'm not even into textiles or mill history per se. This is probably the only heritage site that would hold a small child's attention, at least in the rooms where the machines are moving.

There are interesting info plaques throughout, and a few safety notices and materials from the time that are darkly comical to a modern eye. There are also some terrifying machines which no longer run, whose appearance and design will turn your stomach and give you an appreciation for how obscenely dangerous mill work was.

The staff and materials don't shy away from the very ugly historical realities of slavery, child labour and worker endangerment that underpinned the industrial revolution, even while highlighting its innovations and craft. They are sensitive to the tensions here, which serve as a thumbnail for the modern tensions in Britain's self-perception generally; the mechanical ingenuity, vision, industriousness and grit, on the one hand, and the exploitation, callousness and human cost on the other. This is as good a site on which to ponder these historical ambivalences as any, and unlike most heritage sites, this one has a collection of 680,000 vintage bobbins. And a nice café and gift shop. In which you can, if you choose, buy a vintage bobbin.