The row of almshouses at the foot of Millgate, empty and shuttered for years, has reopened as a small museum devoted to the working life of the valley rather than to its grand houses.
The displays are deliberately modest. Rather than portraits and silver, visitors find the tools of the mills, ledgers from the old market, and the reconstructed single room in which a weaving family would have lived. The effect is quieter and, its curators hope, more honest.
What visitors will find
- A reconstructed almshouse interior furnished as it might have been in the 1800s.
- An archive of market records open to researchers by appointment.
- A children’s trail following a day in the life of a mill worker.
Entry is free, funded by a mix of small grants and a local subscription scheme. The volunteers who run it say they would rather keep the doors open to everyone than charge and turn people away.
The building itself is part of the exhibit. Its low ceilings and worn thresholds carry the story as plainly as anything in the cases.
Related: Arts & Culture · Foundry Quarter regeneration
Further reading: About almshouses
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