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Central Library Le Mans Crescent Civic Centre BOLTON BS1 1SE Tel: 01204 332211 Fax: 01204 332241 |
Founded in 1853, the museum houses collections on the local and industrial history of Bolton and surrounding districts. These collections range from Egyptian artefacts to English textile machinery. Bolton Museum and Art Gallery is also responsible for Hall i'th' Wood Museum - the former home of Samuel Crompton (see Places to visit).
The museum's collection of textile machinery includes examples of 18th and 19th century textile machines, including the only surviving Mule to have been built by Samuel Crompton. There are also 20th century spinning and weaving machines and a large collection of tools, instruments and equipment made by Bolton-based engineering firms. Other collections cover the textile bleaching, finishing, dyeing and printing trades.
Bolton Museum holds a very important collection of locally manufactured textiles, the majority of which are cotton. Some items were collected sporadically from 1906 onwards, but it was not until the early 1960s that an active collecting policy for this type of material was embarked upon. Items include what is probably the earliest example of cotton spun and woven in Lancashire, at Hacken Hall, dated at c.1607. There is also a collection of 350 pattern books dated 1912 to 1968, from Joseph Johnsons Ltd, and 136 pattern books dated 1840s to 1963, from Tootal, Broadhurst & Lee, each book of which contains an average of about 500 samples of cloth.
Other important items are the collection of 630 examples of Bolton made woven quilting, which includes 12 hand-woven Caddow Quilts, the earliest dating from 1795; and the pattern book from the calico print works of Robert Peel, father of Sir Robert Peel, dating from 1807 to 1821. There is also a collection of c.1000 different raw cotton samples from Barlow & Jones Ltd, a cop of 800 counts (the finest cotton yarn ever spun on a mule) from William Heatons Ltd. of Bolton and an extensive costume collection.
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