Our guide was Laurie who is the
‘tackler’ – that is, the engineer in charge of all
the machinery. She gave us a very interesting tour
starting on the top floor with the silk cocoons
(each one contains up to a mile of silk thread!).
The machines for winding the thread onto bobbins are
on this floor (right). The weaving takes
place on the ground floor where there was one lady
at work threading the loom, a very skilful job which
has to be done by hand and can take days or even
weeks.
Laurie spoke of the
balance between conserving the very old machines but
also maintaining them in working order. The
waterwheel is in use but its power is supplemented
by electricity.
Members thanked the
staff of the Silk Mill for a very interesting visit.
