Step Back in time at Textile Museum this summer

Visitors and residents in the area are being invited to take a step back into the town’s industrial past this summer with a range of hands-on experiences and exhibitions at the Newtown Textile Museum.

The free attraction, located on Commercial Street in the heart of town, is housed in a former handloom weaving factory dating back to the 1830s. It is the last of 82 such buildings still remaining in anything like its original condition and offers a unique glimpse into Newtown’s heritage as a centre of the Welsh woollen industry.

Run entirely by volunteers, the museum brings to life the story of how fleece was turned into flannel, how people lived and worked in the same buildings, and the industries that grew around it, from clog making and tanning to haberdashery and the mail order empire of local pioneer Pryce Pryce-Jones, who famously supplied Queen Victoria with underwear.

Families visiting this summer can take part in Tapestry Tuesdays, a weekly drop-in session running from 12pm to 4pm until 26 August. Children and adults alike can create small woven items using a cardboard loom and oddments of wool in a relaxed, hands-on session.

Visitors can also watch weaver-in-residence Emma Allin-Thomas demonstrate traditional loom techniques and try on period dress to experience life as a 19th-century Welsh weaver.

The museum has recreated early 19th-century living spaces, giving a sense of the cramped but industrious lives of the handloom workers who once lived in the six back-to-back cottages that made up the building. Each housed up to 10 people across two floors, with the upper two floors home to rows of looms.

An exhibition of photographs by John Owen, Newtown’s first professional photographer, showcases life in the town and the surrounding countryside through a series of evocative portraits and landscapes.

A small shop also sells local wool, weaving-related gifts, and crafts, from Welsh woven bags and pencil cases to hand-knitted birds.

The museum is open from 12pm to 4pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays until the end of September.

More information about events and activities can be found at www.newtowntextilemuseum.co.uk or on the museum’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

The museum is a member of MWT Cymru, which represents more than 600 tourism and hospitality businesses across Powys, Ceredigion and southern Eryri (Snowdonia).