Tuesday 7 June 2022

Hinckley museum

When we were up the Ashby Canal last year, we caught the bus into Hinckley town centre to see the museum.


Unfortunately, I hadn't read the website properly – we'd gone on a day when it wasn't open. So this time we double-checked and, last Saturday, finally got inside. Downstairs there are a couple of rooms celebrating Hinckley's past as a centre of the hosiery industry. Socks, stockings, etc – hose. One room was set up with a big knitting loom as it would have been for the cottage industry. Another had examples of the machines they later invented to automate the processes. 


Hard enough to see how they worked, and staggering to think that, in past centuries, they had conceived how to perform the complex mechanical processes to knit the yarn, and then designed and constructed all the parts for the machines, without CAD software to help.

Upstairs, the old timbers of this 17th century building are splendid, and the exhibits cover some of the social history of the area, especially the local tradition of "Non-conformism".


All in all, well worth a visit if you're cruising that way. But check the website for opening days!

2 comments:

  1. Glad to see you are still boating, having heard you'd left Great Haywood and had been poorly. We came past Mancetter just last week but not onto the Ashby. Back at SBC after 3 months out.about to set off home. We will catch you again somewhen!

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    1. Hi Mo! Glad to see you're both still going strong. We had a couple of weeks boating, but have needed to come home for a series of blood tests, etc. Hope we may be able to get out again later in the summer. Sorry about the need to approve your post – getting spammed was becoming annoying!

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