History.

Higher Mill Museum is in Helmshore village, close to the Rossendale valley, north of Manchester, and nestled between towns famous for their textile heritage, including Burnley, Bury, and Bolton. Built in 1789 by the Turner Family, the purpose of Higher Mill was to finish woollen cloth woven by cottage weavers or from local weaving mills—meaning it no longer had to travel to Rochdale for fulling and finishing.

At Higher Mill, woollen cloth would be scoured to remove dirt, shrunk and tightened to make it thicker and warmer once the fabric was washed and dried. This process scoured, washed, shrank and compacted the fabric, resulting in a smoother, water-repellent cloth. After years of successful operation, the son of one of the founders, William Turner (1793-1852), took control of the mill and added Whitaker’s Mill to the site. This coincided with the Industrial Revolution, which ended small cottage weaving with the introduction of machines that could weave cloth much faster. This led to riots starting as early as 1812 and more locally in 1826.