Tracing your family tree shares a lot in common with carpet making – you need to weave together lots of threads before you find one that pulls everything into a recognisable pattern. It can often be easier when your family roots are concentrated in one place and better still if the local museum or record office has a good library of archival sources. For people tracing their family tree in Kidderminster, this is exactly what is on offer at the town’s newest visitor attraction, the Museum of Carpet, which opened in 2012.

Known as the woven carpet capital of the world, Kidderminster has been centre of Britain’s carpet industry since the early 1700s when two weavers took ‘stuff’, a heavy weave cloth originally woven first in the Middle Ages, and gave it a double warp, creating a flat-weave, heavy duty floor covering which they laid on the floor. Carpet had arrived.

Kidderminster soon became a town dominated by this single industry. The town can be seen as a microcosm of the Industrial Revolution – innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and manufacturing prowess drove the industry as, in the Victorian era, British companies came to dominate the globe, helped by the access to huge markets across the Empire.

By the 1960s the town was weaving millions of square yards of carpet each year. With 25 companies based in the town, over 15,000 people earned a living in the industry; at least 75% of the population were dependent upon the success of the carpet trade.

Yet boom soon became bust; the 1970s saw competition in the form of cheaper imports; trends in interior design saw carpets being overtaken by wooden flooring. Today, the industry has shrunk – five mills remain and fewer than 500 people are still employed in the trade. Many of the town’s landmark mills have been demolished; the industrial heritage of the town and its streetscapes disappearing.

The town’s weaving heritage is kept going for future generations by the Museum of Carpet. Located in an old mill building, the town’s 300-year-old history of carpet weaving is brought to life when the museum’s two weavers produce carpet before visitors’ eyes every Tuesday and Saturday using the Jacquard Wilton and the Axminster Spool looms. Elsewhere volunteers operate hand looms similar to those originally used in the weaver’s cottages in the 1700s and the simple woollen is then made into purses, bags and cushions which are sold in the museum shop.

Life-sized figures share the master’s and spinner’s stories; the dyer and the bobbin winder help reveal to visitors what life was really like for those who worked in the carpet mills. With plenty of have-a-go exhibits and hands-on activities, the museum is packed with things to do and see. A computer generated game allows visitors to design their own patterns as this appears on the museum floor before their very eyes.

Archives
The Museum of Carpet has accrued a comprehensive collection reflecting all aspects of the carpet making industry and an archive and stores contain more than 26,500 objects and documents covering every aspect of carpet making and its history. Machinery showing the important stages in the technical development of carpet making as well as ancillary equipment have been preserved; documents including point papers (the working papers taking designs from the artist into patterns for weaving), design samples, pattern books, lithographs and inspirational materials give a record of the creative aspects of the industry.

There is also a collection of around 3,000 carpet designs, many by significant designers such as Charles Voysey, Edouard Glorget and Bernat Klein. The samples of rugs and carpets illustrate most of the types of carpets, the different fibres and dyes, and the changing styles of design.

For the family history enthusiast, the Museum of Carpet holds an extensive archive of photographs, paper records and oral history recordings which let visitors hear people’s own recollections of working in the carpet trade. It also holds a library of copies of The Kidderminster Shuttle, stretching back over a hundred years, records the intimate links between the town, its people and its industry, where, in the 1960s, over 75% of people had a family connection to the carpet trade.

The museum also holds company-specific records from most of the main manufacturers including company newsletters, business documents such as company accounts, trading records, wage rates and information on payscales for various trades; welfare reports, diary extracts, handbooks, press cuttings, minute and record books, framed photographs and factory albums, social and sports club records as well as design samples, inspiration drawings and carpet patterns.

Along with visiting the Museum, the collections and archives are also available to search online via its website: museumofcarpet.org .