Given their historical significance, textiles and centres of textile production form a very major element in Britain’s economic, social and craft or industrial heritage. One of The Clothworkers’ Foundation’s objectives is to help preserve this heritage, through grants to relevant charities.
The Clothworkers’ Foundation has a strong record in assisting conservation studios, a vital resource if our textile heritage is to be preserved for future generations. We have a long history of support for the Textile Conservation Centre, originally housed at Hampton Court and now part of the University of Southampton, based at the Winchester College of Art. We have also helped to rehouse the National Trust’s Textile Conservation Studio at Blickling Hall in Norfolk, whilst in Scotland, our support was instrumental in setting up the Hopetoun House Textile Conservation Studio near Edinburgh.
Training conservators in such a specialist field is a particular concern. In addition to funding MA studentships at Winchester, we have lent our support to the Conservation Studio at the V&A, which offers education in conjunction with the Royal College of Art.
The Foundation has made proportionally fewer grants to former sites of textile production, which have proved successful in attracting local support and other sources
of funding. We have nevertheless made grants to a number of institutions, notably the National Trust’s Quarry Bank Mill, a working waterpowered cotton mill at Wilmslow in Cheshire, and Whitchurch Silk Mill in Hampshire. We have also funded museums with collections of textile machinery, including the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.
