Stop park bobbin mill supplied bobbins to thriving local lancashire cotton mills and innovations in textiles production at this time propelled this into a highly prosperous region in the industrial revolution.

I'm rob bell engineer, an adventurer and I'm exploring some of the key locations in England's progress towards more modern methods of manufacturing, engineering and production.

And the humble bobbin was a vital component in the textiles industry and it's still in use today with a few modifications to find out more.

I'm meeting kevin booth, senior curator for the north at English heritage rob.

Nice to see you what an amazing place.

This is absolutely beautiful coming inside.

Seeing all of this, it is a treasure.

I feel like I need to get silly questions out of the way first, or can you explain to me exactly what a bobbin is and why it was so integral to the textiles industry bobbin.

It's one of those, it's basically just a piece of turned on.

It's the thing that is carrying thread around all sorts of different positions in the textile factories of lancashire and they'd be on every single machine within the textiles industry across the country and particularly think of Yorkshire and lancashire, millions of them had just millions of them required.

Let's talk about the mill itself.

When was it commercially operating?

It was first advertised in 1835, But running from 1835, then pretty much continuously through to 1971.

Were there other mills similar to this in the local area, we think in the middle of the 19th century, there's anything up to 80 Bobbin Mills working in the lake district at any one time, taking advantage really of the local watercourses and using water power to drive the line shafting.

So there's a reason why this meal is in the site that it is Absolutely.

It's here because of the water, but it's here because of the wood, it's here because of the tradition of caucusing.

That means you've got ready access to replenish hable supplies of wood.

Was the mill an integral part of the local community here.

Did it benefit the local community?

I think in some ways the mill is the local community, the cottages of finance.

Wait, the village certainly by the late 19th century are occupied by the Bobbin Turners and the Sawyer's.

And do we know what the working conditions would have been like in here for those local people?

Everything you've ever imagined was shocking about working conditions in Victorian factories, you will find a stock park, whether it's the dangers of the machinery in the close proximity to line chefs rotating at 3000 revs per minute to the long hours to the dust.

Do we know much about the machinery and where that came from?

What we're looking at here is largely machinery from the 1870s.

The stock has machinery surviving from its earliest incarnation?

Some of the handheld lays where you're offering would up to a tool to be turned.

Whereas here we're able to use levers and gadgets to bring tools into wood and make these things on mass.

This is local machinery.

It's made engineered by local firms.

They're bringing the machinery, the technology on as the demand for these things grows.

This was a time of industrialization.

Using machines, increase the output to increased profits.

Are you talking about very skilled men who can offer those tools up and make these things Within a 16th of an inch, accuracy over and over again to a point where their role is a little more just to move a handle.

The whole thing is becoming much more regimented and it's much more of the sort of tic tac of time.

How many can you produce in an hour?

In two hours?

So why was language here so instrumental to the textiles industry that's growing out of using its natural resource in its natural geographic position.

Manchester becomes the place where really raw cotton is funneled from across the globe.

But particularly of course the Americas into Manchester to be turned onto bobbins like this into thread and then shipped back out again for textile production.

So the bobbin is this small but absolutely instrumental component within this global industry then started sending things to Melbourne in Australia started sending goods to India.

They have clients who ask for stock park bobbins from across the world and the machinery that's going across the world as well.

When did english heritage take guardianship of Stock Park City shooting 71.

So we took it on, I think in 1974 took 10 years overall to conserve the whole building, opened again to the public in 84 have been making bobbin since.

The thing about stock park is Really from 1870 onwards, it doesn't change.

They don't modernize, they're not bringing in new machines, they're not changing their working practices.

We wanted to capture not just the kind of physical sense of this place, but also the kind of memory of the people who've been here and be able to conjure that again, for the visitors who come through and what work is being done to maintain stock part for future generations to come and enjoy.

It's quite a tricky specimen.

Stop.

Just imagine what would one wants to do to place like this.

Think about the specialist knowledge that you need to safely run a steam engine or to know how to sharpen tools or even just turn the bobbin to understand would for english heritage, it's a real investment of time.

It's a real passion because it is so particular and so special and require skills that we simply don't require anywhere else across our portfolio.

It's a unique thing for us and it's a unique place nationally.

It's so lovey to come and see all this still in operation And that's the thing for me as well because it's great to see it.

But when it's when it's working you can smell it and hear it all as well.

It's such a fantastic experience.

Thank you so much for showing me around.

It's been a real pleasure during the Industrial Revolution.

This region of England was teeming with highly profitable textile producing mills, but none of them could operate without this unassuming little item but bob in was and still is today a vital part of working with a wide variety of materials.

And I've learned today just how much a whole industry depended on the lancashire region.

Check the english heritage website for more details, including opening times here at stock park bobbin mill.