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Heritage Open Days 2022
9th September 2022 @ 10:00 am - 11th September 2022 @ 4:00 pm
Join us for Heritage Open Days 2022, where you will discover our rich history, take part in activities across the Mills, and help us celebrate this year’s theme, ‘Astounding Inventions’!
Dating from 1829, Sunny Bank Mills was an important woollen & worsted mill, with an interesting history. It is still owned by the family who helped found the mill in late Georgian times. In 2008 it stopped cloth production and the business was sold. In the years since, cousins William and John Gaunt have regenerated the mill as an inspirational and creative space for more than 80 independent businesses, a cultural destination with a contemporary art gallery and studio artist community, and a heritage site of national importance with its own textile Archive.
Visit the Archive
The unique collection at Sunny Bank Mills Archive will be open, containing a complete record of cloth samples woven at the mill since the 1880s. The atmospheric mills still contain artefacts to take you back in time to the days it employed over 900 people spinning and weaving some of the finest cloth in the world, here in Yorkshire.
In an exploration into the Heritage Open Day 2022 theme of Astounding Inventions, the Archive will be sharing Fancies, Feelers and Fents. From the development of synthetic dyes to the design and development of machinery big and small. Come and find out more, explore and play.
FREE – BOOKING ESSENTIAL
Book a tour
Our expert guides will take you around the Mills on an hour long tour to show you secret spaces and reveal hidden stories.
FREE – BOOKING ESSENTIAL
Entertain the children
Follow the children’s trail, take a quiz, do some brass rubbings around the Mill site, and follow the Family Trail around the Archive. You can also visit our Mini Mill! Our iconic 1912 Mill building will be in miniature on Weavers’ Lawn but big enough for you to go inside, explore and play.
FREE – NO BOOKING REQUIRED
Visit our latest exhibitions and meet our artists
Our artist studios are open to give visitors the opportunity to see where the Mill’s resident artists and makers live! Work can be bought direct from them on the day. You can also visit our Art Gallery with its latest exhibition, Vessel, and see resident artist Mel Davies in our Spinning Mill Loft with his solo exhibition Green and Pleasant.
ALL FREE ENTRY – NO BOOKING REQUIRED
Buy vintage
Rose & Brown return to the Old Woollen with the Leeds Vintage Furniture and Home Fair. Read more here.
£2 ENTRY ON THE DOOR (under 16s free) – NO BOOKING REQUIRED
Go virtual
Explore the Archive, along with lots of other buildings in the Mills through our exciting virtual tour and a 360-degree experience here.
Please note – there are some access restrictions on the mill site tour due to the old nature of mill buildings. Some buildings have step access only. Please contact us if you have accessibility needs.
FREE PARKING ON SITE