Discover the magic of the mills
Discover the magic of the mills at Queen Street Mill and its sister site Helmshore Mills Textile Museum.
Queen Street Mill Textile Museum
Queen Street Mill Textile Museum
Queen Street Mill Textile Museum
The Museum is currently closed for the winter period, but will be open on Wednesdays and Thursdays 11am – 4pm as a community café. The Museum is still open for pre-booked school visits and pre-booked private tours. To enquire about booking a private tour, please email queenstreetmillburnley@lancashire.gov.uk. The museum will reopen to the public in Spring 2025.
Queen Street Mill is the last surviving 19th century steam powered weaving mill in the world. Come along to this Grade 1 listed building and relive the days when cotton was king.
See the mighty steam engine 'Peace' and the coal fired boilers, learn about pirn winding and drawing in and visit the weaving shed, which still contains 308 Lancashire looms.
Peace was, and still is, the beating heart of Queen Street Mill but as she is getting older, we don't run her all the time. However, you can still see her stationary when you visit us, and keep an eye out on our social media pages and website for updates on future steam days.
Photo gallery
Plan your visit
Opening Times
We are closed on all Bank Holidays.
The Museum is currently closed for the winter period, but will be open on Wednesdays and Thursdays 11am – 4pm as a community café.
The Museum is still open for pre-booked school visits and pre-booked private tours. To enquire about booking a private tour, please phone 01282 459996 or email queenstreetmillburnley@lancashire.gov.uk.
Admission charges from April 1 2024
- Adults £5
- Children up to the age of 18 - free
- Xplorer pass - £25
How to find us
Queen Street Mill Textile Museum
Queen Street
Harle Syke
Burnley
Lancashire
BB10 2HX
Plan your journey and view bus timetables for your area. Why not take advantage of our bargain bus fare offers to visit?
3 miles outside Burnley town centre, the number 5 bus runs regularly from the bus station and just 3 miles from Junction 12 on the M65 follow the brown signs to find us. Wheel chair accessible.
Facilities, access and contact details
Facilities
- Free parking
- Café serving hot and cold drinks, snacks and locally made cakes. Open 12pm – 3:45pm, and will stop serving food at 3:30pm.
- Baby changing facilities
- Gift shop
- Disabled toilets
- Assistance dogs welcome
- Full disabled access
- Exhibition space
Access
The approach and area around the museum is flat, however the surface is flagged and uneven. You should allow at least 1.5 hours to go around the museum, visit the shop and have a drink in the cafe. The tours will be led by experienced guides who will tell you about the history of the mill, show the process of raw cotton through to woven cloth and demonstrate the machines.
See the Queen Street Mill access statement (PDF 843KB) for more detail or please ring us if you have any questions.
Contact us
Tel: 01282 459996
Find us on TripAdvisor
If you've visited us recently, don't forget to leave us a TripAdvisor review.
Discover more of Lancashire's diverse history and visit one of our other Lancashire Museums. Which of our museums will you visit next?
Things to see and do
Filming projects
As a unique heritage venue, the mill, and especially our weaving shed, has featured in many films and productions including North & South, Life on Mars and The King's Speech. The mill was used as a location for the film about how King George VI overcame a debilitating stammer after his surprise ascension to the throne. It starred Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Gambon and Guy Pearce.
More recently scenes for the film Peterloo and the BBC 2019 series of A Christmas Carol were filmed here. As you explore the sights and sounds of the historic mill, what scenes do you remember from these popular film and TV productions?
Here's what some of our visitors had to say:
"A treasure well worth preserving & a fascinating tour."
"Great place, lovely smell and inspired exhibitions."
"One of the best tours I have ever been on! Brilliant place. Loved it. Thank you!"
"I come from an area that never did any of this, absolutely amazing!"
"Walking through glorious history."
"Quite easily one of the best museum visits I've made (and I'm 65)."
Colin Firth wrote in our visitor book that Queen Street Mill was "a thing of beauty" – and we couldn't agree more.
Queen Street Mill is a nostalgic time capsule of the late Victorian age bringing the textile industry vividly to life. Set amongst an iconic, distinctive industrial landscape shaped by chimneys, old mills and terraces it offers a truly unique experience - the world's last 19th century steam-powered weaving mill.
Imagine what life would have been like as a mill worker. You might even hear the sounds of 'Peace' the incredible steam-powered engine that powers over 300 looms in the weaving shed. Feel the power of the looms to understand why the weavers learnt to lip read.
The Mill chimney is 120 feet high, local people look out for this landmark on the skyline to know they're nearly home! It is built of brick as these could be made in the required curved shape which was easier than individually hand shaping stone. When the mill opened in 1895 Edmund Atkinson climbed to the very top of the chimney to play a cornet solo!
Did you know that the Mill pond or lodge is filled with around 500,000 gallons of water and is fed from rain water from 50% of the weaving shed roof via downspouts on the mill lodge side walls.
Don't miss the boiler house, you can only access this from outside by the stables. This is where the two Lancashire boilers, 30 ft long and 8 ft wide, generated the steam to power the mill. The boilers were made in Hyde and transported to the mill on a special trailer designed for carrying Lancashire boilers, the trailer was pulled by a steam traction engine.
If you've visited us, what was your favourite thing you learnt about the mill? Let us know by sharing your experiences on Twitter using #QueenStreetMill and don't forget to tag in @LancsMuseums on Twitter and @LancsMuseums on Facebook.
What's on: events and exhibitions
Join us on Saturday 30 November 2024 for our Community Christmas Fair. Open from 11am to 4pm. We look forward to seeing you.
Lancashire Museums on X
Schools
Heritage Learning Lancashire's aim is to give pupils the opportunity to explore and appreciate Lancashire's rich heritage through access to our unique collections and stimulating sites.
Find out more about Learning with Lancashire Museums.
"The students love using the items we loan from you and it adds real value to the teaching of history."
Primary school teacher
Museum loan boxes
Our museum loan boxes contain a wide range of historical artefacts, replica objects and useful resources loan boxes are a great way of bringing a little bit of the museum into your classroom.
Learn more about loan boxes.
Volunteer with us
We have some fantastic volunteering opportunities at Queen Street Mill. Our wonderful volunteers create a warm, friendly and welcoming environment to our visitors and provide them with the knowledge and information about this historic site during their visit.
You don’t need any previous experience or qualifications to volunteer, just enthusiasm and a willingness to learn.
Our current volunteer Richard shares his experience of what it's like to take on this interesting role.
Volunteer with us
Richard, a volunteer at Burnley’s Queen Street Mill, said: "During a tour there can be requests for information and questions by individuals whose relatives have worked in a mill. When an answer is given – you can see the delight on their faces. It’s a case of making visitors important."