Historic Yorkshire mill to share the secrets of its archives as it opens for guided tours

Now, as part of Heritage Open Days, it is to celebrate its heritage with guided tours, arts insights, and revealing some secret spaces and hidden tales from the annals of history.

William Gaunt is joint managing director of the Farsley mill, which today houses creative space for more than 80 businesses, an art gallery and studios as well as its textile archive.

He said: "As a mill that's been around for nearly 200 years we are embedded in the history of West Yorkshire.

"There is a great pride in the history of the mills, a lot of families remember working in the mills or the stories from when their parents and grandparents did.

"There's a real connection with the community and with the past. This gives us a good excuse to gear everything up for people to come and see it."

Sunny Bank Mills is to open its archive and gallery this coming weekend from Friday to Sunday, with scheduled guided tours that must be booked in advance.

Here there is housed a complete record of cloth samples, woven at the mill since the 1880s. Once, more than 900 people were employed at Sunny Bank, spinning and weaving some of the finest cloth in the world, and artefacts remain to take visitors on a tour through time.

Under the theme of Astounding Inventions, it shares 'Fancies, Feelers and Fents', exploring the development of synthetic dyes, the design of machinery and the tricks of the trade.

Even the words used in the mill are fascinating today, said Mr Gaunt. There's a 'twaddle meter', measuring soda ash, and a 'crockmeter', measuring the wet-fastness of cloth.

This was a traditional mill, he said, reliant on simple tools - and the skill of its workforce.

"We made some of the finest cloth in the world," he said. "Some, you couldn't believe it was wool, it was so fine it felt like silk.

"Most mill archives were lost when the mills closed down. The fact ours survived makes us quite unique. It's a complete archive of all the cloth over 100 years.

"We believe that's a really important part of not just the region's, but the nation's history."

As well as guided tours there are virtual tours online, a children's trail and activities, a vintage shop and access to independent businesses and restaurants.

There will also be opportunity to visit the Art Gallery with its exhibition Vessel, and Open Studios events to meet artists and resident makers including Mel Davies with his latest exhibition Green and Pleasant.