Farfield Mill Visit

At the start of the project, on Tuesday 18th September, we visited Farfield Mill, Sedbergh where we met for the first time participants from the Creative Conversations group from Prism Arts.

We learned about the history of the Mill and how wool from local sheep was washed, spun and dyed then woven into cloth.  We all enjoyed our lunch together and even had time to try weaving on a loom before returning home.

The following week, 25th September, we chatted about our visit to the Mill and looked more closely into where it was located, what it did,  how it worked and who worked there, especially the children who would have worked in the Mill.  

We focused on the two large water wheels that provided the energy to power the machines, such as the spinning machines and looms, the spinning wheels and pulley wheels.   We then designed our own artwork inspired by the wheels at Farfield Mill. 

We took inspiration when creating our wheels from different areas we had learned about the history of the Mill - for example one circle's outer ring is blue for the sky, green for the fells, dark blue for the river beside the Mill, red for the flames which destroyed part of the Mill in a fire and black centre for the ashes.