Discover the people, art and technology of Norwich Textiles – then, now and tomorrow

The city of Norwich witnessed hundreds of years of thriving textile manufacture. Norwich Textiles will provide resources for the study of this enterprise, its history and contemporary practice. We aim to inform, inspire and spark off new initiatives for textiles in Norwich and beyond.

The Norwich Texiles Project

The web-site has been created as part of the Norwich Textiles project, a collaboration of Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service and Norwich School of Art and Design. The project has been devised and facilitated by Cathy Terry, Curator of Social History, NMAS and Victoria Mitchell, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader, Textile Culture, NSAD. It has been funded by HEIFF II as part of its Innovations Programme. As part of this project, local researchers have worked with curators to contribute their valuable knowledge to provide a comprehensive resource. At the same time, students and practitioners working within a modern textiles environment have created a contemporary perspective on the Norwich textiles story.

We hope the web-site will

• Promote the exploration of Norwich textiles manufacture and trade

• Engage local people with the continuing story of textiles in the City

• Allow people to access important textile collections held locally

• Promote further study, research and creativity

You are invited to use this site to access

• Archive film of one of the last Norwich hand-loom weavers

• Introductions to the history of textiles production and the story of Norwich shawls

• Interactive trails of textile-related interest within the City

• Images and photographs of people and buildings connected to the textiles industry, and of surviving fabrics and related objects

• Showcase of the work of artists referencing Norwich textiles in their work

• Specialist glossaries, data-base, bibliographies and other resources

Future plans for Norwich Textiles

• Evaluate and continue to develop the web-site, by the addition of further interactives, resources, artist showcases, detailed historical trails, commissioning of scholarly articles and establishment of a web forum.

• Creation of an East Anglian Textiles network, bringing together museums, archives, teachers, students and practitioners;

• Further research to locate and explore Norwich textiles held in UK and other repositories.

• Collaborations with students and researchers to answer specific questions relating to the Norwich industry

• Explore display, exhibition and publication opportunities for textiles in Norwich