Get out and explore your town 
Forge Mill Needle Museum
Forge Mill Needle Museum in Redditch is an unusual and fascinating place to visit. This historic site illustrates the rich heritage of the needle and fishing tackle industries. Models and recreated scenes provide a vivid illustration of how needles were once made, and how Redditch once produced 90% of the world’s needles.
One of the most unique museums in Worcestershire and the West Midlands, the museum also has a superb Gift Shop selling souvenirs and a good selection of the finest quality needles, many of which are locally produced. We also stock unusual needles and offer a mail order service.
The museum tells the fascinating and sometimes gruesome story of needle making in Victorian times. The Mill is a listed building which houses original water powered machinery. Models and recreated scenes and an audio trail provide a vivid illustration of how needles were once made, and how Redditch came to dominate the world needle trade.
You can also step back in time and experience the largely unchanged atmosphere of an original scouring (polishing) mill. Much of the original Victorian water powered machinery remains and is working on Tuesday afternoons and on weekends, and also for schools and group visits – barring mechanical problems!
It is unique in that it is the only water powered scouring mill left in the world.
Bordesley Abbey
On the same site, just a very short walk from Forge Mill Museum, are the ruins of Bordesley Abbey – a medieval Cistercian Abbey which has been extensively excavated. Bordesley Abbey Visitor Centre, which is set in an original reconstructed 16th century barn, tells the extraordinary story of the Abbey from its development in the 12th century to its destruction in 1538 by Henry VIII during the dissolution.
In 1140 a group of Cistercian monks from Garendon Abbey in Leicestershire were granted land in the Arrow Valley by Waleran de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and Earl of Worcester. This enabled the monks to found Bordesley Abbey and turn the Arrow Valley into a place suitable for a monastery. Bordesley means ‘the place where boards were obtained’.
Archaeological evidence show that when the monks arrived the Valley was a very marshy and inhospitable place, unsuitable for the building of a large Abbey – so they dug a complex drainage system and diverted the River Arrow.
Opening Times 2016
The Museum is open from 2 February to 27 November 2016, at the times listed below:
2 February to 24 March 2016
Monday: Closed
Tuesday to Friday: 11.00am to 4.00pm
Saturday and Sunday: 1.00pm to 4.00pm
25 March to 30 September 2016
Monday to Friday: 11.00am to 4.30pm
Saturday and Sunday: 11.00am to 4.00pm
1 October to 27 November 2016
Monday: Closed
Tuesday to Friday: 11.00am to 4.00pm
Saturday and Sunday: 1.00pm to 4.00pm
28 November 2016 to January 2017
- Closed
The waterwheel and original Victorian mill machinery will be working on Tuesday afternoons and weekends, and also for schools and group visits – barring mechanical problems!