The Museum of Making at Derby Silk Mill
Objects here are grouped by material: stone, ceramic, glass, metal, textile, organic synthetic and wood. Local people, who helped us to make the Museum of Making, thought this would help visitors find objects that could inspire their own making.This is not your average museum display. The Assemblage is a bit like a museum store, but is a space you can explore. It is laid out in a grid by number, letter and colour. Feel free to wander and wonder.
Here in Railways Revealed, we tell the story of Derby's impact locally, nationally and internationally through the railways. See our much-loved model railway, first displayed at Derby Museum in 1951, and still being built in-situ by volunteers. Ask one of our team for the times when the trains will run.Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
The Museum of Making has a fully fitted Changing Places room for the use of disabled people and their carers. This is situated towards the back of the ground floor and can be accessed from the Italian Mill or the Civic Hall. Access to this facility requires a radar key and one is kept at the main information desk at the entrance of the museum. Please ask one of our Visitor Experience Assistants if you would like to use this facility.Image: © Derby Museum
This is The Gateway, our main gallery and has ten circular displays, giving a sense of the large, noisy silk throwing machines that existed in this part of the mill. Working replicas are shown in the video display. The gallery explores the themes of making through the ages in Derby, Derbyshire and beyond.Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
In addition to the vast collection of Derby Museum objects, many of the items you will find here in the Assemblage are part of the Roy F Burrows collection. Roy's father was a Midland Railway porter at Swadlincote in his early years and he later gave his young son a small collection of timetables that he had kept. From this small gesture grew an unrivalled collection of tens of thousands of items built around the history of the Midland Railway. All the paperwork from Roy's collection is available to view within our Study Centre, which can be found in the Railways Revealed Gallery.
This is the Shop Floor, where you can purchase design-led gifts, gadgets and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) inspired toys and games.Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
These films show makers and manufacturers in our region. They have been created with local young people and can be found online as part of Make Works Derby and Derbyshire. The Make Works directory aims to make it easier to find local manufacturers and start making things together.
Discover more Joseph Wright works at the Museum and Art Gallery.
Compare the Roll-Royce Trent 1000 aero engine, suspended above The Flight Deck, to this Eagle Aero Engine, on loan from the Science Museum Group, one of the two that powered the first trans-Atlantic flight in 1919.Image: © Art Lewry Culture Communications Collective - Derby Museums
The Cocoon is the studio for artists and makers in our residency programmes.
The River Kitchen serves delicious, locally sourced food and drinks, a wonderful place to meet friends and have a drink in mugs handmade by Parkwood Pottery especially for the museum. Image: © Chris Seddon Photography
The Assemblage is not your average museum display. Similar to a museum store, it's a space where you can explore the Collections of Making. Objects are arranged by material and laid out in a grid by number, letter and then colour. Just like a store, you won't find individual object labels, however we encourage you to wander and wonder. Unlike a museum store, many of the objects can be handled and closely studied.Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
Don't miss the Prospect of Derby, a painting from 1725 that gives a sense of how Derby looked in the early years of the silk mill. Also find hand-written records documenting silk mill management, and a book by William Hutton, who endured working as a child at this site.Image: © Derby Museums
The Museum is based on four floors with lift access from the ground floor to all levels. We are accessible for wheelchair users and can cater for anyone with other specific access requirements.
This is The Gateway. In this gallery, we introduce the story of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage site, added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2001 as being the birthplace of the modern factory system. The Lombe brothers set up a silk mill on this site in the early 1720s, and waterpower was successfully used for the first time on a factory scale. Almost 50 years later, Richard Arkwright opened his cotton spinning mill in Cromford. The interactive map shows the mills built along the valley that revolutionised manufacturing, with dramatic consequences for the British economy, and the British Empire and beyond.Image: © Speller Metcalfe-Derby Museums
Objects here are grouped by material: stone, ceramic, glass, metal, textile, organic synthetic and wood. Local people, who helped us to make the Museum of Making, thought this would help visitors find objects that could inspire their own making.This is not your average museum display. The Assemblage is a bit like a museum store, but is a space you can explore. It is laid out in a grid by number, letter and colour. Feel free to wander and wonder.
A behind-the-scenes look at the ground-breaking co-production and human-centred approaches Derby Museums used to 'make' the Museum of Making with the support of partners and communities.
The Museum is based on four floors with lift access from the ground floor to all levels. We are accessible for wheelchair users and can cater for anyone with other specific access requirements.
Exploded Toyota Corolla Hybrid.Image © Derby Museums
The Railway Study centre is where you can explore Midland Railway Society and Derby Museums archives by appointment.
We made this museum with over 1000 people from across Derbyshire. Together, we decided to group our Collections of Making by material: wood, metal, ceramic, organic, glass, stone, textile, and synthetic. Here you can find a wall of objects including buttons, bobbins and bricks. On the stairs you can find out how to Adopt an Object and help to support Derby Museums.Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
Our co-working desk space, The Prospect, is available for Museum of Making Members to hire along with our Workshop. By becoming a Member, you will join a creative community where you can network, share ideas, access peer support, learn, teach and make new friends along the way.
Objects here are grouped by material: stone, ceramic, glass, metal, textile, organic synthetic and wood. Local people, who helped us to make the Museum of Making, thought this would help visitors find objects that could inspire their own making.This is not your average museum display. The Assemblage is a bit like a museum store, but is a space you can explore. It is laid out in a grid by number, letter and colour. Feel free to wander and wonder.If you want to find out more, visit our work stations to make your own Assembly Line trail or search for an object. The Assembly Line resource is constantly growing. If you have information about the collection to share we would love to hear about it, please talk to the team.
Adopt one of an eclectic range of objects in the Museum of Making - each with its own fascinating story.
An induction loop is available in many areas of the museum, but not all and Visitor Experience Assistants are available in all galleries to offer their support. Many of the museum exhibits can be touched and visitors are encouraged to do so.
Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 aero engine being winched into the Museum of Making.
The Workshop and Makers' Courtyard are the 'engine 'of the Museum of Making. Much of the furniture, shelving and fixtures in the museum were made onsite in these workshops, with our wonderful volunteers.
Displays range from a palaeolithic hand axe connecting us to makers active over 300,000 years ago, to a contemporary textile sculpture by Toni Buckby (pictured). Take a look at Burdett's Map, too! Cartographer Peter Perez Burdett's map of 1767 was the first one inch to one mile scale map of Derbyshire surveyed using mathematical methods. Burdett was living in Full Street, Derby when he made this map, winning £100 from the Society of Art's for his work, recognised for its accuracy and drawn using trigonometric methods.Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
The Italian Mill is a beautiful and flexible space to hire for your special event. If it is not booked for an event, you are free to explore this calming environment and find out more about the development of the Museum of Making through the films projected here.
The Hub is our makers' shop, celebrating some of the region's talented artists and designers.Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
This is The Gateway, our main gallery and has ten circular displays, giving a sense of the large, noisy silk throwing machines that existed in this part of the mill. Working replicas are shown in the video display. The gallery explores the themes of making through the ages in Derby, Derbyshire and beyond.Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
The River Room is a fully equipped meeting space available to hire.Image: © Speller Metcalfe-Derby Museums
The Trent 1000 engine suspended within The Civic Hall was designed and made by Derby – based manufacturer Rolls-Royce.Image: © Art Lewry Culture Communications Collective-Derby Museums
The Loom Room is a fully equipped meeting space, available to hire. Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
The Flight Deck tells the story of Rolls-Royce and its historic relationship with the city, providing propulsion and power around the world. This is the best vantage point to view the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 aero engine, suspended in the Civic Hall. Use the interactive panel to explore how a jet engine is made.Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
The Civic Hall is a beautiful space that welcomes you into the building. The dark outline on the brick wall shows where Derby Silk Mill's original waterwheel would have been. Can you imagine water rushing alongside the mill where you now stand, powering the machines inside?Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
The Italian Mill acts as the creative hub for our Derby Museums in-house produced events and a range of events co-produced with local artists, makers, community and cultural organisations, including First Fridays, our monthly series of talks, workshops and performances held after-hours at the Museum of Making.
Look out for making activities, both self-led and facilitated and suitable for all, often taking place in the gallery.Image: © Kate Lowe Photography - Derby Museums
The Warehouse is our temporary exhibition space with exhibitions and displays changing twice a year. You can purchase a ticket on our website or on site in our shops. All your purchases help to continue our work to look after Derby's important heritage, and to inspire future generations of makers.
Historically known as the Old Shop, this is now home to a flexible gallery housing both framed and digital images from our collections, including three photographic tableaux created in 2020 by artist Red Saunders. These images form part of Red's Hidden series, which recreates decisive times in Britain's struggle for equality, democracy, and social justice. Red has re-imagined three moments in Derby's social history in these images created with volunteers from across the region.Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
The Studios are a space for our programme of making activities, suitable for all ages and available to book. See our website or a member of the team for more information.Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
The View is accessible via our south staircase or by lift and is where you can take in a bird's eye view of the city. Stairway access to the Tower is available on bookable tours.
The View on the opposite side of The Prospect is accessible via our south staircase or by lift and is where you can take in a bird's eye view of the city. Stairway access to the Tower is available on bookable tours.
Don't miss the tiny miniature engine exhibited at the 1936 Chicago World's Fair that is run by a single human hair, the microscope that belonged to Erasmus Darwin, our first Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed's Atlas Coelestis (star atlas) published in 1729 by his wife, Margaret.Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
Our co-working desk space, The Prospect, is available for Museum of Making Members to hire along with our Workshop. By becoming a Member, you will join a creative community where you can network, share ideas, access peer support, learn, teach and make new friends along the way.For more information on Membership please visit our [website ](https://www.derbymuseums.org/museum-of-making/membership/)or speak to a member of our team.Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
The Museum is based on four floors with lift access from the ground floor to all levels. We are accessible for wheelchair users and can cater for anyone with other specific access requirements.
Trailmaker is our collections digital platform and is constantly being updated as we discover new information about our objects. You can access Trailmaker [here ](https://derbymuseumstrailmaker.com/)or at one of the workstations on gallery. Explore the objects' individual records and make a trail, using the numbers and letters to locate items. Don't forget to open the drawers and pull out the hanging displays!Image: © Speller Metcalfe - Derby Museums
