Museum of Carpet designs inspire modern carpets

The Museum of Carpet in Kidderminster stores historical records related to the carpet industry from the 18th century to the present day. The museum plans to increase their income by licensing many of the designs from their extensive carpet archive. The patterns of carpets for Chester, Wrexham and North Wales homes and businesses could soon be influenced by traditional patterns recorded in the museum

The Museum is appealing to raise £20,000 to make up for a reduction in their income caused by rising energy bills and a shortfall in visitor numbers following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The chairman of the museum trustees Vicky Bagnall told visitors to the museum’s tenth anniversary celebrations that they need extra money to cover costs for the next six months. She said that extra staff had been recruited and:

"Over the last two years people have been nervous to come out into closed environments. School visits have picked up, but group visits have also fallen."

She said that they needed to pay these staff and, earlier this year, their gas bill went from £4,000 to £16,000-a-year.

Kidderminster, where the museum is located, used to be known as the “Carpet Capital of the World,” due to the many carpet manufacturers based in the region. Though carpet manufacturing has declined in Kidderminster and the rest of Britain, there are still some flourishing UK brands, especially in the luxury carpet sector. British sheep are used to provide the wool for premium quality UK wool carpets.