All about Ruddington Framework Knitters' Museum

This unique complex of listed frameshops, cottages and outbuildings is arranged around a garden courtyard, together with a former chapel in which many of the knitters worshipped. The site has been restored to show the living and working conditions of the framework knitters who occupied it throughout the nineteenth century. 

 

Ruddington Framework Knitters' Museum is a small independent working museum, established by the efforts of the local community, which saved it from the bulldozer and put it under the control of a Charitable Trust.

 

Framework knitting was the basis for the growth of the village of Ruddington, and also, looking further afield, for the development of machine lace and the East Midlands textile industry. Our displays and collections tell the story of framework knitting from A to Z, and you can see our demonstrators who help keep the craft alive today. Perhaps you would like to learn how to use these machines. Get in touch to find out how.

• A short introductory video
• Walk through the cottages to see how knitters' families lived in 1850 and 1900. Peep inside the cottages.
• Explore the outbuildings and washhouse.
• See the frameshop with the machines crowded together as they were originally. Look at the machines.
• Learn about Rev. William Lee who invented the first knitting machine in 1589
• Experience a demonstration of framework knitting
• Try your hand at knitting on a nineteenth-century sock machine
• See examples of the best of the knitters' art
• Visit our shop
• Enjoy a cup of tea