Print: A Passion for Pattern – 200 years of Langley Printworks open now.
The Silk Museums have a unique and vast collection of textiles, pattern books and items associated with creating print for fabrics, especially silk. The exhibition is presenting many of these items together for the first time to show how textiles were designed and explore the historic processes including the method of block printing.
Most importantly it will shine a light on the people who worked at Langley Printworks, which became one of the largest, silk printing dyeing and finishing businesses in the world.
Langley Printworks was established by William Smith in 1820s in Langley, a hamlet in Macclesfield. The family run business used printing blocks to print fabric as well as introducing later methods such as screen printing.