Carpet museum closure 'like a bereavement'

Volunteer Elizabeth Hitchings said the museum's closure was "very, very sad"

The closure of a carpet museum has been described as being "like a bereavement" after its trust announced with "deep regret" it would be closing permanently.

The Museum of Carpet, in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, has operated for 13 years and houses an extensive collection of objects, archives, books and photographs relating to 300 years of carpet history.

Geoffrey Gilbert, chair of the Carpet Museum Trust announced the closure on Tuesday and said revenue could no longer match the museum's running costs.

"Certainly, in the last four or five years we have really struggled and we're about £30,000 to £50,000 short," he said.

"Basically, the business model we have for keeping the museum going produces a demand on us in terms of what would be staff, utilities and general running costs for the building.

"It comes to about £100,000 for the year but generating income to match that has been very difficult over the years."

Mr Gilbert said generating enough revenue to keep the museum had been "very difficult"

Mr Gilbert added the museum's reserves had "gradually been run down".

"We've got a residue of reserves which will not, next year, match the requirements from The Charity Commission that you should have so much in reserve to meet your running costs," he explained.

"Therefore, we're getting to the stage where we don't see any revenue coming in one way or another, so we've had to decide as a business model we're not financially viable any longer and we have to close the museum."

Despite the announcement, the chair said The Carpet Museum Trust would "still keep going" and look after the collections during the museum's absence.

Mr Gilbert said he was hopeful the museum could reopen again in the future.

Despite the museum's closure The Carpet Museum Trust is set to "keep going"

Elizabeth Hitchings, a volunteer who has worked at the museum for seven years admitted the attraction had "been struggling for quite a while" but said fears it could close were always "swept under the carpet".

"You just don't think it will happen but we haven't had enough people through the doors to really make it viable," she said.

"It was just like a bereavement to me to think people have worked so hard here. It's just very, very sad."

Kidderminster's carpet history

Cloth weaving began in the Worcestershire town in the Middle Ages, according to Melvyn Thompson, a former factory worker and carpet historian.

He was one of 20 volunteers who first opened the museum. He said at its height, Kidderminster boasted 25 factories and employed about 15,000 people.

Speaking to the BBC in 2012, he said: "Kidderminster used to be wall-to-wall carpets, if you lost your job at one factory you could walk down the road and get one in another."

Kidderminster once contained 25 carpet factories and employed about 15,000 people

According to an article written by Mr Thompson on Museum Crush in 2022, he described how post-war demand saw the industry boom in Kidderminster.

He said: "The building of new houses and the change to wall-to-wall carpeting, brought unprecedented growth and prosperity.

"In the 1950s and 60s, there were 25 carpet manufacturing companies based in the town and 15,000 people earned a living in the industry."

But after three decades of profitability, the late 1970s saw a decline in the industry as cheaper tufted carpet and imported designs took hold.

Today, the industrial landscape looks very different with many of the old carpet factory buildings having been demolished. Some have been replaced by supermarkets and car parks.

But despite many manufacturers selling up, some companies remain, such as Brockway, which is still family run.

Commenting on the industry today, Mr Gilbert said: "It is sad to see the industry die off and that was why the trust was set up."