Whitchurch Silk Mill

Whitchurch Silk Mill is a working Georgian textile mill on a small island in the River Test in the north Hampshire market town of Whitchurch. Built around 1815, it is the oldest silk mill in the United Kingdom still operating in its original building, and it remains a rare survival of a complete small Georgian industrial site, with its waterwheel, line shafting and historic looms all in place.

Visitors can follow the silk-weaving process from raw thread through warping and winding to finished cloth, watching the Victorian power looms in action as weavers produce silk for theatre costumes, historic houses and bespoke commissions. The mill's machinery is driven by a restored waterwheel powered by a leat from the Test, and displays trace the building's history from cloth manufacture for the Hampshire Regiment and the legal profession to its rescue as a charitable trust in the 1980s.

Alongside the working floor, the mill houses a collection of historic looms, costume and pattern books, a riverside garden, a shop selling silk products woven on site, and a cafe overlooking the mill stream. It is a short walk from Whitchurch town centre and the railway station on the London Waterloo to Salisbury line.