Explore our atmospheric Mills which produced some of the finest cloth in the world! Drop in to our Museum & Archive for a special exhibition, Built on Cloth, discover unseen areas of the Mills on a Heritage Tour, visit the Many Hands exhibition in the Gallery, explore our Artists’ Studios (Sat & Sun only),

Dating from 1829, Sunny Bank Mills was an important woollen and worsted mill, with a stimulating history. It is still owned by the Gaunt family who helped found the Mills in late Georgian times. Come along and learn more about its past during our weekend celebrating heritage, art & creativity!

This event is part of Heritage Open Days and Leeds Open Studios.

HERITAGE TOURS

Learn the story of Sunny Bank Mills and its people. During your 1 hour tour you’ll visit hidden spaces, hear about the history of the Mills and have the opportunity to ask our expert guides those burning questions you’ve always wanted answering!

Friday 10:00 | 11:00  Saturday 10:00 | 12:00 | 14:00  Sunday 10:00 | 12:00 | 14:00

BOOK YOUR TICKETS. | £6 for adults | Free for carers & under 12s

MUSEUM & ARCHIVE DROP-IN

Visit for free all weekend! Our Museum & Archive is a unique resource representing over 180 years of cloth production at the Mills and the lives of those who worked here. It contains more than 60,000 lengths of cloth, 8000 fabric designs, 5000 dye cards, 300 guard books and numerous artefacts associated with nearly 200 years of cloth production, which it aims to preserve for the community and future generations.

This year’s special Heritage Festival exhibition will focus on Architecture – the theme of Heritage Open Days 2025. The exhibition will share the journey of the mill site from its beginnings as a club mill to the regeneration of the site and spaces we see today. You’ll have an opportunity to see our collection of building plans, maps and photographs exploring the development of the site through time.

Friday 12th – Sunday 14th September 10:00 – 16:00

No pre-booking required | Free entry

WORKERS REUNION PARTY

Did you or a family member work at Sunny Bank Mills when it was still an operating Textile Mill? RSVP now for our Workers’ Reunion Party as part of our Heritage Festival.

Join us in the Art Gallery for free drinks, chats with other former workers, games and a look around our first major group photography exhibition. See the Museum and Archive’s photograph collection, bring your own photos and memories and watch a new film containing footage from the Mills’ final cloth pressing in 2008.

Sunny Bank Mills Gallery | Friday 12th September | 12:00 – 14:00

Free to come along, but please RSVP through one of the following options;

Email us at arts@sunnybankmills.co.uk | Call us at 0113 256 3239 | Register at the Gallery counter

MILLS TRANSFORMED WITH NEIL HORSLEY

During this talk, Neil will discuss the process and research involved in putting together his ongoing project, Mills Transformed. At the end of the talk, he’ll invite joint Managing Directors John & William Gaunt to join him for a short Q&A session about Sunny Bank Mills.

Mills Transformed documents mill buildings in the north of England which have been restored and repurposed through the passion and determination of inspiring people. The project is being undertaken by Neil Horsley who has so far visited 35 mills (including Sunny Bank Mills) to interview and photograph the people who have brought new life to these great buildings.

Neil’s book Mills Transformed: Stories of Mill Regeneration examines the process of mill regeneration and reaches conclusions, based on the visited mill case studies, as to how further Northern mills can be renovated and repurposed.

Saturday 13th September 14:00 – 15:15 | Bobbin Room (next to the Museum & Archive)

BOOK YOUR TICKETS. | £12 for adults | Free for carers & under 12s

WORKING CLASS CREATIVES DATABASE SOCIAL EVENT

Join us in the Gallery for a Working Class Creatives Database meet up! This is an opportunity to network with like-minded people in a relaxed, informal and creative environment.

The evening will open with a performance by Jennifer Ballads followed by a group discussion with prompts given live by author Paul O’Kane based on his book Classanoia. The discussion will focus around the concept of class migration and how people can move between social classes throughout their lives. After the discussion, you will have the opportunity to view our current photography exhibition Many Hands and chat to other attendees.

You are welcome to attend if you are a member of the database, if you’re interested in joining or if you’d just like to be part of the discourse!

Saturday 13th September 18:00 – 20:00 | Gallery

BOOK YOUR TICKETS | Sliding scale pricing from £2.50

OPEN STUDIOS

Visit our Spinning Mill, Twisting and Red Lane Studios to see what artists do all day! Meet talented makers and artists, discover their processes and buy new work direct from independent artists and craftspeople.

Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th September 10:00 – 16:00 | Spinning Mill, Twisting & Red Lane Studios

Find out more and see a full list of our studio holders

No pre-booking required | Free entry

LEGO MILL MAKING

Join Joel from Get Playing for a hands-on, family-friendly workshop where creative play meets engineering! Build your own vehicles, from tractors, aeroplanes, diggers and cranes, and maybe even a working mill. Discover how machinery has evolved over the years during a fun and educational session for kids and grown-ups alike. Bring your imagination and get building!

Suitable for adults and families with children aged 4+

Your ticket will give you 1 hour of building time. Prebooking is recommended, but payment can be taken on the day from the Gallery.

Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th September 10:00 – 16:00 | Finishing Room (near the rear entrance to the Gallery)

BOOK YOUR TICKETS | Sliding scale tickets from £2.50

JOINT AND SEVERAL EXHIBITION

Visit a brand new collaborative exhibition by Kim Coley & Mel Davies in our atmospheric Spinning Mill Loft.

For many years Kim & Mel ran a Life Drawing Class within the Spinning Mill Studios.

“One exercise made us curious about the nature of cooperation. You might know the one, in which everyone moves round the room and draws on each other’s work. A different quality emerged from these drawings, a visual dialogue started to take shape, the marks appeared less anxious, more layered, and of course there was no absolute ownership.

We decided to take this idea further by drawing and painting together, to see what would happen. This has been going on for two years now and an instinctive rhythm, melody and harmony is emerging.

Tuesday – Sunday 10:00 – 16:00 until Sunday 21st September | Spinning Mill Loft

No pre-booking required | Free entry

LAST PRESS SCREENINGS

The Last Press, currently on display in the Gallery as part our photography exhibition Many Hands, was created by Alan Riley from the Finishing Department at Sunny Bank Mills on 11th October 2006.

During the production process, every piece of cloth passed through a large mechanical press for up to 24 hours. This gave the cloth a unique smooth finish, making it ready for tailoring. As textile operations wound down at the Mills in 2006, the press was about to be used for the final time, marking the beginning of the end of textile production on site.

This footage was shot on Alan’s own handheld home video camera – capturing the last time this traditional process was used, not only at Sunny Bank Mills, but possibly anywhere in the world.

Visit a screening of this short film (23:04 min) throughout the Heritage Festival weekend!

Friday 12th – Sunday 14th September 10:00 – 16:00 | Bobbin Room (next to the Museum & Archive)

No pre-booking required | Donations to the Museum & Archive welcome

SUNNY BANK SOUNDSCAPE

Experience generations of craftsmanship through an immersive soundscape that celebrates Sunny Bank Mills’ heritage in motion.

Fran Bundey is a local sound artist and performance maker. Fran has created an evocative sound piece to sit in the Old Woollen, blending recordings of the Mill’s Dobby looms with sounds from objects around the Mill.

Friday 12th – Sunday 14th September 10:00 – 16:00 | Old Woollen (hear it on the hill up to the Museum & Archive)

No pre-booking required | Free entry

3D MODEL OF SUNNY BANK MILLS

Come and see our brand new 1:250 scale 3D model of the Mill site using CAD (computer aided design) software and 3D printing. Every building has been recreated from the survey drawings made by our Architects during the course of the regeneration of the site.

From a basic plan of the footprint of each building the walls were drawn up followed by the, often confusing, myriad of roof lines and significant identifying features such as the 1912 Mill tower and Boiler House chimney. Finally all the windows and doors are modelled; yes there are A LOT of them throughout the mills! See the model and find out more about the design process through the Festival weekend!

Friday 12th – Sunday 14th September 10:00 – 16:00 | 

Museum & Archive No pre-booking required | Free entry