Bocholt textile museum

The Bocholt textile museum is a museum in Bocholt, a city in the north-west of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, part of the district Borken. It is situated 4 km south of the border with the Netherlands. The museum opened in 1989 as one of the eight locations of the LWL Industrial Museum: it is an Anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage.ContextMunsterland, the area of land that straddles the German Dutch border was known for cotton. The soil was not fertile and from the 16th century additional income was gained from flax production to make linen, which was woven into a rough sail cloth. With the 19th century Bocholt was producing fustian (tree silk), a compound cloth of linen warp and cotton weft. This was exported. The textile merchants then established cotton mills that exploited these skills and trade links.BuildingsThe museum is set in two buildings on the opposite side of the River Aa. The first is the spinning mill of Spinnerei Herding. The second is a reconstructed single storey weaving shed with its typical sawtooth roofs. In the weaving shed 30 looms remain operational.