Cheam School

We were greeted by our guides Helen and Tish who kindly showed us around the Victorian Mill and gave us some fascinating historical facts about this charming old building. It was built in 1800 on the Hampshire River Test during the reign of King George III. Silk has been woven here since the 1820s although there are no silk worms on site.

Now a working museum open to the public, the Mill still produces high quality silks for interior designers, theatrical productions and historic houses. Looking around the workrooms we saw the 16 power looms, and learnt new words such as shuttles, shanks and bobbins! We were fascinated and horrified in equal measure to hear details of hard-working Victorian children working in this Mill and being forced to swallow silk scraps!

Lunch was a picnic affair out in the sunshine, in the Mill's beautiful garden by the river. Some eagle-eyed pupils spotted some large fish in the water and were also fascinated to watch the 1890 undershot waterwheel in action. This wheel still demonstrates how it used to power the Mill belts with its belt drives, pulleys and shafts.

In the afternoon we were lucky enough to participate in two craft workshops. In the first we had a go at at silk painting, learning about 'Gutta', a product used in this process and also in dentistry! We were given floral templates to fill in and learnt how to apply the silk paint. In the second session we learnt how to make wool felt using lots of hot water and bars of soap. We were able to choose our own colours of wool tops from the large selection Helen gave us. The resulting pieces of coloured felt were then fashioned into pouches for us to take home.

We went home clutching the painting and felt we had made, tired but very happy. What a fabulous day out. How lucky we are to have such a fine historic building down the road!