Saddleworth Museum keeps Uppermill's history alive beside the canal

On Uppermill's High Street, beside the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, Saddleworth Museum has been telling the story of the Saddleworth villages for more than six decades. It is a small museum with a big role in the life of the community.

Its story began with a rescue. In 1959 Roger Tanner bought the derelict Victoria Mill, saving it from demolition, and with the help of volunteers the sole surviving building was turned into a museum that opened to the public in 1962. The main mill once stood where the car park is today, so the museum is itself a surviving piece of Saddleworth's industrial past.

The museum has grown over the years. Following a public appeal it was extended in 1980, adding an art gallery, and in 2012 it marked 50 years as an independent charity, with a refurbishment following soon after.

Volunteers remain the backbone of the place. Local people give their time to keep the collections cared for and the doors open, and the museum's news pages have paid tribute to long-standing supporters, including John Hodges, who died in 2025.

The art gallery is a lively part of the calendar. The Saddleworth Group of Artists staged a winter exhibition in 2025, free to view, showing the creative talent that thrives in the villages and surrounding hills. Exhibitions like this give local painters a public space to share their work and give visitors another reason to return through the year.

Community events help keep the museum at the centre of village life. There is a weekly coffee morning, a monthly 200+ Club lottery draw that helps with funds, and seasonal favourites such as visits from Father Christmas and a Christmas raffle.

Like many independent museums, Saddleworth relies on support from the public. Its 2025 Grow and Donate appeal invited people to help the museum continue its work, and every visit and donation makes a difference.

Details of exhibitions, events and opening times are on Saddleworth Museum's website. It makes a good stop on a stroll along the canal towpath through Uppermill, and the village's shops and cafés are only a few steps away.