Most of the people in the Münsterland region of North-West Germany used to live from agriculture. But during the industrial revolution the town of Bocholt in the west of the region became one of the most important textile manufacturing centres in Westphalia, indeed in the whole of the country. For a time almost 10.000 people worked here as weavers, spinners, bleachers, dyers or printers. The town still retains the distinctive marks of its old textile traditions and these are just as vital nowadays in the Textile Museum as they once were many years ago. The rhythmic clatter of the weaving machines with the accompanying dust and noise recall the arduous physical labour involved. The attractive engine house next door contains a huge two cylinder steam engine dating back to 1917. It is still in working order

The Textile Museum in Bocholt was set up in 1989. It is a historic replica of a small textile mill complete with workers houses, a boiler house, a steam-engine house, an office and a weaving mill with a characteristic shed roof. Such small textile mills were very characteristic of the Münsterland until after the Second World War. Nowadays visitors who embark on a circular tour of the museum factory can follow the lengthy path of cotton from the original material to the finished product on working machines. Directly in front of the factory gate there is an old textile worker’s house, within which it is possible to see the modest living standards achieved by an experienced textile worker and his family. By day the workers had to slog it out in the mill, and in the evening they worked a small plot of land behind their dwellings.