in the German Damask and Terry Museum is probably the only functional hand-draw damask loom as well as the last surviving terry hand loom in Germany.

lace was particularly important in Nottingham, where the time-consuming process of making lace by hand was mechanised from 1808. The region’s lace-making machines were exported around the world.

‘lachter’ (36 metres) below another tunnel. Work began in 1551 but was slow as the gallery was dug by hand through hard rock. It was completed in 1690. Visitors can explore 0.5 kilometres of the gallery and

factory outside the town. It displays more than a century of knitted garments. There are examples of hand-worked stocking-knitting frames and big machines for circular knitting. All of them are demonstrated

In a time when so much printing is digital, Colophon demonstrates its passion for paper, type and hand-made books. The museum is housed in the bailiff’s house in the ancient Savoie town of Grignan. The

has survived as a visitor mine. Around the turn of the 20th century, iron ore was mostly mined by hand in narrow low gangways, with the help of gunpowder. The miners only began to use compressed air hammers

were forged. The raw materials to produce iron were: iron ore, charcoal and river water. On the other hand, in the mills flour was obtained by grinding wheat and corn grain. Visitors can watch the enormous

expression of the latest state of technology; yet it has already taken on a museum function. On the other hand the housing settlement that looks like an open air museum is still a part of everyday life. The rise

Empire, manufacturing table wares, light fittings and containers such as bottles and jars. By 1900 hand-blowing had been abandoned in the manufacture of many products and replaced by the use of machines

find out how to design your own ship. Test different hull designs in a mini experiment tank. Try your hand at smoothing and carving a real wax hull model.

talents of the colliers who knew how to exploit gravity to their own ends. This museum is all about hands-on activities. All the guides are ex-miners who can give you good solid information about the everyday

museum is a complete production line for making dynamite, from a period when the process was largely hand-operated. There are many photographs of the factory when it was working, and a model of a nearby sulphuric

an English company, The Cerain Iron Ore Company Limited. Around 1932 exploitation passed to German hands. The Germans worked the mines until 1941, and then Patricio Echeverria continued with the activity

can see flour being milled every Sunday when the site is open. There is a car park, tea shop, second-hand bookshop, toilets and baby-changing facilities during opening times. Houghton mill is also an excellent

sites. It was a water-powered works for making steel scythes – essential tools for cutting crops by hand. The site was used for 500 years until it closed in 1930. The present buildings date from between

beehive), in a former vat house, portrays the mill’s history and enables visitors to make paper by hand. The life of Michael Drewsen is illustrated in the city museum, which is also responsible for a small

first glance the Grappa Distillery Poli proves to be a place where tradition and craftmanship go hand in hand. For more than one century all sorts of Grappa are given birth and mature here. An exciting guided [...] that are able to create a large variety of flavours. Visitors can feel what it is like to grasp a handful of fresh marc – the residues of grapes left by winemakers serving as the basic product of the di

of regional textile manufacture. To be part of it visitors are repeatedly encouraged to use their hands. In doing so they feel, for instance, the difference between wool, silk, cotton, linen and hemp –

them in the traditional kilns, before painting and glazing begins. Creative visitors can try their hand at the pottery wheel. Everything is just as it was here. The soot-black walls of the building, the

that has existed in the town at least since the 1400s. This is the making of saddler’s ironmongery; hand forged metalwork like stirrups, bits and buckles for the saddle and harness. Whilst tanning existed [...] and smells of its industrial past. Demonstrators, who used to work in the leather industry, are on hand to show you how the leather was worked, and their knowledge and skills are inspirational. The quality