The Lewis Textile Museum was bequeathed to the people of Blackburn by a local cotton industrialist, Thomas Boys Lewis (1869–1936). The Lewis Textile Museum was closed in 2006 and a new gallery with its collection of loom

Loom

A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...

s and textile machinery was moved to Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

The Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery is the local museum service for the borough of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. It is a museum with collections of Christian icons, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and local history, as well as those of the former Lewis Textile Museum.- The building :The museum is...

. The gallery which now houses the exhibits at the main Museum & Art Gallery was named CottonTown and opened in April 2007 by Jack Straw

Jack Straw

Jack Straw , British politician.Jack Straw may also refer to:* Jack Straw , English* "Jack Straw" , 1971 song by the Grateful Dead* Jack Straw by W...

, the local Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

.

The closure of the Lewis Textile Museum caused surprise which the local paper, the Lancashire Telegraph

Lancashire Telegraph

The Lancashire Telegraph, formerly the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, is a local tabloid newspaper distributed in East Lancashire, England. It has two separate geographic editions each day – one for the boroughs of Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley, and one for Burnley, Pendle, and...

 reported.

Most recently, the building of the Lewis Textile Museum, was planned as a new drugs centre although this was met with local uproar.

External links

• Entry in 24 Hour Museum
  24 Hour Museum
  Culture24, originally the 24 Hour Museum, is a British charity which publishes two websites, Culture24 and Show Me, about visual culture and heritage in the United Kingdom, as well as supplying data and support services to other cultural websites including Engaging Places.It operates independently,...
  
  
• Visit NorthWest information
• Thomas Boys Lewis