Oral History Project: Cam Mills
Our collection of audio stories captures the lives of women who worked at Cam Mills—how they juggled the demands of home and factory life, and what the job meant beyond a paycheck. For many, it was more than work; it was friendship, pride, and a strong sense of belonging.
Footage of Cam Mills through the years kindly reproduced with permission from Stroudwater Textile Trust. Anybody here you recognise?
A DVD of this footage can be purchased through their website.
Mill Voices: An Oral History of Women’s Work in Cam
Kingshill House, 13th - 21st September 2025
As part of Heritage Open Days we are delighted to be putting on an exhibition celebrating this project. Through spoken memories, photography, and a tactile artistic response in wool, the exhibition weaves together industry, identity, and a deeper understanding of women’s lives and work across generations.
Working in partnership with Stroudwater Textile Trust, artists Abi Nicol and Deb Brooks and students from Rednock School will explore the rich social history of the textile industry and its impact on the local area. Drawing on a wealth of local knowledge and collective memory, we honour the past while breathing new life into the traditional crafts that shaped our region.
This project has been kindly funded by Historic England and National Lottery Heritage Fund.
