Flax Visitor Centre
Upperlands BT46 5RN
Welcome
The Flax Visitor Centre, in the famous "Linen Village" of Upperlands, is a former linen beetling mill.
With generous heritage Lottery funding, this crumbling roadside building was restored to accommodate a Visitor Centre and Bistro.
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With further generous Covid Recovery Heritage Lottery Funding,The Flax Visitor Centre is undergoing its first reorganisation in almost 20 years in preparation for life with Covid.
In redeveloping, we have decided not to rewrite information that is available elsewhere.
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We are focussing on what is special about our centre and its place in our community.
As a result, we have, at this stage, chosen six revised themes:
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Presenting a timeline of the development for linen production and Wm. Clark Ltd.
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A celebration of The Dick Clark Model Collection and Railway Layout
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Water Power and the Knockoneill / Clady River
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Beetling: the process carried out in our setting and still continuing next door
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Field to Finishing: other Flax / Linen processes
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Linen connections: an ongoing exploration of linen heritage shared with our 'newcomer' families from Poland, Hungary etc.
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In addition, we are at an early stage of resuming work with CCEA that will enable the special contribution made by the folk of Upperlands to be celebrated in Flax, Linen, Industrial, Cultural materials assemble for schools in Northern Ireland.
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We hope that our chosen strands of our village's rich heritage can be woven back together again, preserved for future generations and its new found power used to generate activity, knowledge and learning across all age ranges.
