Verdant Works Jute Museum Dundee

Verdant Works, Dundee, Scotland

Dundee Museums: Verdant Works

Verdant Works, Scotland. — The museum is housed in the former High Mill

The Verdant Works museum in Dundee, Scotland is a former jute mill in the Blackness area of the city.

The museum is dedicated to the textile industry, in particular, jute and linen, the production of which once dominated the city's economy alongside engineering and shipbuilding.

Indeed over half Dundee's workforce was once employed in textiles. Verdant Works is the only museum in the UK dedicated to the jute industry.

The museum opened in 1996.

Verdant Works, Dundee, Scotland. — Verdant Works, Dundee, Scotland

Exhibits

The museum has over 20 galleries in the historic mill building that dates back to 1833. It employed around 500 workers and was just one of the 150 jute mills in Dundee at the peak of production.

The flax and linen industries were already in business in the Blackness district of Dundee when the first jute from the Indian sub-continent arrived in 1820. The town's whaling industry also supplied oil used in the jute manufacturing process.

By the end of the 19th century, the factory was no longer producing jute but recycling jute waste for use in stuffing furniture. The center of jute production had by the beginning of the 20th century moved to Calcutta in India.

The museum presents information on the hardships faced by the women, men and children employed in the city's textile mills. Women and children were cheaper to employ!

Forced to work long hours in noisy and often dangerous conditions, visitors can learn about the workers' struggles to form a union and the strike of 1874.

The majority of factory workers in Dundee were female. Indeed, in 1901 two thirds of the 39,752 workers employed in textile mills in Dundee were women.

In addition to original equipment, photographs and technical drawings, there are audio-visuals showing life in the mill, and visitors can also see an original 1801 Boulton & Watt beam engine in action.

There are also many hands-on, interactive exhibits which are a lot of fun for visiting school children.

Further galleries explore Dundee's relationship with India, where the jute was grown as well as life in the crowded tenements where the workers lived, often eight to a room and four to a bed! There is information on Dundee's distinctive "pletties" (landings) in the tenements where the inhabitants would gather and socialize. At the other end of the social scale were the jute barons who lived in magnificent mansions.

How to get to Verant Works. — How to get to Verdant Works

Access & Hours

Verdant Works
West Henderson's Wynd
Dundee DD1 5BT
Tel: 01382 309060
www: verdantworks.co.uk

April 1 - October 31, Monday - Saturday, 10 am - 6 pm (Sunday 11 am); November 1 - March 31, Wednesday - Saturday, Sunday 11 am - 5 pm, closed Monday and Tuesday; last admission one hour before closing.

For admission fees see the official website above. Present adult entry is £11.75, children £6.50 and concessions £9.15.

Verdant Work's sister museum is Discovery Point home to the historic ship RRS Discovery. Both museums are administered by Dundee Heritage Trust. Combined tickets can be purchased for entry to both museums either online or at the door. The Howff, an historic burial ground in Dundee, is also close by.

The museum has a shop selling a range of jute products and the Verdant Works Cafe for tea, sandwiches and a slice of Dundee Cake.

By car Dundee Airport is 10 minutes from the museum.

Dundee Station is the closest railway station, only 10 minutes away on foot. Dundee bus station is a 20-minute walk.

Dundee Station on South Union Street has trains to London King's Cross Station in London from Aberdeen via Edinburgh, Newcastle and York Station in York as well as more local ScotRail trains to Glasgow Queen Street in Glasgow via Perth and Stirling as well as connections south to Edinburgh Waverley Station in Edinburgh.

The following buses stop near Dundee Station, the #42, the #42A (Glenrothes), the #77, the #77A (Gauldry), the #99, #99A, the #99B, the #99C, #99D (to St Andrews), the #X7 (Perth), as well as the #X54 and #X61 services which serve Dundee city.

If you wish to stay in Dundee try the Sleeperz Hotel Dundee, with three stars and views of the V&A Dundee. Also recommended are the Malmaison Dundee and Holiday Inn Express Dundee.

Dundee Attractions

The Dundee Science Centre, DCA Dundee and the V&A Dundee are other excellent museums in the city.

Dundee has a connection with comics as the publishers D. C. Thomson & Co are based in the city. The company published such former classic comics as The Dandy and The Beano. A statue of Desperate Dan and other characters from the comics, such as Minnie the Minx and Dawg the Dog can be seen in Dundee city center.