AN ARTIST has appealed for help to weave a 70ft thread through homes in Helmshore to document the importance of the weavers’ mills.

In her attempt to map the industrial heritage of the village, visual artist Hannah Leighton-Boyce has been commissioned to hold the one day installation next month.

With the help of residents, she will carry the thread she has weaved at the mill through the homes in Hyacinth Close, Anemone Drive and Narcissus Avenue on the site of the former tenter fields above Helmshore Mills Textile Museum.

Working with residents of Helmshore, the project aims to explore the shifting relationships between people and place.

As well as studying the village’s past, the Manchester-based artist wants residents to come forward and share their thoughts on what present-day Helmshore means to them.

Miss Boyce’s project, entitled The Event of the Thread, will be unveiled at the mills next month.

She said: “I want to take the thread through the letter boxes and windows of houses, to explore how history is present in public and private spaces.”

Miss Boyce has received financial backing from Arts Council England and Lancashire County Council to make the concept a reality.

The artist, a Masters graduate of Manchester Metropolitan University, has collaborated with Haslingden History Group, visited Helmshore Farmers’ Market and borrowed The Great Wheel from Higher Mill to spin in public.

She said: “I’m inviting people to come and watch me weave and ask any questions they have about the project at the mill.”

She will be weaving at the mill on Wednesdays and Saturdays throughout August, and has provisionally set a date for the installation on Sunday, September 24.