A DIGITAL tour of Wansbrough Mill goes online on Friday showing thousands of photographs taken before the Watchet landmark closed.
The images have been painstakingly stitched together to create a 360-degree experience in which viewers ‘walk’ around the site.
The paper mill had been the lifeblood of employment in Watchet for over 250 years until it closed in December 2015 with the loss of 200 jobs.
For the last two years, volunteers from a number of organisations have worked together on a major heritage project to commemorate, capture and celebrate the mill’s legacy.
And today sees the launch of their digital virtual tour of the mill available to view for free online.
The tour can be viewed on desktop, mobile, tablet or virtual reality headsets. An aerial view of the site enables users to find their location in the mill, or navigate through each room by following the animated hotspots.
Each location is named by the machinery or processes that took place inside, as they were known to the workers of the mill – such as the PM5 control room, the Gorostidi room and the Pasaban room.
Within these locations are links to creative or archival content that were made about, or are related, to the mill itself. There are films, music, photographs, poems and artwork.
Jon Barrett, from Contains Art, said: “This virtual tour is quite something for a community heritage project to be able to deliver.
“Jason Robinson and Glyn Jarrett, both of whom live in Watchet, have worked incredibly hard on the technology ... So many people have been part of this project – making films, recording new songs, writing the history and preserving the memories of the place."
To access the tour go to www.containsart.co.uk/wansbrough.html