An ambitious folk museum brushes off the dust to bring the past to life. Let Archie Reid take you back in time to the opening of the Ulster Folk museum and the rural traditions it preserves. Watch a living reminder of the past emerge as old buildings are painstakingly rebuilt numbered stone by stone. Before long sparks will fly as the blacksmith channels fire and water in the Spade Mill.  

As rural ways of life were engulfed by an ever more industrialised North the Ulster Folk Museum was born from a 1958 act of parliament. It continues to create a lively world of artefacts to preserve disappearing traditions for future generations. Visitors can experience the buildings, tools and crafts of the past from the weaver’s loom to the blacksmiths forge.

 Filmed by Archie Reid.

• National Museums Northern Ireland
• Britain on Film