Hobkirk's Sewing Machine Museum is on the premises of Hobkirk Sewing Machines  (est.1903) in Blackburn. A visit could be combined with a look at the town where Dorothy Whipple grew up (there is a blue plaque on the house where she was born on Edgeware Rd). It also partly inspired the setting for High Wages in which Jane's shop selling ready-made garments steals a march on the local drapers and seamstresses using the types of sewing machine on display here.