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Meet the characters

Two voices fromthe building's past.

Conversational AI grounded in the historical record. Choose who you'd like to meet. The same characters wait for you at the kiosk inside the Wharf and on the towpath trail app.

Painted portrait of Samuel Oldknow

1756 – 1828

Samuel Oldknow

Industrialist who built the cotton mills, the printworks, and the wharf itself.

Talk with Samuel

Painted portrait of Ann Vanpine

c. 1811 – 1890

Ann Vanpine

Apprenticed to Mr Oldknow at fourteen. Spinner, mother, teacher. Lived in his row houses for the rest of her life.

Talk with Ann

How it works

They are characters, not chatbots.

Each character has a defined personality, a documented life, and a set of things they care about. They speak in their own voice, from their own time, about the building they knew. Ask them anything and they'll tell you what they would have said. Where the historical record is silent, they say so.