Dubbed "The Rottweiler" for his interviewing style, Paxman took time out of his busy schedule to visit and film the world's only surviving 19th Century steam-powered weaving mill.

The BBC is currently making a four-part television documentary series on The Victorians, which Mr Paxman is presenting.

He will be seen travelling by canal boat and steam train, as well as pouring molten metal in a Victorian ironworks and wading through a Victorian sewer.

Fiming was done in the mill's weaving shed with close-ups of the weaving process and Mr Paxman setting a loom on and stopping it while talking to Conrad Varley, the museum's weaving technician. They also filmed in the engine and boiler house.

The documentary is expected to be broadcast on BBC1 next year.

Mr Ian Gibson, of Lancashire County Council Museums Service, showed Mr Paxman around the museum. He said: "I feel sure Jeremy was won over by Queen Street Mill after he had seen and heard the weaving shed with more than 300 Lancashire looms and the steam engine in action. I would say that historic machinery isn't normally high on his 'must see' list but Queen Street Mill made a lasting impression."