Inside, you can enter the world of Hannah Greg and her family. Take a stroll through the picturesque gardens and soak up some of the best views of Quarry Bank as spring brings this special place to life.
From the first blossom and beautiful bluebells to the heritage rhododendrons putting on a show towards the end of the season, there's something new to discover every time you visit. At Quarry Bank, child workers lived in the Apprentice House where they were given food and board in exchange for their labour. You can take a guided tour of where they lived, ate and slept and explore the garden that the children tended after their long shifts in the cotton mill.
The beautiful village of Styal hides an industrial past. When you visit Styal village you can discover the domestic lives of the workers and the conditions that they lived in. Explore the village hub to uncover past tenants and find out about the village today. Stride out on a summer walk at Quarry Bank and enjoy the sights, sounds and scents of the season.
It was designed to house 90 children, who were cared for by a series of husband and wife superintendents. The Apprentice House has a rich history of runaways, accidents and punishments, as well as success stories and the reputation of providing a greater standard of care for its young charges than other mills of the time. In , with increasingly restrictive factory legislation and the rising costs of maintaining a child workforce, the apprentice system at Quarry Bank came to an end.
During the s the Mill was doing so well that Samuel expanded not just Quarry Bank Mill but also constructed five other cotton-spinning and weaving mills, employing more than 2, people, including his four sons who joined him in the family business. By Quarry Bank Mill had become the headquarters of one of the largest cotton manufacturing businesses in Britain — an empire of five mills. The Gregs are often cited as an example of a paternalistic approach to the workforce, yet whilst living conditions in Styal village appeared to have been significantly better than those in the adjacent towns, inside the Mill working conditions were generally barely different.
The workers had to accept long hours in unbearably high temperatures, above 20 o C, in order to work cotton efficiently. With all the windows tightly shut, the workers inhaled the cotton dust throughout the day which accumulated on their chests causing the incurable lung disease, byssinosis. With long uncomfortable hours, accidents were common; despite Samuel fencing off of most machinery in , some eleven years before this became compulsory by law.
When Samuel died in the business passed to his sons, and Quarry Bank Mill was under the care of Robert Hyde Greg, who had had a tense relationship with his father. Robert and his brothers had tried to encourage his father to introduce looms to Quarry Bank, but Samuel stoutly refused to revolutionise, and the family only remained held together by Hannah. Robert introduced weaving to Quarry Bank Mill in , and continued to expand the Mill with a new steam engines and boiler houses, a cloth warehouse, the gas retort house and the weaving sheds.
This economic downturn lasted three decades and was on a global scale, discouraging expansion and investment, particularly in the coarse production upon which the Mill concentrated. One apprentice ended up as a general manager. It is easy to look back from our contemporary vantage point and conclude what dismal lives common folk led back years ago. Decade by decade, living and working conditions continued to improve through the Victorian era.
Amazingly enough, life in Styal would have been surprisingly optimistic. Quarry Bank Mill is one of the great National Trust visits.
The five floors of the red brick Georgian mill are all open, and alive with the noise of machinery and the lint of cotton in the air. Clear, readable display boards walk the visitor through the textile production from bales of the raw material coming into Liverpool to finished goods shipped out.
This is perhaps the best comprehensive visit illustrating the hugely important textile industry to the economic engine of British wealth and empire in the 19th century. Quarry Bank Mill remained in the Greg family for generations.
Visits to the Apprentice House are by tour on a timed ticket. Make arrangements when you arrive at the NT admission office. The garden and orchard surrounding the house are open to wander. Potatoes and beans, apples and pears: The apprentices tended the garden. Adjacent to the mill, Quarry Bank House Garden illustrates how the Greg family lived—or at least how it gardened. Styal village is about a minute walk from the Mill Yard. The cottages themselves are private homes, but you can freely stroll about the neighborhood and get a feel for life in the mill community.
As a visit, Quarry Bank offers the advantage of being open throughout the year from a. Derbyshire Life. Words By Howard Bradbury. Published: PM August 28, Updated: AM February 3, Most Read. Cheshire Life.
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