Manchester Trip : Quarry Bank Mill (Part One)

On a wet Sunday afternoon in November, we needed something to occupy ourselves for a couple of hours. A National Trust site with one of the largest waterwheels in Europe seemed like just the ticket and it wasn’t far away to drive. Fortunately, I got in free with my National Trust pass, Ross got in on that as well, with Liam having his family membership. Richard came along as well with his own specially purchased ticket and we were ready to walk in the rain for a while.

As a background to this site, it’s at its heart about cotton production during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. At the centre of the site stands the impressive mill itself, built in 1784 and an important part of the industrial revolution. It was established by Samuel Greg, who used the River Bollin to power the water wheel, and his family kept it going into the twentieth century. The challenges were obvious in the Victorian period with more competition and the site struggled to maintain profitability. By 1939, it was realised that the site wouldn’t be profitable and Alexander Carlton Greg took the decision to donate the site and the surrounding estate to the National Trust.

We had a limited amount of time and so we focused on visiting the mill which is the main part of the site. There was plenty of walking in the parkland and estates, but we didn’t have time and it was pouring with rain anyway, but there is more to see here than we did. Above is the counting house, part of the mill manager’s offices, where the money was handed to workers.

And this is the hatch view that the workers would have had when collecting their money. At its peak, there were 250 people working here, so it was a sizeable operation.

The manager’s office. We decided Richard would like this decadence.

This was more Ross, Liam and me…..

And there’s Liam.

Some cotton and the process was explained, effectively its a matter of harvesting it, then ginning it (separately the cotton fibre from the seeds), then cleaning it (by carding and combing) and then spinning and weaving it.

And a cotton plant. The whole cotton industry was an essential part of the industrial revolution, with the spinning jenny, water frame and power loom being developed as part of the process. There was an enormous demand for cotton products both nationally and internationally, with colonies exploited to secure the raw material and then they were used as markets for the finished material.

The next part of the museum were the working machines, but that will require its own page as I took numerous videos as well as photos. Ooooh, the anticipation…..