Quarry Bank Mill - Styal

It was poignantly a dismal March day that finally took me and a fellow Somerset stitcher to Quarry Bank Mill in Styal, Cheshire.  A national heritage centre for cotton weaving, this North West National Trust venue had strangely stayed on the edge of my textile research radar.  From the sheer size of the building alone, it was clear that this impressive mill had some weighty stories to tell.

I have long been aware that although cotton fabric today is promoted as a natural textile of choice, its history is steeped in misery and poverty.  The import of raw cotton to England and the links to the slave trade are well known.  What I suspect is less known, is the grim reality of the 19th century processes that transformed a bale of cotton into functional fabric.  These quickly came to the fore on the day of visiting Quarry Bank.

People were a vital commodity in 19th century cotton textile production to operate the newly developed machinery for each of the stages.  The upside of this was that the mechanisation of spinning and weaving provided mass employment and the population of North West cities like Manchester increased at a rapid rate.  Indeed, my great great great Grandparents Queintin and Jane Kenndy were among the thousands who migrated south from Scotland to Manchester in the mid 1800s for work in the cotton mills.

However, the first requirement of any mill was the need for a strong water source and Quarry Bank was chosen by its Irish born founder, Samuel Greg, because the meeting of the nearby rivers Bollin and Dean provided exactly that.

It was fascinating to learn how the power of the rivers was harnessed by the huge mill water wheels to drive the machinery of the day; an achievement in its own right requiring immense creativity and determination.  The height of water was so vital to mill production at Quarry Bank, that the mill manager's house was positioned so the river could be seen at all times.

When weaving was added to yarn production at Quarry Bank, steam power became all important for powering the mills looms.  The first 10 horse power engine was increased in capacity multiple times over the lifetime of the mill, to a final 60hp speed.  Dense smoke was part and parcel of mill life throughout all these years!

It was a little comforting to learn that Quarry Bank was one of the more humane cotton mills of its time.  The housing for mill workers was by far superior to its inner city equivalent, as were the living conditions for child 'apprentices' who lived on site.  The influence of Samuel Greg's wife Hannah, a mother of 13 children, was seen to be very influential in this.  Working life at Quarry Bank would have been a tough existence all the same and exhaustion from long working hours and little time off were undoubtedly a starting point.

Most sobering was the detail of precarious mill working.  Loss of limbs and life were common place and the child apprentices were often at most risk crawling beneath working machinery.  Plus all mill workers suffered from the fine white cotton dust that permanently clouded the air and wreaked havoc on the lungs.  Add into the mix closed windows to maintain humidity for the cotton and the noise of the mill machinery that increased with each development of mechanisation.  This was clearly a grim working environment for all that were involved.

All same, Quarry Bank undoubtedly provided a quality of life for those who lived there way ahead of its time. The clean housing, child education and health care provided by the Greg family were rarely if ever provided by other mill owners.  I am sure that the life of my ancestors in central Manchester would have been a much easier lot had they worked at Quarry Bank.

The exhibits at Quarry Bank provided an honest, albeit uncomfortable account of English cotton textile production at its peak.  It particularly saddened me to think that there are still textile mills around the world today where these dreadful working conditions are not so dissimilar.  We left Quarry Bank mill that March day feeling massively informed, although rather heavy with our newly acquired knowledge.  I strongly recommend a visit to all to increase appreciation of both the history of cotton textiles and working conditions in textile mills that still exist in the poorest parts of the world today.