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Quarry Bank Mill
Quarry Bank Mill (also known as Styal Mill) in Styal, Cheshire, England, is one of the best preserved textile factories of the Industrial Revolution. Built in 1784, the cotton mill is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. Quarry Bank Mill was established by Samuel Greg, and was notable for innovations both in machinery and also in its approach to labour relations, the latter largely as a result of the work of Greg's wife, Hannah Lightbody. The family took a somewhat paternalistic attitude toward the workers, providing medical care for all and limited education to the children, but all laboured roughly 72 hours per week until 1847 when a new law shortened the hours.
Greg also built housing for all of his workers, in a large community now known as Styal Estate. Some were conversions of farm houses, or older residences but 42 new cottages, including the Oak Cottages (now Grade II Listed), were built in the 1820s when the mill was being expanded.
The National Trust, which runs the mill and Styal Estate as a museum that is open to the public, calls the site "one of Britain's greatest industrial heritage sites, home to a complete industrial community". According to the Council of Europe, the mill with Styal village make up "the most complete and least altered factory colony of the Industrial Revolution. It is of outstanding national and international importance".
Quarry Bank Mill is on the outskirts of Styal in Cheshire, abutting and to the south of Manchester Airport. The mill is on the bank of the River Bollin, which provided water to power the waterwheels. It was connected by road to the Bridgewater Canal for transporting raw cotton from the port of Liverpool. The site consisted of three farms or folds. Styal railway station opened in 1909, about a 1⁄3 mile (0.54 km) away.
Samuel Greg leased land at Quarrell Hole on Pownall Fee from Lord Stamford, who imposed a condition that "none of the surrounding trees should be pruned, felled or lopped"; maintaining the woodland character of the area. One reason for selecting this location was the "suitable head of water provided by the River Bollin and its proximity to the Bridgewater Canal and thus Liverpool". The factory was built in 1784 by Greg to spin cotton. When Greg retired in 1832, it was the largest such business in the United Kingdom. The water-powered Georgian mill still produces cotton calico. The Gregs were careful and pragmatic, paternalistic mill owners, and the mill underwent expansion and change throughout its history. When Greg's son, Robert Hyde Greg, took over the business, he introduced weaving. Samuel Greg died in 1834.
An 1835 report provided these specifics about the mill: "It is driven by an elegant water-wheel, thirty-two feet in diameter, and twenty-four feet broad, equivalent in power to one hundred and twenty horses"
The Mill was attacked during the Plug Plot riots on 10 August 1842.
The mill's iron water wheel, the fourth to be installed, was designed by Thomas Hewes and built between 1816 and 1820. Overhead shafts above the machines were attached to the water wheel by a belt. When the wheel turned, the motion moved the belt and powered the machinery. A beam engine and a horizontal steam engine were subsequently installed to supplement the power. The Hewes wheel broke in 1904, but the River Bollin continued to power the mill through two water turbines. The mill owners purchased a Boulton and Watt steam engine in 1810 and a few years later acquired another, as the river's water level was often low in the summer, which could interrupt cloth production for several years. Steam engines could produce power all year round. Today the mill houses the most powerful working waterwheel in Europe, an iron wheel moved from Glasshouses Mill at Pateley Bridge designed by Sir William Fairbairn who had been Hewes' apprentice.
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Quarry Bank Mill
Quarry Bank Mill (also known as Styal Mill) in Styal, Cheshire, England, is one of the best preserved textile factories of the Industrial Revolution. Built in 1784, the cotton mill is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. Quarry Bank Mill was established by Samuel Greg, and was notable for innovations both in machinery and also in its approach to labour relations, the latter largely as a result of the work of Greg's wife, Hannah Lightbody. The family took a somewhat paternalistic attitude toward the workers, providing medical care for all and limited education to the children, but all laboured roughly 72 hours per week until 1847 when a new law shortened the hours.
Greg also built housing for all of his workers, in a large community now known as Styal Estate. Some were conversions of farm houses, or older residences but 42 new cottages, including the Oak Cottages (now Grade II Listed), were built in the 1820s when the mill was being expanded.
The National Trust, which runs the mill and Styal Estate as a museum that is open to the public, calls the site "one of Britain's greatest industrial heritage sites, home to a complete industrial community". According to the Council of Europe, the mill with Styal village make up "the most complete and least altered factory colony of the Industrial Revolution. It is of outstanding national and international importance".
Quarry Bank Mill is on the outskirts of Styal in Cheshire, abutting and to the south of Manchester Airport. The mill is on the bank of the River Bollin, which provided water to power the waterwheels. It was connected by road to the Bridgewater Canal for transporting raw cotton from the port of Liverpool. The site consisted of three farms or folds. Styal railway station opened in 1909, about a 1⁄3 mile (0.54 km) away.
Samuel Greg leased land at Quarrell Hole on Pownall Fee from Lord Stamford, who imposed a condition that "none of the surrounding trees should be pruned, felled or lopped"; maintaining the woodland character of the area. One reason for selecting this location was the "suitable head of water provided by the River Bollin and its proximity to the Bridgewater Canal and thus Liverpool". The factory was built in 1784 by Greg to spin cotton. When Greg retired in 1832, it was the largest such business in the United Kingdom. The water-powered Georgian mill still produces cotton calico. The Gregs were careful and pragmatic, paternalistic mill owners, and the mill underwent expansion and change throughout its history. When Greg's son, Robert Hyde Greg, took over the business, he introduced weaving. Samuel Greg died in 1834.
An 1835 report provided these specifics about the mill: "It is driven by an elegant water-wheel, thirty-two feet in diameter, and twenty-four feet broad, equivalent in power to one hundred and twenty horses"
The Mill was attacked during the Plug Plot riots on 10 August 1842.
The mill's iron water wheel, the fourth to be installed, was designed by Thomas Hewes and built between 1816 and 1820. Overhead shafts above the machines were attached to the water wheel by a belt. When the wheel turned, the motion moved the belt and powered the machinery. A beam engine and a horizontal steam engine were subsequently installed to supplement the power. The Hewes wheel broke in 1904, but the River Bollin continued to power the mill through two water turbines. The mill owners purchased a Boulton and Watt steam engine in 1810 and a few years later acquired another, as the river's water level was often low in the summer, which could interrupt cloth production for several years. Steam engines could produce power all year round. Today the mill houses the most powerful working waterwheel in Europe, an iron wheel moved from Glasshouses Mill at Pateley Bridge designed by Sir William Fairbairn who had been Hewes' apprentice.
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