Quarry Bank Mill

We slept really well last night after our epic 10 mile walk around Manchester yesterday and woke to light rain accompanied by the passing traffic. After breakfast we readied Kiki for the road and set out on the short drive to Quarry Bank Mill.

This restored cotton mill, built in 1784, is run by the National Trust and is one of the best preserved textile mills of the industrial revolution.

Our tour started in the mill. The first room described the history of cotton weaving, starting with the spinning wheel and manual loom and progressing to machines capable of spinning 10 or more bobbins and a more sophisticated manual loom with a flying shuttle.

In the next room we move into the start of the industrial revolution with dozens of mechanical looms which are powered from overhead shafts. These are all working machines and we were given a demonstration. When the mill was working, one weaver was in charge of four machines - quite a skilled job!

Down a floor we come to a set of machines which are used to “comb” the raw cotton into long fluffy sausages which are then fed onto a huge machine which spins the cotton onto hundreds of bobbins at the same time. We were given a demo of each of these machines in turn - really impressive.

In the basement is the powerhouse, here there is a huge 25ft diameter waterwheel which is driven by the river Bollin. The overhead shafts throughout the mill were originally driven by this wheel.

In dry summers, when there was insufficient water to drive the wheel, a steam engine was used as supplementary power. The steam engine never replaced the water wheel because water power is free!

After lunch we had a tour of the apprentice house. Here up to 90 children, some as young as 8, lived whilst they worked in the mill for their 10 year indenturement. Although the children worked 12hrs a day for 6 days a week, they were well fed and looked after. They were given a basic education and healthcare. Working in the mill was apparently better than the alternative, which for these orphans and poor kids would have been the workhouses in the cities.

We had a look around the mill owners house which was massively different to the primitive conditions in the apprentice house.

Finally we walked through the formal gardens alongside the river up to the cottages of the workers village. These were built by the mill owner and rented to his adult workers.

We really enjoyed our trip back in time today. Returning to Kiki we headed back to our base on the farm in Hyde.

After our evening meal we settled down for the night.