Rival Reviews: Quarry Bank
Come because it’s open, stay for the child labour tour.
Quarry Bank’s mill
Did you know that over winter quite a lot of country houses close for the season? I didn’t. Maybe I should, but I didn’t. And that’s why this isn’t a review on Dunham Massey, which was the plan until we arrived in the car park to be confronted with a large ‘House Closed’ sign.
Three more aborted attempts at other nearby country houses later, we give up. But do you know what doesn’t close over the Winter period? 18th century cotton mills. Who knew?
Today I am joined as ever by Gemma, and two friends I bought from home, Kay and Eve. We are pleased to be anywhere at all, and we are hungry, so after signing up for a tour of the Apprentice House, we hustle for a quick lunch, the less said about which the better. This is followed by a whistlestop tour of the cheery kitchen gardens, Kay buys a multitool from the gift shop.
And where are we? Quarry Bank, a cotton mill built in 1784 at the start of the Industrial Revolution and owned by the scrupulous Samuel Greg. On your tour today, you may see the Cotton Mill itself, still kitted out with intimidating machines, both original and of the more mechanical variation; the swanky home next door lived in by Greg and his family; and the Apprentice House, where the children employed at the mill bedded down. See also the Industrial Picturesque Garden, and nearby Styal Village, built to house the adult millworkers and their families. We did not partake.
3 in a bed? The cramped conditions in the Apprentice House
Quarry Bank has a lot of plates to spin, a country house built next to the source of its new money wealth is an interesting concept, akin to living above the shop. The house is beautiful, painted a delightful, sunny yellow, and the view through large windows is of a peaceful meadow painted the colours of autumn. Inside, the house is tasteful, understated design choices almost disguise some of the pricier elements of architecture, the most prominent being the curved walls and doors. It’s lovely, and draws into even sharper relief the poverty and misery encountered in the overcrowded Apprentice House and the imposing noise of the mill.
Looming large over Samuel Greg and Quarry Bank are the spectres of child labour and slavery, the ultimate source of the raw cotton he spun. In a modern world these are reprehensible, and it is difficult to come to terms with the fact that Greg was, legally at least, in the clear. He was a law-abiding man and even, for the time, a generous employer.
It is clear that Quarry Bank struggles with these two truths. Though I must applaud them for being so frank when discussing them. Our tour of the Apprentice House, the only way to view the property, showed us the conditions the children endured, but also took the opportunity to put Greg’s employment practice into context alongside his contemporaries. Through a modern lens, it can be difficult to understand some actions which are illegal now as generous then, and I must commend the effort to provide this much needed context.
However, let’s not go ahead and feel too much sympathy for Mr Greg or his wife, Hannah, who was known to be a liberal for her time, as one particularly knowledge guide was happy to explain. She was a little sanctimonious perhaps, preaching equality, tolerance and the value of hard work every Sunday to the children in the Apprentice House while wearing the diamonds she could well afford through her husband's business practice and her own inherited wealth, but maybe that’s just me. It occurs to me the order in which we experienced the site may have biased our views. How odd that a seemingly random decision driven more by lunch than any kind historical curiosity would lead to this?
Some of the industrial machines in Quarry Bank, intimidating even when seperated by a saftey barrier
Within the mill itself we waste no time delving into Samuel Greg’s early life and the source of the raw cotton he extracted for his mills, the slave plantations he owned in the Caribbean. Clearly there were limits to relative benevolence as an employer. I applaud this being faced head on, so visitors can explore the mill with this knowledge. The curation also explores the modern impact of the textile industry, in places like Bangladesh, where cheap labour is still exploited.
One highlight of the mill is the equipment, at your request the stewards will set the machines off - an experience that is both impressive and intimidating. This is particularly affecting after a visit to the Apprentice House, where you learn that the children's job was to run under the machines while they were in motion. To compare, I feel that this would be like running underneath a combine harvester.
In 1834 Samuel Greg died. He was attacked by a stag on the grounds of the mill (history doesn’t record whether this was provoked) and never recovered. His son, Robert Hyde Greg took over, expanding the factory, to improve productivity. The mill then passed through to Alexander Carlton Greg who donated it in 1939 to the National Trust, which is fair because by that point the Industrial Revolution that swept past Manchester, and the North had begun its economic decline. At Quarry Bank however, standing outside the impressively large and well-maintained mill, you would never guess it.
Amenities:
Lunch
Not good. Thought the point of a toastie was that it was toasted? Maybe I’m wrong.
Stables or Kitchens
Neither! The cafe is a new build situated next to the Picturesque gardens.
Can I take my dog?
A good place for dogs, there is a lot of outside space to explore.
Can I take my kids?
Genuinely educational for kids, teach ‘em empathy young. Lot’s of interactive displays in the mill for them to dig their sticky little hands into - recommend adults don’t touch that stuff for the same reason. Gross. The Apprentice House may also be useful to show how not getting to play on the ipad really isn’t all that bad, in the grand scheme of things.
Walks
Of course! Styal village is occupied but might be worth walking around and trying to stare through the current tenants living room windows. Take your dog.
Well, what did you think?
9/10 - I was surprised to be so impressed with this site. Though perhaps I shouldn’t have been. Manchester was known as Cottonopolis in the 19th and 20th century, due to the extraordinarily high number of cotton mills cropping up in and around the city, and the Industrial Revolution itself directly impacted the way we live our lives today. It is perhaps only appropriate that such an important industry with global effects, both good and bad, would be treated with as much care and empathy as they are here. The breadth of the site is also impressive, and the individual properties add richness and context to each other, improving the experience overall. Bring a packed lunch though.