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Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate

Water power was the wonder of the late 18th Century and today you can see this technological breakthrough in action at Quarry Bank Mill & Styal Estate. Award-winning galleries are devoted to water and steam power, with hands-on displays and exhibits, an 1830s Beam Engine and a Horizontal Steam Engine which steam daily.

Discover the lives of the mill workers and how pauper children spent their time, with lessons in the schoolroom, and hours working cleaning up cotton waste among the clattering looms which today produce Styal Calico cloth.

Meet people who once worked in cotton mills with a lifetime of stories to share with you.

The essence of a visit to Quarry Bank Mill is the warm, friendly atmosphere. Situated in over 384 acres of the beautiful countryside of Styal Country Estate, this remarkable Georgian museum is a valuable resource for learning more about our industrial and social heritage.

Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate with Styal Village is the most complete and least altered factory colony of the Industrial Revolution. It is of outstanding national and international importance. Founded in 1784 by a young textile merchant Samuel Greg, Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate was one of the first generation of waterpowered cotton spinning mills. Styal was chosen for a number of reasons, not least because of the suitable head of water provided by the River Bollin and its proximity to the Bridgewater Canal and thus Liverpool. However, the area was also sparsely populated and so a workforce had to be imported. During the 1790s there was a ready supply of cheap labour in the form of orphan children from workhouses across the country. The children brought to work in the Mill lived in the Apprentice House, now restored as part of the Museum. Between 1790 and 1847, when the system ceased, around 1,000 children were apprenticed to live and work at Styal.

As the Greg enterprise flourished the Mill itself was extended and a working community established at Styal. This included two chapels, a school and a shop as well as cottages and terraced housing. By the 1830s Samuel Greg & Co was one of the largest cotton manufacturing businesses in Britain with four other mills as well as Quarry Bank.

The site has four unique features:

Its Original Buildings The Mill is one of the finest and most impressive brick buildings of its day to survive. Together with Styal Village it represents an unrivalled example of an early factory colony.

An Extensive Archive A varied collection of objects, pictures and documents provide evidence about the life and work of the Greg family and their workforce.

A Living Museum Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate is still a working Cotton Mill producing over 9,000m (10,000 yards) of cloth each year. Visitors can see, hear and smell 19th Century textile machines working and meet skilled Millworkers with years of experience of working in the cotton industry.

The Great Iron Waterwheel and two Steam Engines Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate now offers an unique opportunity to see the two major sources of power available during the Industrial Revolution, working in an original context. The most powerful working waterwheel in Britain illustrates how power can be harnessed to drive machinery.