Quarry Bank

Quarry Bank Mill, founded by Samuel Greg in 1784, is one of the best preserved textile mills of the Industrial Revolution. The early mill was a 4-storey structure, efficient and simple in design. Over the decades it was enlarged and updated such that by the 1860s, it was the headquarters of one of the largest cotton manufacturing businesses in the world. The mill sits on the banks of the River Bollin in the Styal Estate in close proximity to Manchester – the hub of Britain’s cotton industry. Before the Mill was built, Styal village was a small collection of barns and cottages. As the Mill expanded, many of these original farm buildings were converted into accommodation for the mill workers. The Apprentice House, built in 1792, provided living quarters for young boys and girls from the local parish who were being trained to work in the mill. The Mill and Styal estate remained in the ownership of the Greg family for five generations until 1939 when they were given to the National Trust.

Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate, Cheshire

This collection has 4,148 items online

One of Britain's greatest industrial heritage sites showing how a complete working community lived. A diverse collection containing a unique archive of the business and the Greg family who ran the mill, their possessions and extraordinary machines and other items relating to the cotton industry, many in working order: a giant iron waterwheel, steam engines, spinning machinery and weaving looms which transformed the cotton first into spun yarn and calico. Demonstrations of the working machinery, hand-spinning and weaving run daily.

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