Quarry Bank

Quarry Bank Mill is one of the best preserved textile factories from the period of the industrial revolution in Great Britain. It currently houses a cotton industry museum. You can watch here, among others a collection of machinery and other items related to the cotton industry, including a giant iron water wheel, spinning machines and weaving looms.

Quarry Bank is an example of a cotton spinning mill that was initially dependent on hydropower. The first mill was built by Samuel Greg and John Massey in 1784. It was a four-story mill measuring 8.5 meters by 27.5 meters, with an attached staircase, currency exchange and storage. The water wheel was at the north end of the mill. Over the next decades, the spinning mill was expanded, eventually becoming one of the centers of the British cotton industry. The mill and Styal estate remained the property of the Greg family for five generations until 1939, when they were transferred to the National Trust.