Step into the Past

Another weekend, another National Trust visit.

Quarry Bank Mill in Styal has to be one of the most fascinating National Trust properties we've been to: it's a preserved textile mill that was built in 1784, and it's like stepping back in time to the Industrial Revolution.

The owners of the mill, and many of the workers, had homes on the site of the mill as well, so there are Apprentice Houses, herb gardens, the small Owners House, and expansive grounds to wander around, as well as the mill itself. The Apprentice Houses are not always open, and the Owners House has limited entrance numbers for each tour, so keep an eye out or ask about entry when you arrive.

The winding hill down to the Quarry offers glimpses of the mill chimneys, then there's a choice of paths which open out to either the gardens or the mill environs. We've been both ways, and the garden walk is a lot longer but takes you down through the terraces, and often contains treasure hunts for the children as well as passing by a café and shop, thousands of flowers, and crossing the winding river. This path is not suitable for pushchairs, wheelchairs, or limited mobility visitors as there are lots of steps and the path can get pretty steep and narrow in places.

On this visit we walked straight to the mill itself as the rain was starting to get heavier, so we sought the shelter of the indoor attractions. Once in the mill, there are often machines running, demonstrating how they would have worked when the mill was one of the hubs of the textile trade. The noise from just one or two machines is utterly deafening and it's impossible to imagine the conditions under which so many people worked. There is a permanent exhibition showing the history of textile production from spinning wheels to spinning jennies, all the way to modern day manufature, and there are often pop-up exhibitions - in the past we've seen the 'hudden voices' of the people who would have worked in the mills, and a history of fashion spanning the life of the mill.

As with every National Trust property, friendly guides in each room are on hand to help, explain, advise or demonstrate, and this is especially true of Quarry Bank Mill in the steam production areas, where water drips from the stone walls and the creek of the water wheel reverberates through the walls.

When the rain stopped we took a picnic into the field beyond the mill, and spent time playing on the grass overlooking the waterfalls that lend their power to the mills production. Then we treated ourselves to an ice-cream, a browse around the shops, and plodded back up the hill to home.

Entrance to Quarry Bank Mill costs from £11 for children to £22 for adults. Though it's free with National Trust membership, and, as always, I can't recommend this membership enough - just two or three visits to some of the more expensive places will easily cover the yearly membership fee, and with so much to do all year round, and so many wonderful places to explore, it's practically a necessity for our family!