This former TreadRight project worked with The National Trust, which has owned the Mill since 1939. For many years, key aspects of the property were in private ownership, preventing the Trust from telling the complete story.
Built in 1784, the Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire, England, is one of the best preserved mills of the industrial revolution, an era which changed the face of Britain and the world. The Quarry Bank Mill, which is now a museum of the cotton industry, is considered one of the most important early textile manufacturing communities in England and, because of Britain’s pioneering role that it had in industrialization, it is considered one of the most important mills in the world.
The National Trust has owned the Mill since 1939, but for many years key aspects of the property were in private ownership, preventing the Trust from telling the complete story.
Between 2006 and 2012, the Trust was able to acquire the parts of the property that were in private ownership, enabling it to have the complete industrial village under its ownership.
Quarry Bank Mill has now become a place where the whole range of life in an early Industrial Revolution cotton mill and community can be explored, while remaining as near to its original context and completeness as possible.
Visitors to the site are told stories of the communities and the difficulties they faced, the pauper children who were forced to work, yet missed their families so much that they ran away and the working conditions of the laborers.
TreadRight has supported three significant National Trust projects. In addition to the Quarry Bank Mill, TreadRight supported National Trust projects at the White Cliffs of Dover and The Giant’s Causeway.
This project strengthened efforts to protect and safeguard Cheshire’s cultural heritage by revitalizing the Quarry Bank Mill.
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