Quarry Bank Mill

[poliphilo]

Quarry Bank Mill at Styal was opened in the 1780s and is now a working museum. We went there with Ruth, my sister-in-law. I now know about carding and spinning and weaving and have some idea of the hellishness of factory work in the early years of the industrial revolution. Samuel Greg, the owner of Quarry Bank, was a model employer by the standards of the age, but still expected his child "apprentices"- boys and girls- to work 13 hours a day, six days a week. 

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Prison isn't too far from the mark. If an apprentice ran away he or she was hunted down, returned to the master and punished. Liberal reformers at the time looked at the cotton mills, compared them with the American cotton plantations and concluded there wasn't a great deal of difference. Millhands- especially the children- were slaves in all but name.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

*ugh*!