Jessops

From the 1750s onwards, the industrial revolution was moving workers out of their cottages and into purpose-built places of work, with the cotton industry at the forefront of change. Entrepreneur Samuel Greg saw the potential for water power in the Bollin Valley, and Quarry Bank Mill was established in 1784. Later, in the 1820s, terraced houses, complete with allotment gardens, were built in Styal village for the workers. For his young pauper workers (so-called apprentices) harvested from the workhouse, he built an apprentice house. Up to 100 youngsters, aged nine and upwards, were housed here under the eyes of a superintendent and his wife.