The Greg Family

One of the reason why Quarry Bank Mill was so successful was because of the Greg family, who owned Quarry Bank Mill, were very good at finding ways of making money.  Quarry Bank Mill  was one of their most successful enterprises.

Quarry Bank Mill was opened by Samuel Greg.  He came from a very wealthy family and was born in 1758.   He was adopted by his uncle, Robert Hyde who lived in Manchester.  Robert Hyde was a successful cloth merchant.  

In 1780, Robert Hyde asked his nephew, Samuel, into partnership and promised him that he would inherit the business.  This is indeed what happened in 1782, when Robert Hyde did die. 

After the death of his uncle, Samuel began to look for property to expand the business.   While he was looking for property, he decided that he needed to build a larger building.  This building would have to be big enough to contain all the cotton workers at one time.  He went looking for property in the countryside around Manchester.  

Samuel Greg was a serious, hard-working and energetic man who was determined to achieve.   He could not find the right property that he wanted immediately. He wanted an area that was near a fast flowing stream. It wasn't till a year of looking that Samuel Greg found the site that met his requirements.  

On the River Bollin, at Styal, he found a place where he could dig a long headrace channel. This enabled him to have plenty of water whenever he wanted in order to turn a big wheel very fast.   The wheel was large and powerful enough to provide power for all the machines in the mill that Samuel would build.

In 1784, Samuel Greg began to build Quarry Bank Mill.

In the 1780's, mills and factories had very dreadful living conditions for the workers.  However, Quarry Bank Mill was different.  Samuel Greg cared about how his workers were treated. He built homes for them and built an apprentice house and school for the children who worked in his factory. 

Not only did he build places for his workers to live, but he provided education and medical care for the children, after their working hours.

Note: The children worked 69 hours a week, more then most adults do today!  Adults, themselves, worked 72 hours and Quarry Bank Mill was one of the better places to work at that time.

Samuel Greg died in 1834.  Quarry Bank Mill then went to his son, Robert Greg. Before Samuel's death, Robert had been trying to persuade him to use newer technology.  Samuel never was convinced.

After Samuel died, Robert lost no time in making these changes.  He began to add on and purchase new machinery to Quarry Bank mill 1836.