Quarry Bank Mill, Styal, has launched an appeal to raise £1.4m in order to restore aspects of the cotton mill.
Built by the Greg family, the estate offered housing for workers, chapels, a school, a shop, allotments and a farm to provide food for the mill community.
The National Trust, which runs the mill as a museum, describes it as the best example of an industrial revolution community in the country. “Our aim is to reveal the full story of perhaps the world’s premier early industrial community and tell the individual stories of the mill owners, workers and apprentices – before it’s too late,” said the National Trust.
The restoration will take five years to complete and will see the restoration of a worker’s cottage and shop in the estate village and repairs to the Victorian glasshouses (see photo) that produced exotic fruit for the Greg family. They are all in need of urgent restoration.
The mill currently attracts 130,000 visitors a year,