For breakfast I chose a variation on my choice of the previous day, scrambled eggs with bacon. It was delicious.

After checking out of the hotel, we drove to Quarry Bank Mill. We had been meaning to return after our previous brief visit for a cup of tea the day before we travelled to Rome in August 2024.

Once again, we started with a cup of tea in the café next to the upper garden before heading to the apprentice house for a guided tour. The tour was interesting but we both felt that our guide was placing today’s values (and her personal point of view) on that period of history. She seemed not to appreciate that the conditions in Quarry Bank Mill were superior to most other mills in the area. The mill owner and his wife took a paternalistic approach towards workers, providing medical care for all and food and limited education to child labourers.

When we left the apprentice house there was torrential rain. We walked to the lower café next to the mill where we had lunch, in my case a Danish pastry. The service in the café was not very efficient leaving Mr C and others to wait an excessive time for tea to be brought to a table next to the serving area.

We visited the mill and its exhibitions showing how the cotton spinning industry developed from hand spinning to increasingly more efficient mechanised spinning and later weaving techniques. The mill was, and still is, powered by a water wheel fed from the nearby River Bollin.

To this day the mill still produces Calico Cotton. I found the history particularly interesting as I have recently read Ken Follet’s book, The Armour of Light, which covers this period of time.

My mother and her family lived in this area and I was aware that one of our ancestors worked in the cotton industry. Looking back at my records after I returned home, I was excited to find that it is possible that he was an overlooker in this mill (I need to do more research).

When we left the mill, we had a mooch around the shop and pre-loved bookshop. It was still raining so we decided not to explore the wider estate walks, leaving them for another day.

On our way home we stopped at Fordhall Farm to pick up some pork and Morrisons to pick up the remaining ingredients for our evening meal of Lemony Pork Piccata. Not quite the same as our tasting menu of the day before but delicious all the same.