Unitarian Chapel

I had an appointment in Gatley Green this morning, and was there almost three hours. Largely because the person I was seeing is also a friend, so much of what we talked about had nothing at all to do with the business in hand.

Being over that way, afterwards I decided to visit nearby Quarry Bank Mill again, and the nearby village of Styal, much of which is in the ownership of the National Trust. After lunch at the restaurant I joined a guided tour of the Apprentices House, where between the 1780’s and the 1840’s 90 children (60 girls, 30 boys) under the age of 11 lived. They worked 12 hour days, 6am till 7pm, at Samuel Gregg’s Mill. A lot is known about them because there is a huge archive of documents where much was recorded. It was all fascinating.

Then I took the path to the village and passed the Norcliffe Chapel. Samuel Gregg was a Unitarian, so he built this chapel for himself and his workers. Many of the industrialists who led the industrial transformation of the UK were non conformists. They were prevented by law from attending Oxford or Cambridge Universities, as well as key professions, so business was an obvious alternative outlet for their talents.

By law the children had to attend a CofE church, so on Sundays (their day off) they had to walk the two miles to Wilmslow church for the morning service, and then the same for the evening service, so eight miles in all, as well as scripture lessons in the afternoons.