This week, year 8 and 9 Sharples historians visited Quarry Bank Mill to rediscover the industrial revolution. They explored the original 18th century cotton spinning mill with its original waterwheel, practised jobs like carrying the can, scavenging and piecing that used to be carried out by children as young as 9 years of age and saw demonstrations of different generations of textiles machinery in action. Students also went to the apprentice house where 90 children brought from workhouses across England lived together while working 12 hour days, 6 days a week in the mill. That was before they spent time in the school room in the evening.
It was a fabulous experience for Sharples students to get a real sense of life in industrial towns like Bolton not so very long ago. We all appreciated the coach ride back to our modern homes as well.
