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Styal Village
where the workforce of generations lived is a working museum of the cotton industry. It supplied the workforce of Quarry Bank Mill. The cottages of the mill workers were separated by courts and
alleys. An average of eight people lived in each cottage. The cellars were rented separately, usually to the poorest people. Each cottage had its own outside privy and a garden, where the villagers
could grow vegetables. A village shop supplied household goods and groceries. As the shop was run on a co-operative system, the profits could be shared among the customers.
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The living
standard of the mill workers at Styal was better than in overcrowded towns like Manchester. Work in the Mill was dangerous and monotonous. Long working hours, heat, smell, noise and dust were
the common health risks The mill workers mainly suffered from deafness, lung disease, tuberculosis and physical deformity. Especially the children were victims of accidents. They swept up under the
machinery which often resulted in the loss of fingers when they were caught by one of the wheels.
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