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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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