Last chance: Rights of the Child – an historical exhibition at Quarry Bank

Two hundred years since Peterloo, Quarry Bank’s Rights Of The Child exhibition links the massacre in Manchester to the nearby mill on the River Bollin. Trawling the extensive archives held at the National Trust property, including business papers, newspaper articles, letters, testimonies, photographs and pictures, the exhibition throws light on the socio-historical context of the event and reveals how the Styal-based mill owners Samuel Greg and Robert Hyde Greg spoke out against the atrocities on 16 August 1819 and sought to contribute to change on their own premises. In the aftermath of the massacre, there was increased demand for fairer representation and opportunity, and this has also been explored by the creation of unique new protest banners by renowned banner maker Ed Hall with help from local community groups and schools. Children accounted for more than half the workforce at Quarry Bank when the mill first opened, with nippers as young as eight years old finding themselves in the Apprentice House at Styal, and Rights Of The Child digs into their stories and how children’s rights started to change as a result of Peterloo.

Sat 6 Apr – Sun 29 Sep, Quarry Bank, Styal, Wilmslow, Cheshire, Tel: 01625 527468, times & prices vary, nationaltrust.org.uk

For more National Trust events in the region, click here.