Bank Holiday Monday and Quarry bank Mill

I was at a loss of what to do with Bank Holiday Monday but we ended up deciding to go to Quarry bank Mill for the May Day Event and take a picnic with us!.

I am not a big fan of Quarry Bank Mill due to the barbaric history of Slavery there.

I always find the glorification of those slave masters the Gregs rather disdainful. 

You can find out more about the history here if you are interested. 

I always get filled with sadness thinking about the sadness those cotton trees brought to millions of people (slaves).

We headed off and the weather was glorious, I had planned to show the twins the mill and the apprentice house and watch the Maypole dance  but we never got to go to the apprentice house as they where so engrossed in the natural play park that I had no chance of dragging them away.

 

Oliver hated it in the mill as it was far too noisy for him with machinery whirring away, he was in quite a bit of distress walking round and couldn't wait to get out, bless his cotton socks, he is so sensitive to noise any loud noises usually drive him mad, he can hear a pin drop in the noisiest of places, he always manages to pick out sounds no one else can hear until he tells you and asks what they are which he does quite often.

Olivia enjoyed herself and was particularly taken by the dress in the first hall.

 

Here I was telling them all about the slaves and what they did at the mill and they where not interested in the slightest, I tried to get them to listen to the demonstration the lady was giving on the loom but nope, not interested in the slightest, so we just carried on at their pace which was pretty much at a sprint as they just wanted to get out, the machinery and all their amazing engineering did not capture the kids imagination at all.

 They did finally come to a point where they could be hands on and they actually slowed down and stopped to have a go!.

 Finally they got their way and ended up back outside where we sat and ate our lunch of savoury rice and chicken whilst we watched the maypole dance.

We the attempted to walk over to the Apprentice house but got waylaid on the way and ended up in the natural play park where we ended up staying for the rest of the afternoon.

We then headed to the waterfall for an ice cream before heading home with two very dirty and very tired children.

Not a very educational day out but certainly a lot of fun!...

So to leave you with some education inspiration here is a song about the Peterloo Massacre which is about the cotton workers in Manchester uprising which you can find out more about here

 (very interesting reading for Mancunians)

and this little song I found in tribute entitled:-

Oldham Tinkers: Peterloo song!.