Saturday 27 May 2017

Quarry Bank Mill

On our way to the Lake District we stopped off at Quarry Bank Mill. This fitted in with adventure 31 - travel back in time (from our Amazing Family Adventures book), enabling the girls to find out about victorian working conditions!


Quarry Bank Mill in Styal, Cheshire, England, is one of the best preserved textile mills of the Industrial Revolution and is now a museum of the cotton industry. The mill was started in 1784 and over the following one hundred years, harnessed water power to drive the machinery which prepared the yarn for spinning, but later moved on to steam power in order to power the actual looms. We went inside the restored industrial building into which much of the original machinery has been replaced.

You can trace the whole process through from the arrival of the sacks of cotton bolls through to the cotton being prepared as yarn, to it being loaded onto the looms and made into different fabrics
The clattering noise from just one machine is pretty deafening: multiply it to reflect the fact that in the 1830’s there were over three hundred looms operating, and the cacophony must have been terrifying!
We then visited the The Apprentice House where young apprentices who arrived at Styal Mill in the 19th century  were housed. The guided tour talked about life these children had - who were very lucky compared with their friends who were not chosen to go with them but who were left in the Liverpool workhouse.The girls had a taste of the life of an apprentice, trying bed making, emptying chamber pots, writing with a slate pencil copying copperplate handwriting and seeing real live leeches in the medicine cabinet!
 We then had a quick wonder round the very beautiful gardens!

Friday 19 May 2017

Amazing Family Adventures: Fun days out and action-packed weekends



 

I have ordered this book from Amazon and I will use to plan some fantastic days out for us! The book begins with easy and approachable adventures perfect for families with younger kids, such as foraging and fossil hunting, and progresses into more challenging adventures, such as wild swimming, surfing and wilderness survival. The adventures range from an afternoon trip to the farm to camping excursions, so can be used for spontaneous half-term day trips or for summer holiday ideas. Each activity comes with suggestions of NT places to visit for the adventure, and the ideas take in woodland, beaches, mountains and parks.

Sunday 7 May 2017

Badminton Horse Trials

Yesterday we went to Cross Country day at Badminton.  It takes about 3 hours from Cambridge, although the last few miles takes a long time (it added about 45 minutes) just to get in to the ground! I have always loved watching it on the television but actually going gives you a real feel for how large the jumps actually are and how tight some of the turns are!










Monday 1 May 2017

Review of our April to do list

Review of our April to do list:
  • Enjoy a trip to Herefordshire
 We had a great trip. The highlight for me was our walk on the Breacon Beacons and canoing down the Wye.

  • Visit some National Trust Places in the Spring
Locally we went to Wimpole and Ickworth and whilst on holiday we visited Stowe and Croft Castle

  • Attend the Cambridge Literary Festival
P and I went and had a great time, although I did not enjoy queuing for over an hour to buy Jacqueline Wilson's new book.


  • Go to Kew Gardens
Sadly, we couldn't fit this in!
  • Enjoy some Easter baking
We made easter biscuits, chocolate nests and P made some low sugar sweets from her science magazine, Whizz Pop Bang.