Later in August

Once we had arrived in Cheshire, our son and daughter-in-law were able to take off for the weekend, while we were babysitting our grandchildren. We took them to Beeston Castle for a picnic, and so they could have a go at some of the medieval knights games. The first one was trying to put the lance through the ring, and after that archery.

After the archery, we climbed the hill through the fortifications and right up to the castle. You can see why it was such an effective fortification, it’s quite an effort to climb all the way up. I can’t imagine how difficult to would have been to climb up in mail or armour and then have to fight your way in over the series of walls. 

It was built by the Earl of Chester in 1220 on the remains of an Iron Age Hill Fort. Henry 3rd seized it in 1237 and it remained in Royal hands until the Civil War. Parliamentarians laid siege to it during the Civil War and it was surrendered by the Royalists after the defeat of the king at the battle of Rowton Heath, near Chester. The castle was in such a commanding position that it was then partly dismantled so it could no longer be a threat, and in the following years it was used as a quarry.

I didn’t take any photos that afternoon, having been there in March, when I posted a photo from where the drawbridge would have been. However, this aerial photo, from the English Heritage web site, shows its position on a high rocky outcrop.

Climbing the crags looks very difficult. The only reasonable way up is the very steep slope which begins on the far right of the photo. You can see what a commanding position it had, so I imagine the only way to take it would be by siege. Apparently, during the Civil War siege, the garrison was reduced to eating rats!

The following day, we took the children to Quarry Bank Mill. The Mill was built by Samuel Greg in 1783, to take advantage of the desperate need for the expansion and industrialisation of the cotton industry. The main reason for taking the children there was to take them to the Apprentice House so they could see how children of my grandson’s age lived and worked. I don’t think they really believed it!

They went in and sat in what would have been the schoolroom, where children of 8 or 9 signed a contract to work for 10 years without pay, in exchange for bed and board. After that period, they would be a qualified mill worker. Children rose at 5.30 am, and worked from 6am to 6pm. Then the boys had 2 hours of lessons in the room where we were sitting, and afterwards worked in the garden to grow vegetables to eat - vegetables we had already admired in the garden, like turnips and cabbage, (which my grandchildren wouldn't dream of eating). My grandson was offered a contract to sign, but declined! All the children had a go at writing on the slate with a slate pencil and writing in copperplate, and were shown the punishment for wrongdoing. They weren’t beaten, they had to stand for 30 minutes holding two weights with outstretched arms!

Then we went to look at the girls’ dormitory where the children slept 2 to a bed. There was a potty under the bed - one for every 10 girls - and a basket of straw for wiping bottoms; there was no loo paper for them!

We went in to the boys’ dormitory to lean about the medicines that would have been used to treat the children, most of which were so awful that it would have been better to suffer the illness!

 I don’t think my grandchildren understood much of it, but they enjoyed shuddering at the leeches. 

Down in the kitchen, they shuddered again at the solid porridge the children had to eat - solid so it could be held in the hand, no spoon or plate needed! They ate it for breakfast, and again in the middle of the day, mixed with vegetables. 

They also had a go at ironing with the iron filled with coal, and beating the mat with the carpet beater. Then we went out to look at the water supply - one pump, and the lavatory, just one for the 90 children.



It’s an earth closet of course. My grandson was invited to dig it out and spread it on the garden to grow the vegetables, which he hastily declined. He wondered why his sister couldn’t do it, but she would be washing and ironing his clothes.

After all that, it was a bit of an anti-climax to go into the mill, but some of the machines were working and the children could appreciate how noisy and dangerous it was. They assured me they certainly didn’t want to crawl under the machines to do what the children in the apprentice house would have done!

This is one of the noisy looms

When we arrived home, my son and daughter-in-law were soon home and we could hand the children over to them.