Quarry Bank Mill & Redesmere

Wednesday 3 May 2023

After what's felt like a very long Winter and a cold and wet Spring where not much motorhome travelling has been enjoyed, but today it properly feels like Spring, and so it should.

Yesterday was cool and cloudy, but towards the end of the day the sun briefly poked its head out and it was lovely to feel that warm sunshine for the first time this year.

Thankfully, today the sun has shone again so I'm off for a little trip in Ed the Hymer.

Firstly I headed for Quarry Bank Mill, the National Trust property in Styal Wilmslow.

I think I was a teenager when I last came here. 

Isn't it funny how we tend to overlook what's right on our doorstep ?

It's a beautiful wooded valley with the river Bollin running through it and was the birth place of the industrial revolution when in 1784 Samuel Greg  built the Mill to begin cotton spinning on an industrial scale to supply the cotton weaving mills of Lancashire.

He liked it here so much he built a house right next door to the Mill for himself, wife Hanna and their three children who must have had an idyllic childhood exploring and playing in the surrounding woods.

I didn't get to go into the Mill and other buildings as I had Louis with me, but I'll definitely come back and take a look. 

Today it didn't matter as the weather was so nice it was great just to wander the upper and lower gardens and the riverside walk through the woods with lots of spring flowers making an appearance, especially the bluebells.

 The gardens are quite impressive, they've clearly done a lot of work here

Later it was onto my parkup for the night, Redesmere, just south of Alderley Edge.

There's lots of wildlife here, white geese, Canadian geese, swans, coots and mostly with their newly arrived chicks.

Other species I don't know the name of, lol.

I think it'll be good here tonight so long as the geese don't start falling out with each other.

 Baby Coot chicks

 Redesmere Parkup

 Mummy and Baby Coot chicks

Bluebells in the woods