March 22, 2010 - Loss of a Friend

To all our friends,

This blog is dedicated to our dear friend Glenda who sadly passed away on March 21st after a long fight with cancer. Death is very much a part of life as we all know but it is not something you expect to happen to someone younger than yourself who was full of life and up to any challenge put in her path.

While we are greatly saddened by Glenda's passing I want to celebrate her life and what she meant to me and our family. We became friends with Steve and Glenda in September 1975 through Fred working with her at the Scotiabank branch at Eglinton and Midland, Scarborough. We were both fortunate to win the opportunity to purchase a home with a small down payment through a special lottery in Malvern a suburb in Scarborough. Now being friends and neighbours, we shared some wonderful times together. Young couples who saved up beer bottles so that we could have a weekend bar-b-cue, the guys watching a hockey game or a card game of euchre for our entertainment. We both worked for the bank and long before personal obligation days were a part of taking time off we would call in sick for a girls day out. This only happened a couple of times as Glenda would get so stressed out worrying that we would get caught. On one occasion in particular the car stalled and we could not get it to restart. I had flooded the motor and while it did eventually start, our day was ruined. We enjoyed a trip to their the cottage in mid winter with our dogs and froze off our butts but have great memories of the experience.

When I became pregnant it was Glenda who came with me on drive over bumpy roads to encourage the birth of our child. Steve and Glenda became the god parents first to Jonathan and then later Christopher. Glenda was always there for our Jonathan from having Fudgeo cookies, which he would invite the neighbourhood kids to enjoy, at her place when he would disappear from our driveway on his tricycle to later years when they lived in the same building and he needed consoling.

As the years went by we found our lives taking us in different directions but our friendship remained fast. We would go for years without seeing one another then connect again and it would always be as if we only saw each other yesterday. Always a part of our families lives, a great adventurer on our travels together and like the sister I never had. Glenda was a champion for the underdog and compassionate in all she did. She will be missed but we have wonderful memories of the times we shared and she will live in our hearts forever.

Gone but never to be forgotten.

Sandy

March 4, 2010 - Quarry Bank Mill & Knutsford

Greetings All,

Today we met up with Brian (Fred's cousin) and his wife Alison to visit a National Trust Site, Quarry Bank Mill, located in Cheshire about an hours drive away from home. The mill was founded in 1784 by Samuel Greg in the Village of Styal on the River Bollin. The estate surrounding the mill, also developed by Greg, is the most complete and least altered factory colony of the Industrial Revolution. The iron water wheel was designed by Thomas Hewes and built between 1816 and 1820. The Hewes wheel finally broke in 1904. After that the River Bollin continued to power the mill, through two water turbines. Today the Mill is home to the most powerful working waterwheel in Europe, an iron water wheel which was originally at Glasshouses Mill at Patley Bridge. This wheel was designed by Sir William Fairbairn, a Scottish engineer who had been an apprentice of Thomas Hewes.

The factory was founded for the spinning of cotton and upon Samuel's retirement in 1832 it was the largest business of its kind in the UK. Spinning and weaving was first done by hand on spinning wheels and looms but all this soon became mechanized with the introduction of the water wheel and production was notably increased.

Quarry Bank Mill is notable for its use of unpaid child apprentices, a system that continued until 1847, with the last child to be indentured starting work in 1841. Greg employed Peter Holland, father of the Royal Physician Sir Henry Holland, 1st Baronet and uncle of Elizabeth Gaskell, as mill doctor. Holland was responsible for the health of the children and other workers, and was the first doctor to be employed in such a capacity. The children lived in a separate building near the factory called the Apprentice House. Most children came from workhouses. They would work long days with schoolwork and gardening after coming back from the mill. The work could sometimes be dangerous with fingers being lost occasionally. However, most children were happy to work in the mill because life at a workhouse would be worse. To us the use of children as young as 5 years old and conditions while better than those in the cities was pure slave labour. The day would start at 5:30 A.M. and end at 7 or 8 P.M. depending on the time of year. The noise of the machinery was also deafening we only heard 4 machines running and the racket was unbelievable. Dust from the cotton and oil from the machine were also extremely bad and accounted for illnesses that eventually ended in deaths of the workers. Cancers of the lungs, groins and mouths. Deformities due to standing or squatting in one position for long hours and of course deafness. We saw a written note by one of the Greg's that called the death of a child as a melancholy event. The poor kid's head was crushed when he got trapped in a spinning mule. Times were certainly hard back then but they were supplied fresh meat and vegetables living at the mill and were housed in warm clean homes.

The workers homes have all been converted to private homes now and the village of Styal is today a thriving community. We then walked around the grounds and gardens in which the first signs of spring where evident. Crocus and Snowdrops where in bloom as well as some other flowers that we could not identify.

It should be noted that the mill still produces cotton calico which is used to make gifts in the on site shop. Also, I have posted Video's on Facebook that gives you an idea of the noise.

We then headed off to Knutsford a town in Cheshire. A quaint place with a lot of upscale shops and Brian told us there is a lot of money in the area. After a nice walk around town we headed back to Liverpool with a stop at a Pub the Kilton for supper. A great and educational day. We will be visiting more of the National Trust Sites in the near future.

We hope you enjoyed this blog.

Ta Ra for now,

Sandy & Fred