Autumn at Quarry Bank Mill

Quarry Bank Mill in Styal near Wilmslow is one of my local National Trust properties and a favourite place to visit at any time of year.

For those not familiar with the area, if you cast your minds back to 2013 you may remember a period drama called ‘The Mill’ which aired on Channel 4. The story chartered the lives of the owners and workers in a Cheshire mill at the time of the Industrial Revolution and was based on information found in the Quarry Bank’s extensive historical archive. Both the mill and the estate were donated to The National Trust in 1939 and the gardens adjacent to the mill were acquired in 2006. It’s social history is fascinating and well worth reading into, but as this is a garden related blog I’ll stick to the matter in hand.

When I first visited the mill it was back in the early 1990’s with my two young sons. They loved the noisy weaving sheds and seeing the water wheel in action and it’s been fascinating to take their children / my grandchildren to the very same place over a quarter of a century later.

The gardens weren’t part of the package back in the 1990's, so it was a whole new place to explore when I first returned about 10 years ago. At first it felt very much a spring garden with it’s extensive collection of rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias. However, much time, effort and skill by the gardeners has ensured that over the last few years it has become a garden for all seasons. And a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund helped restore the Upper Garden to its former glory, along with the magnificent 1830s glasshouse.

It’s in the Upper Gardens that I’m going to start my autumnal tour. As with most, if not all, NT properties in the Covid-19 era you are required to book in advance which means that there is no possibility of a spur of the moment visit. This can be problematic with unreliable weather forecasts if photography is the aim, so some of the photographs are from my archive. In actual fact it’s been very interesting to look back at the changes over the past few years.

This first shot was taken back in October 2016 when work was in progress on restoring the glasshouse. You can just see the old dipping pond with it’s railings around to the left of the photo.

And from this angle you can also see the Little Glasshouse

Under normal circumstances it’s always worth a look in both the glasshouses. That wasn’t possible this year as there are restrictions on access to various parts of the site but I managed to take a sneaky shot through the open door of the little one.

The large glasshouse is home to a few grape vines and I remember thinking last year that the colours looked very attractive. I later discovered that it can be sign of stress.

The Passion Flower was blooming away and what a fabulous colour this one was.

Moving outside again and back to 2020, and it’s amazing how much colour was left in the gardens when I visited at the end of September. I really liked the single remaining helenium flower amongst the seed-heads.

And the asters were still going strong.

But a lot of the Upper Garden is planted for autumn interest. From the leaves and berries of Cornus alba sibirica ‘Westonbirt’…..

To it’s fabulously red stems.

This shot was taken back in 2017 in either the first or second year of planting.

The catkins of the Garrya add another little dimension to the autumnal display. I really like the contrast of shape and colour.

Leaving the upper garden behind, you head down a series of terraces where in spring the air will be filled with the scent of azaleas. In autumn the leaves also colour up beautifully.

The hydrangea flowers always start to decay very gracefully.

The journey down through the terraces can be a bit of procession on busy days because of the one-way system now in place, but eventually you catch a glimpse of Quarry Bank House. At the end of September everything was still green.

But as we head into November, the trees take on their autumn shades.

The old beech trees are magnificent and a joy to see on a sunny day.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little photographic tour of the gardens. For more photos of Quarry Bank and other gardens that I visit, please follow me on Twitter @renaissancegd