Case Study

Quarry Bank Mill Estate Hanwell technology chosen by The National Trust to protect Britain’s industrial heritage

Quarry Bank Mill in , Quarry Bank is now undergoing a complete is one of the best-preserved textile makeover. The 19th century glasshouse and gardens are being restored, and new buildings mills of the and previously closed to the public such as a now forms part of one of Britain’s Workers Cottage and Quarry Bank House, where the owners of the mill lived, will be greatest heritage sites, supported by opening. a unique and nationally significant archive and collection and cared for The National Trust needed to monitor rooms within five buildings spread across the by the National Trust, showing how a property. Requirements were diverse, ranging Hanwell’s monitoring and control complete industrial community lived, from monitoring the long exhibition galleries, “technology is providing very useful and how society changed forever. historic room settings and floors at data to enable us to understand the Quarry Bank Mill, together with Quarry Bank environment in our buildings in order to Designated as a Grade II listed building, House and Workers’ Cottage, through to the Quarry Bank Mill was built in 1784 and inspired Apprentice House and the Collections Stores preserve them and our collection long- with historic furniture and sensitive archival the recent Channel 4 TV drama series ‘The term Mill’. Visitors see and hear working textile material requiring close environmental control. machinery, the waterwheel and steam engines National Trust Archives that powered these to produce “These places and items required monitoring ” to allow us to record the stability of the & Collections Manager cloth. They also can find out about how the Alkestis Tsilika workers lived and worked by visiting the environment and to understand the impact Apprentice House and Styal village. this has on the building itself and the objects displayed and stored in them,” explained machinery whilst being as energy National Trust Archives & Collections Manager Raw cotton was transported here from efficient as possible. Also some buildings Alkestis Tsilika. the port of Liverpool via the Bridgewater have been closed to the public for many Canal. The estate surrounding the mill was years and as part of the Quarry Bank project “We also needed to monitor the machine developed and farm buildings in Styal were these will be opened for the first time and we floors to ensure we are maintaining the converted to house workers, together with a need to understand the potential impact this right conditions to operate the and chapel and a school. will have on the environment in these.”

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Prior to the installation of the monitoring Industry: system the National Trust relied on standalone Heritage loggers in the stores, which needed to be manually downloaded and spot readers for Situation: the other spaces. The client was not able to Large site with varied monitoring requirements monitor the conditions in all its buildings and the impact of the conditions on the collections. from buildings to machinery and historic furniture to archival material “We chose Hanwell for this project because of the strong relationship between the company Client Profile: and the National Trust and its understanding The National Trust is a conservation of its standards and requirements,” added organisation looking after historic sites Alkestis Tsilika. throughout England, Wales and Northern Hanwell has extensive international Ireland forever, for everyone. It has more than experience of sensitive monitoring and control 4.5 million members and 62,000 volunteers of often priceless collections in challenging and an estimated 100 million visitors. environments, and due to the scale of the Quarry Bank site and distance between the Solution: numerous buildings a radio-telemetric Hanwell A radio-telemetry Hanwell system with 14 RH/T system was selected. Fourteen RH/T loggers and two Lux readers now cover the site and loggers and two Lux readers now cover the may be extended in the future. site and may be extended in the future.

Results: • Data is provided to allow users to understand a buildings environment in We are entirely satisfied with the order to preserve the collection long- term. service provided. The staff were all very Contact us today for “ • Stability of the environment is recorded. approachable and dealt with our request • Ability to monitor the machine floors more information at very quickly - no more than two months to ensure client is maintaining the [email protected] from our initial enquiry, site visit by right conditions whilst being as energy Hanwell and quote to installation of the efficient as possible. or call us on • End of reliance on manually downloaded equipment. +44 (0) 1462 688 070 standalone loggers and spot readers. National Trust Archives • Happy client – ‘entirely satisfied with the & Collections Manager” service provided’. Alkestis Tsilika

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