Women at War
It wasn't just the men of the Greg family who went to war. Madge and Helen Greg both served as Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurses with the British Red Cross during the First World War in France and England. For those left at home, the War could be a terrible wait for news. Arthur's fiancée Marian Allen wrote about the war in her poetry and suffered very deeply from his loss.
The workers' War
The wartime experiences of the workers are more difficult to piece together than the Greg family's because we don't have access to the same number of personal letters and photographs. Often we're reliant on war records and well as wage books and records held in the Quarry Bank archive. We're planning to continue our research in the future, but we've highlighted two of the workers' stories in this article.
Remembering the War
When the War finally ended, families in Styal and across the globe were left shattered by the deaths of so many. Communities now needed to find ways of remembering their dead, and Styal was no different. The textile industry too was facing a difficult time ahead, and Quarry Bank's future had been irreversibly altered by the First World War.
The First World War at Quarry Bank
The First World War shattered lives and left lasting legacies for families and industries across the globe. To mark the centenary of the Armistice that ended the War being signed, we've highlighted just a few of the stories from Quarry Bank from 1914 - 1918. Explore our digital exhibition to find out about the men and women from the Greg family and Styal village who served.