Quarry Bank Mill in Styal, Cheshire, is one of the best preserved textile Mills of the Industrial Revolution and is now a museum of the cotton industry. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. The Mill was built in 1784 and is on the bank of the River Bollin which provided water to power the water wheels. The estate and Mill were donated to the National Trust in 1939 by Alexander Carlton Greg and are open to the public. The Mill continued in production until 1959. In 2006 the National Trust acquired Quarry Bank House and its gardens and, in 2010, the gardener's house and the upper gardens.

The Fire Surgery were appointed by the National Trust to develop a suitable evacuation strategy for wheel chair users to the upper floors of the Mill building in light of the new proposals to provide lift access to upper floors. In order to avoid any refuge spaces being required in the original 1784 staircase, a strategy using the new lift as an evacuation lift was proposed and worked up with the property management team. An evacation management strategy for wheel chair users was developed with the team so that wheel chair users can access the upper parts of the mill for the first time, with a comprehensive and dynamic evacuation strategy in place.

Client: National Trust

Architect: Buttress Architects

Image: Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons