Styal is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England; it is sited on the River Bollin. The village is located 2 miles (3.2 km) north-north-west of Wilmslow and 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south-east of Manchester Airport.

Samuel Greg was an Irish-born industrialist and entrepreneur of the early Industrial Revolution and a pioneer of the factory system. He built Quarry Bank Mill, which at his retirement was the largest textile mill in the country. He and his wife Hannah Greg assumed welfare responsibilities for their employees, many of whom were children, building a model village alongside the factory. At the same time, Greg inherited and operated a slave plantation in the West Indies where he tortured slaves by whipping them.