Cotton Districts.
Taking into consideration the various districts of Lancashire, Blackburn is the most northern of those which take an important part in the industry, and this town also takes the lead in Lancashire, if not in the whole world, with regard to its importance as an exclusively cotton manufacturing town. The class of goods made are of a plain character, principally shirting, mulls, and jacconetts, while a large number of looms are engaged on dhooties, grey and coloured, which goods were introduced from Glasgow. A large quantity of dobby dhooties are manufactured in this district—this class of cloth, of comparatively recent origin, having been first made in Blackburn. The local spinning industries are now very important, most of the spindles being run by those who are also manufacturers.
Darwen weaving trade is of a similar character, and there is a fair trade in yarn by several sale-spinning mills.
The neighbouring towns of Preston and Chorley have a connection with goods of a distinctly finer and more “fancy” character, such as leno, velveteen, damasks, embroidery, and brocades, while the plain trade, including the well-known home trade shirting, is important. Here also the spinning trade is comparatively small, the yarns spun being 40/80’s T and 40/90’s W.
Burnley is remarkable for the recent increase of cotton manufacturing within its borough, and has a most extensive trade in Burnley printers and shirtings, with a few heavy twills—ranking second to Blackburn in quantity produced.
Accrington, Harwood and district have a plain trade, but in yarns the goods are of a much finer character than other plain districts. A large business is done in the better classes of printers for the supply of the local print and dyeworks.
The spinning of medium fine yarns, 40/200’s, from Egyptian cotton, seems to be centred in Bolton, as is also the manufacture of heavy fancy goods, especially Alhambra, Marseilles, and other counterpanes and towels, with some finer fancies—leno, damasks, and velvets; although many mills are to be found engaged in Blackburn goods.
Haslingden, Bacup, Rawtenstall, and many smaller districts in East Lancashire are engaged on manufactures of coarse and heavily-sized goods, shirtings, T-cloths, Wigans, and domestics.
Manchester, while being pre-eminently the English market of the manufactured cotton goods, is also known as the locality where the finest yarns known to commerce are spun—i.e., yarns from Egypt, and Sea Island cottons, 80/200’s in twists, and 80/350’s in weft. The finer numbers, however, are not used for the ordinary purposes of manufacturing, their consumption being divided between the lace curtain manufactories of Nottingham and the great sewing thread factories. The weaving trade of Manchester consists of checks, ginghams, Harvard and Oxford shirtings.
Oldham is, it is needless to state, the spinning town. Here the coarsest yarns, 4/24’s, made out of the waste from finer mills, have their spinning centre, and here the spinning of medium yarns from American cotton has made the name of the town familiar wherever English cotton yarn is known.
Rochdale depends mainly on the coarse trade, 12/24 warps (water T) made from Indian cotton, together with some mule spinning up to 30/40’s. The weaving of the heaviest cotton goods from waste, twills, sheets, T-cloths, velveteens, fustian and cords, is here carried on.
Mossley, 30/50’s, warp yarn; Shaw Lees, Royton, Dukinfield, Ashton, Heywood and Hyde, may be placed in the same category as Oldham, minus the waste trade.
Stalybridge spins 30/150’s.
Stockport has good trade in spinning, as high as 150’s gassed and doubled yarns with varied weaving, including the well-known Turkish towels.
Nor must the other parts of the United Kingdom be forgotten. Cotton weaving extends no further into Yorkshire than Todmorden, and about 2,000,000 spinning and doubling spindles are in use about Halifax, Brighouse, Sowerby Bridge and district, these being employed on yarns for dress fabrics made of a mixture of cotton and worsted, as well as for curtains and hosiery in the Nottingham and Leicester districts. In Scotland, the cotton trade is confined to the counties of Lanark, Renfrew and Ayr. The spinning trade is here going down rapidly, there only being about one third the number of spinning spindles running this year (1888), as compared with 1857. The doubling spindles are on the increase, especially for the Paisley thread trade. The weaving department is also increasing, there being in the three counties 28,853 looms as compared with 20,963 in 1856. The superior classes of cloth are made for the home trade—fine reeds, fine muslin, plain and figured, and the manufacture of Turkey reds is also extensive. In Ireland there are three cotton-spinning firms, three cotton-weaving firms, and one both spinning and weaving, with a total of 70,900 spindles, and 2501 power looms.
Summarising the different classes of work into which the industry is divided, we may allot to the coarse plain trade the Rossendale Valley and Rochdale, locating the medium plain trade in Blackburn, Burnley and Darwen, with the finest plain goods in Accrington and Preston, the light fancy trade in Preston, Chorley, and Ashton, and the heavy fancy in Bolton and Bury.