The English Sewing Cotton Company Scrapbook

 The various firms that combined together as the English Sewing Cotton Company did so as a means of streamlining their operations and making them more resilient against dips in the cotton trade. However, though this was a good idea, it didn't quite come off, especially in a bad year. In September 1902, a cotton trade newspaper reported that the company had recently reported a £127,006 loss for that year - over £19 million in today's money. In the previous year, there had been a profit of over £16,000. So what had gone wrong? The reasons given for the loss included a high cost for raw cotton and low selling prices in the home trade - some mills had been on short time. Another issue had been the major acquisition of shares in the American Thread Company, which had failed to pay any dividends. It seems that too many shares in both the new American Thread Company and the ESCC had been given out to sewing company owners in the US, making them worth less than they should be. The ori...

 Ever since I can remember, I've known how dangerous working in a cotton mill was. I don't know where I picked this up, I'm not even from a cotton milling place. It must have been a primary school teacher or history project that we did. I just know that cotton mills were held up as the epitome of places where young Victorians died horribly. That children were used to get into the nooks and crannies between the machines and lost limbs, hair or lives in doing so. A read in the newspaper archives bears this out. As an example of just the kind of story we were told, in the 1890s a 16 year old girl died at Rickard's Mill in Skipton. She got caught up in some belting that had been allowed to hang loose, and was subsequently dragged around the machinery.  Death and injury didn't just affect children and young women though. In 1900 when the Crofthead Mill in Scotland was being extended and fitted out, a 22 year old labourer fell through an unfinished floor and died later th...

In May 1963, ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd) took out a full page advertisement in The Scotsman newspaper. An extract of this wordy piece setting out the marvellous progress of the company goes as follows: "Our relations with the Directors of Courtaulds are good. You will also have noticed that our joint company, British Nylon Spinners, has continued to make good progress. Jointly with Courtaulds, we have decided to assist in the development of the textile business of English Sewing Cotton Company Ltd, as a step towards the better organisation and technical progress of the textile industry. If, by the assistance which we can give, financially, technically and commercially, we can help that industry to compete effectively with foreign producers, we are likely to have a better market for our own materials." Elsewhere in the press that month, it was reported that both ICI and Courtaulds had jointly put £10 million into the ESCC, just prior to the merger with Tootal. This ...

 I'm mystified as to why the English Sewing Cotton Company had members that were based in Scotland. The ESCC had been set up as a response to the amalgamation of the big Scottish thread concerns such as Coats and Clarks. Why didn't Crawfords and Alexanders join this grouping? Were they refused entry for some reason? Or had they just not been approached? Further digging needs to take place.  Crawford's of Barrmill in Beith had been established in 1775. They were well known for their linen and embroidery threads and they were founder members of the ESCC in 1897. However, they didn't seem to stay members for long. In 1908, Crawford's amalgamated with other companies both in the UK and US to form The Linen Thread Company. But Scotland continued to have a presence in the ESCC, and it was one that was to become very important to the combine. RF & J Alexander & Co joined a year after the launch, in 1898. Alexander's had been formed in Glasgow in the 1820s. The ...

  The above photos show the front and back cover of a publication released by the English Sewing Cotton Company to promote their embroidery and crochet threads. It focuses on products branded Dewhurst, Ardern, Bagley & Wright and Strutt. Given that we know that Bagley & Wright were totally absorbed into the ESCC in the first decade of the 20th century (see previous post), this means that this journal is at least Edwardian, if not late Victorian.  The contents of the 44 page publication (price 1 penny) are a window into lost sewing products. Here is proof that the Sylko branding once applied to embroidery silk and crochet thread as well as cotton reels. We learn that Ardern were so pleased with their mill's location that they named their threads "Hazel" and "Grove". And we can be deeply disturbed by Bagley & Wright's "Brighteye" logo - well it disturbs me anyway. Those late Victorians were a weird bunch in my opinion. As well as setting ...

  My name is Charity Harding and I run my own little haberdashery shop. Somewhere in England, sometime in the 20th century, I place my tape measure around my neck every morning and oil my scissors. I wear my spectacles around my neck too, they hang on a golden chain which is dotted with pearls at regular intervals. It often gets tangled with my tape measure. The spectacles bounce off my ample bosom as I trot up and down my pockmarked wooden counter.  I could see that it was time to draw Mrs Hill into my night scheme. She was browsing with the look of a woman who has been up half the night, sweating like a pudding in a pan. She'd already picked up the same Butterick pattern three times and put it back again and now she was ruffling through my lace offcuts without enthusiasm.   "Mrs Hill." I put my specs on. I find that people are more likely to do as they're told if I can peer at them over the top of my bi-focals. "Mrs Hill, just come over here and tell me what yo...

 Another one of the companies that became part of the English Sewing Cotton Company was Bagley and Wright of Oldham. Unusually, the founders of the company came from poor working class backgrounds. The entrepreneurs began their company in 1867 in the area of Werneth - taking advantage of the cotton boom that followed the end of the American Civil War. They developed a range of products including sewing cotton, embroidery thread, crochet thread and also fishing netting, for which they became particularly famous.  Bagley and Wright had branched into sewing thread in 1879, and this took off to such an extent that they were able to build their flagship site at Belgrave Mills shortly afterwards.  Unfortunately,  the new building fell victim to a tragedy in January 1883, when gales blew a piece of decorative stonework off the building and through the roof of the winding room. Two young women, Mary Ann Heathcote and Elizabeth Russell, were killed outright and several others...