The Elusive Marslands

Marsland and Son were members of the ESCC, but they are spinning down the whirlpool of history. So little trace remains they they can barely be pinned down. Research into the company throws up red herrings. There seems to have been another cotton spinner of the same name in Stockport.  A newspaper report in 1895 tells of a Manchester cotton mill owner by the name of Marsland committing suicide because he thought his business was in trouble. However according to the 1947 history of the ESCC, Marslands has been bought out by Wallers in 1887. So it couldn't be the same company. Could it? The same history book ("Through they Eye of a Needle") gives a potted history of the Marslands that joined the ESCC. They were established in 1798 at a mill on the corner of Chester Street and Oxford Road in Manchester. In 1850, they moved to another mill on Blackfriars Street. Finally, in 1880, they moved to Albert Mills on King Street West. I don't think that any of these mills are still in existence - Google Streetview shows that all of these areas have been redeveloped to some extent, perhaps sometimes as a result of WW2 bombing, or perhaps just the clearance of old buildings. As mentioned previously,  Wallers bought Marslands in 1887, but they continued to run it as a separate company and the old name and products remained. They were best known for their balls of cotton but also latterly produced spools. 



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