I was delighted to find out that an official English Sewing Ltd archive exists, and I determined to visit it. It is held by Manchester City Archives, which seemed like a good prospect, it being my second favourite city and only an hour across the Peak District along the glorious Hope Valley railway line. However after my initial investigations I soon realised that to see and utilise the archive might be more of a daunting project than I anticipated. I saw a note that at least 2 weeks notice is required, as it is stored away from the main site. I duly got in contact and put my request in. One of their lovely assistants soon got back to me to let me know that it is impossible to view the entire collection at once...there is so much of it. I expected a box of miscellaneous files...it turns out there is in fact 141 boxes. The assistant sent me list of each individual item, which runs to 56 pages. Here's the introduction page:
As I wanted to catch the 14.43 back home I had to pick one thing! My selection for this first visit (no doubt I will be tempted back again) was a series of internal quarterly newsletters - the Tootal Newslink collection. This collection runs from 1966 to 1982, and I rightly supposed that this would give an interesting insight into the twilight years of the company that had started out as the English Sewing Cotton Company.
The first issues of the magazine were called English Sewing Company News, but as the company tackled the increasingly difficult market and joined, amalgamated and merged with others, the name changed. In August 1968 it became English Calico News, then in February 1972 it became "Newslink - English Calico News". In July 1973, the whole group simply became called Tootal, and so the magazine was now Tootal Newslink. The final issue was published in May 1982.
The early issues were more parochial than the final ones. At first, articles covered special events that had taken place at the various mills and works. Each had a section called "News About Our People" which listed all the marriages, retirements and deaths among company staff. Just like every other newspaper, the back page was given over to the sporting achievements of teams and individuals. It was fun to find out that Belle Vue Mill had a football team and that there was a Sylko Queen. Beauty pageants, amateur dramatics and trips were all covered, demonstrating that the company wanted to be seen as a paternalistic employer, that readers were part of a big national family. However, by the Tootal days, when the list of member companies had got longer, articles seemed to lean more towards business reports. I suppose this came as reassurance that things were going to turn out alright as times got harder. From this though, I was able to glean quite a lot about marketing methods. I found out that those ceramic needle holders and pincushions that you see a lot on Ebay date from 1982. The needleholders were made by Hobbs Welch.
 |
| I can now date my ceramic needle holder to 1982 |
I did hope for one bit of holy grail. I so want to know more about the naming of the colour shades, and their years of introduction. Well, I found one. Not the result I hoped for but better than none at all. The shade is D497 Denim Blue and the year of introduction is 1977, a little later than I would have thought.
Comments
Post a Comment