The English Sewing Cotton Company Scrapbook

Extracts from the book 'Skipton 2000 The Millennium Walk' compiled by Ian Lockwood. Published by The Skipton Millennium Task Force in 1999. These are the pieces pertinent to research into Dewhursts. P61: For more than a century textiles were Skipton 's major employer but when cheaper foreign imports came to flood the market it's decline was rapid. It took barely 20 years, from the 1960s to the 1980s for textiles to go from chief employer to virtually non-existant. Dewhurst's Mill still dominates the town but it's textile days are now long gone. As late as the 1970s Dewhurst's famous "Sew it With Sylko" slogan was a familiar sight in households and wooden bobbins with cotton thread in all sorts of colours were a feature of households across the land. The slogan was written in huge letters across a walkway above Broughton Road which connected the mill with its store sheds on the opposite side of the road. The mill was opened by a cotton spinner opera

 As the 1960s progressed,  the development of synthetic threads became an important part of the English Sewing Ltd business. In 1966, the following synthetic brands were listed as products of the thread division: Polyfil, Trylko, Terral, Delta, Star By 1972, synthetic threads accounted for 50% of the company's industrial sales. Polyfil thread was processed at the Belper mill: "The first industrial thread to be produced by spinning cotton round a synthetic core to produce strength and sewability." In 1972, the Trylko product was renewed using more up to date production methods. Terylene fibre was spun into yarn at the Pendlebury mill. The fibre was then taken to Neilston to be twisted and wound. Finally, it was dyed, finished and spooled at Skipton. Star was a spun polyester thread that was stronger than Trylko but as fine as Sylko 50.  In 1982, Sylko Supreme was introduced.  This was a cotton covered polyester thread with a mercerised finish. https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/

 The English Sewing Company News published an article in the May 1967 edition that would catch the eye of any Sylko fan with its title "Plastic Spools for Sylko". I have often wondered when the change from wooden to plastic reels occurred, and the following write up gives a heavy clue: "A new company which will manufacture plastic spools is being established at Skipton by the thread division.  Called Plastic Spools Ltd, it is a joint venture with Crane and Percival...The company will be housed next to Skipton Mill in a building which is at present used for storage and where wooden spools were made temporarily in the early 1940s. It will be equipped with modern machinery costing more than £125,000 and will cater for the entire Sylko 100 yards and Trylko production. Trylko was successfully introduced on plastic spools last year, as was Super 6 Cord two years ago." The mill buildings at Skipton in 2022 There's much to mull over there. I think we can surmise that th

 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

A major player in the formation of the English Sewing Cotton Company was Sir Richard Arkwright and Company. Arkwright, being the grandaddy of mechanised cotton processing, had to be acknowledged in this combine.  The early history of the Preston born Sir Richard was covered alongside that of Jedadiah Strutt earlier on this blog. The two worked together in Derbyshire, opening the mills along the Derwent Valley. In 1780 their partnership was amicably dissolved and Arkwright took the mills at Cromford and Matlock Bath (Masson) as his share. He continued working apace and by 1789 he had added mills at Wirksworth, Chorley and New Lanark. Arkwright died in 1792, but his son stepped into his shoes and filled them admirably. When the ESCC was formed in 1897, it remained a family concern and was famous for producing crochet and sewing cotton. The mill at Cromford had closed around 1840 due to problems with the water supply, but Masson Mills around the corner at Matlock Bath was to remain a majo

  This is an advertisement for Strutt's Cotton taken from a "Woman's Illustrated" magazine dated June 1951. It demonstrates a common marketing method from the 1950s, where magazine and newspaper readers were encouraged to send off for free patterns that would make good use of the sellers' goods. Note that the address to send off to is not Strutt's itself, which was based in Belper. The PO Box matches that for ESCC at Arkwright House - see the letterhead below. This is a big part of what the ESCC was set up to do - centralise the marketing for all the members' goods, thus saving on costs.  https://sewsylko.etsy.com/