INDUSTRIES 



in the Liverpool Cotton Exchange after the 

 creation in 1876 of the Cotton Clearing House, 

 from which the importers were excluded. Later 

 an amalgamation of the rival institutions in the 

 Liverpool Cotton Association took place."* In 

 connexion with cotton buying we ought to 

 notice the establishment of the Cotton Buying 

 Co., a limited company of spinners which repre- 

 sented in 1904 about five and three-quarter 

 million spindles, the object of which was to 

 eliminate much of the cost of transactions 

 through middle-men. 



Passing on to dealing in yarns and fabrics, we 

 must observe firstly that in the foundation days of 



the cotton industry there were many local 

 markets where merchants bought the goods 

 which were ultimately carried to the fairs, or 

 about the country on pack-horses, or disposed of 

 through the agency of ' riders-out ' with 

 patterns and agents abroad. The convenience 

 of centralized dealing, taken in conjunction with 

 cheap and rapid transportation by rail, forced the 

 local markets into Manchester. The old Ex- 

 change, built in 1729, was taken down in 1792 

 and a new Exchange on a contiguous site was 

 opened in 1809, the first stone having been laid 

 in 1806. The present building was erected in 

 1869. 



FELT-HAT MAKING 



This industry is now carried on just outside 

 the county, in such towns as Stockport, Hyde, 

 and Denton ; formerly it centred round three 

 Lancashire towns, viz., Oldham, Manchester, 

 and Rochdale. It is impossible to say when 

 the industry settled in south-east Lancashire. 

 The earliest reference to it appears to be the 

 petition presented to Parliament from this 

 district in 1482, requesting the prohibition of 

 some new machinery for thickening and fulling 

 hats,^ of which use was accordingly forbidden 

 for two years by 22 Edward IV, cap. 5. A 

 century elapses before we find another reference ; 

 on 7 March, 1586 or 1587, were buried the 

 two children of ' one David a hatter dwelling at 



Facyde 



Amongst the earliest felt-hat makers 



of whom there is any record in the Oldham 

 parochial books was a Thomas Hibbert, living 

 in 1654.' 



The great increase in the Oldham hat indus- 

 try appears to date from the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century, and is particularly associated 

 with the Cleggs of Bent Hall. 



The manufacture of hats never became a business of 

 importance till it was extensively revived by Mr. 

 Abraham Clegg, who died in 1748 . . . His sons, 

 Messrs. John and Abraham Clegg, entered largely 

 into the business . . . The other hatting manufac- 

 tories in the place were extremely small, and in 1765 

 the number of hatting workshops in the village of 

 Oldham and its immediate vicinity was only five.* 



The industry materially extended from 1780 to 



"^ See T. Ellison, Coiion Trade of Great Britain, in 

 which will be found also a detailed history of some 

 of the more notable firms of cotton brokers and 

 dealers. 



' Baines, Hist, of Lane, ii, 583, and Butterworth, 

 Hist. Sketches of Oldham, 86. 



' i.e. Facit, near Rochdale. The reference is from 

 Fishwick, Hist, of Rochdale, 44. 



' Butterworth, Hist. Sketches of Oldham, 95. 



•Ibid. 121. 



1796. The principal hatting concerns in the 

 latter year were those of Messrs. Henshaw & Co., 

 Mr. Abraham Clegg, Mr. John Clegg, Mr. 

 Thomas Clegg, Mr. Edmund Whitehead, and 

 Mr. John Fletcher.' By the early part of the 

 nineteenth century the industry had increased 

 still more and was regarded as the principal 

 trade of the town,' but the introduction of silk 

 hats finally led to its disappearance. 



Of the Rochdale hat industry very little 

 evidence is forthcoming. Besides the early 

 reference to David the hatter, at Facit, we have 

 Aikin's reference to it in 1795 : 'A very con- 

 siderable hat manufacture is in an increasing 

 state,' ' and a few mentions in the Index to 

 Lancashire Wills at Chester ' : — 



1750 Robert Chadwick, of Rochdale, hatter 

 1763 Thomas Holt, of Blackwater in Rochdale, 



hat-maker 

 1765 James Oldham, of Rochdale, hatter 

 1 767 John Galilee, of Rochdale, hatter 



In the case of Manchester also, the hat 

 industry appears to have reached its most 

 flourishing condition at the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century. About the commencement 

 of the industry nothing is known, but it cer- 

 tainly existed prior to 1730, as may be gathered 

 from the following passage : — 



The manufacture of hats has been as much improved 

 at Manchester as any original branch of its trade. 

 At first the felt makers only wrought the coarse 

 sheep's wool and it was not until about 60 years 

 since [i.e. 1730] that they used the fine Spanish or 

 goat's wool from Germany. The manufacture of 

 fine hats at Manchester is now [1795] inferior to 

 none.' ' 



'Ibid. 141. 



•Editor's additions in 1855 to a new edition of 

 Butterworth, 247. 



' Aikin, Description of Manchester, 248. 



" Lane, and Ches. Rec. Soc. xxv, xxxvii, xxxviii. 



' Aikin, Description of Manchester, 161. 



393 



50 



