Kenand Nel

Can someone please tell me why Australians call the bedding / linen department at the store Manchester???

Ken

cinderella

Do you think it has something to do with all the Cotton mills that made linen in Manchester that was then shipped out to Australia?

karawara88

I think it was originally slang, because all the cotton mills etc. were in Manchester. Not sure if thats right just somthing I once read.

Cinderella beat me to it.

cinderella

Must have been, because department stoes used to have a 'Manchester' section, where you would find linen, cottons etc.

robernelli

Nothing to do with bed linen getting dirty and smelly then. Or maybe they feel that section is just highly overrated
?
Rob

ianmcalder

The reason they call it Manchester is this:

In the early 1900 when ships were bringiing supplies to the colonies, the bundles of supplies from Manchester (which in its day was the hub of the British Cotton industry) were mainly cotton products. These were wrapped in huge hessian bundles with the City of origin marked clearly on them. Thus, almost all bundles marked 'MANCHESTER' contained cotton products. Due the this fact, the word Manchester became inextricably linked to Cotton products and was embedded firmly into the Australian language.

I hope this puts your mind at ease.

Ian

buglegirl

....correct
BG

Stoney

Do you think they should call the hub cap and car radio dept "LIVERPOOL"

sky

Yep NZ is the same I spent ages in Kmart trying to figure out what 25% off Manchester meant but decided seen as all the signs were around the bedding it meant that

ScuntoBris

My Australian Uncle asked what do people in Manchester call Manchester?

cinderella

Linen, bedding something like that. Noboy I know here uses the word manchester.