SarahB

I'm sure this has probably been asked before but I was just wondering where the term "manchester" comes from for bed linen etc??

danny.f

Apart from being the biggest swearword in the Scouse dictionary!!
But a good question. Dunno. Anyone?

maggiemou

Don't know whether this is the case but someone told me its cos Manchester is where the cotton mills were that made most of the original bed linen etc that was sent out to Oz and NZ - sort of sounds plausible, but could well be wrong!!

Maggie

SarahB

Thanks. I keep seeing it on the tv adverts and wondering how it came about.... still sounds strange to me.

stacey19

Bedding/Towels etc....

apparently its something to do with the Cotton mills of Manchester where the manufacturing material came from....

sky

Yea that's what I heard too, Manchester was printed on the outside of the cotton bales.

I wondered what the heck the 'specials on all Manchester' meant when I first saw it called that in Kmart.

Cava Fizz

Someone sounds jealous of their more illustrous neighbours down the east lancs.

cyndi

Glad I logged on tonight, my hubby asked me this tonight & I said I didn't know. Well now I can tell him.

Off topic, there's a building here in town with the sign Manchester Unity outside, the first time I saw that I nearly crashed, I thought it said Manchester United.

sky

P2L

"Before World War 2 as New Zealand had been a British colony manufacturers automatically sourced cotton fabrics from Manchester in the United Kingdom. In stores the department that sold cotton goods was called the Manchester department. Europe did produce these fabrics also, but with travel and language problems Manchester was the preferred supplier. The U.S.A. produced good fabrics, but did little or no exporting."

God I love the internet!!!

cherry

I thought it was named after manchester cos it was always damp and dull whenever we flew from there.