NDerby

Hmmm, maybe I just haven't noticed it before. But the Kiwi's I've spoken to seem to think it's a new thing as well. And were there Manchester signs in supermarkets 20 years ago? I know I'm like a dog with a bone at the moment, but I'm not ready to let this go yet.

Cheers

Wellington Will

I understand that it's an ancient term, even used in the UK once upon a time.

Kiwiprincess

Your friends weren't noticing it. Manchester is an old term. In fact, it would make more sense if they could only remember the words "sheeting & bedding" or something used rather than Manchester. It's an historic reference.

And supermarkets never sold things like manchester. So maybe you just weren't going into the right stores - department stores etc?

Kiwiprincess

When in doubt I ask my grandmother these complicated questions.

Sure enough, she has never known a word to use other than Manchester and asked me what word to use if you didn't use 'manchester'. In fact, after asking I then got involved with a conversation between her, my mother and my aunts reminiscing about a Wellington department store – James Smiths’ - and how the lift attendant used to read out the department when they arrived at each floor. Sure enough, one of those departments was “Level 3, Manchester”. Or something like that.

They came to the consensus that the only reason you may not have heard the word is that either you weren’t listening, or hadn’t shopped in department stores. Department stores would need to specifically mark their department as ‘manchester’ whereas presumably if you just went into a bedding store you already know where you are

You owe me 30 minutes of my life back. :P

Biddy

Apparently Birmingham just didn't sound right.

manchaka

Obviously because anything useful ever invented (computers, internal combustion & jet engines, loom, radiotherapy, telephones, film, God... ice cream etc) were invented in that fine city (!)

AM x

lardyl

nor did "Leicester" for ladies smalls
"Northampton" for Doc Martens
"Coventry" for bikes
"Nottingham" for lacey numbers
or
"Derby" for those hard to find jet engine parts that are always on special in Briscoes...........

lardyl

which City is that?

Brum is famous for being the place they could make anything.........silk purse from a pig's ear, included

scrubbedexpat094

nor did "St.Helens" for glass
or "Barrow-in Furness" for nuclear waste transportation