Bleaching - bolt stamps and labels
Bleaching is one of the oldest industries associated to the textile industry in the greater Bolton area. The local meaning of the word “croft” is an area of land where cloth is bleached. The local history of bleaching includes some of the most recognisable family names in Bolton’s history, such as Ridgeway, Bridson, Wallsuches, and Slater. Richard Ainsworth grew so wealthy from his bleaching enterprise that he was known as the “Opulent Bleacher”.
Bolt Labels
Bolt labels, also called tickets, were stuck to the ends of bolts of cloth. The labels acted as a sort of trade mark or brand, identifying a particular producer or merchant’s wares in the market place. Each label was designed specifically for the market it was sent to. The ticket was supposed to catch the eye of the shopper, and often employed various symbols which today can be baffling at first glance.
The earliest reference to the packaging of cloth is in The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire 1600-1780 by A. P. Wadsworth and J. De Lacy Mann (1968).
They discuss the textile trade with West Africa in the late 1600s and note a type of fabric 'packed in a stiff paper cover with a gaudy picture of an elephant, the device of the Royal Africa Company on the outside.' (p.150) The "gaudy elephant" picture is probably a bolt label.
As early as 1928 the Chadwick Museum curator Thomas Midgley was seeking to add bolt labels to the Museum collection. On 18 January 1928 he received the following reply from someone he had contacted for advice:
It is perfectly true that the florid and often exuberant and exaggerated designs are frequently responsible for the sale of the fabrics, particularly in the Bazaars of India, China and Japan where the colour scheme is of supreme importance. I note the suggestion that it would be of advantage to secure some of the earlier designs.
The difficulty is to indicate specifically a definite source to where I could advise you to apply…. I would suggest though… any of the old established shipping and export firms in the trade, of which there are many in Manchester, particularly in the region of Portland Street.
In spite of this advice Midgley does not seem to have been successful in adding bolt labels to the collection. Rather, the Museum’s collection of bolt labels dates from the decline of the cotton industry in the North West during the 1970s-80s. A mass of different designs were donated from different sources, along with an associated method of cloth marking, bolt stamps.
Bolt Stamps
Bolt stamps were made from a block of wood, usually sycamore, with strips of copper inserted edgeways into the wood to create decorative patterns and pictures. Like the labels, these could be very elaborate, and sometimes involved more that one colour. The stamp was another method to add a logo to the cloth and sometimes incorporated the paper labels into the design and other times were in addition.
One collection comes from Slater's Watermead bleach works, Little Bolton. This includes a book of prints from the bolt stamps. The motifs incorporated into the designs would suggest the earliest in this book are probably from the 1830s/40s. It is possibly the original design record book of the works which opened in 1836.
The other large collection is from Abraham Barlow Ltd., Hampson Mills in Bury. This was donated to Bolton by the Bleacher's Association. One of the main bolt stamp makers in this collection is John Wild who had offices in Bolton and Manchester. This collection includes some original drawings - designs for bolt stamps - probably from Wild's office.
The nephew of the last Wild in the business told a curator at the Museum about stamp making. At its height, Wild's employed about 40 people. The stamps took about 2 weeks to make. In 1900 they would cost about £7 - £10, by the 1960s they cost £60-£70 because the cost of labour and price of copper had increased so much.
Small stamps, called "truth marks" were place at the cloth end. If the truth mark was missing, then it meant the cloth had been cut down.
