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‘C’ is for Cotton
The third in our Manchester A to Z blog series is C for Cotton. The idea behind this series was to let you go a little deeper into the history and culture that inspired each of our Manchester A to Z tiles, as well as sharing a little of our creative and manufacturing process.
Each tile says something special about the city and our relationship to it, from cultural institutions to sporting achievements. But none of the themes are bigger, more defining, or more complex than this one. So let’s dive in.
Welcome to Cottonopolis
Manchester: a city built with cotton
Manchester’s relationship with cotton is deep. For two centuries it helped to facilitate the global explosion of the trade, and defined Manchester’s identity around the world – you’ll still hear its old nickname ‘Cottonopolis’ from time to time. With its link to the port of Liverpool provided by the Bridgewater Canal, and its existing warehousing and financial resources, it was ideally positioned to fulfil the need for storage and manufacturing.
The beating heart of the industry in Manchester was the Cotton Exchange – later renamed the Royal Exchange. As the warehousing capabilities grew, so did the amounts of money and importance of Manchester as a city. Granted municipal borough status in 1838, this city of Victorian architectural wonders was an emblem of civic culture, and one that rewarded some more than others.
The cotton legacy, good and bad
Manchester’s first cotton mill dates back to Miller Street in 1783. By the end of that century Ancoats especially was an industrial complex of brick monuments to cotton. Among the workers keeping the machines going were children, until the 1802 Act in Child Labour was introduced. Even still, working conditions were not pleasant for the people required to drive the city’s Rumplestiltskin-esque alchemy – and they were even worse for the slaves picking the cotton which came piled in on ships from America. It would be another 63 years before they would have their own freedoms enshrined in law.
The exuberance and confidence of that time is evident throughout the city, and it’s hard to imagine Manchester having the same size or significance without its Cottonopolis rein. The civic advances had lots of sweeping social benefits, and many of the people enriched by cotton took their philanthropic duty seriously. John Rylands, the city’s first multi-millionaire, made his fortune from textiles – a fortune that built the legendary Deansgate library (the letter J in our A to Z series). But the biggest costs of Manchester’s growth were paid by those with the least, a dichotomy we’ve tried to honour in our Manchester C tile.
All The Sculpts Manchester-themed ceramic tiles are made with pride, and feature our signature illustrated designs all the way from A to Z. Each one is crafted with careful attention to detail in the print process, to give a high quality homeware product that looks fantastic in your space.
Tile Design and Craftsmanship
Like all our designs the Cotton tile was hand illustrated by The Sculpts founder, Richard Bennett using a fine pen and ink technique. This C tile design is printed then applied to the pre-glazed tile before kiln firing at 850°C to fully fix the decorative design before being boxed up in our gift-ready packaging.
The full A to Z Manchester Alphabet tile series from The Sculpts is available to buy from a range of outlets, both online and in store. The quickest and easiest place to pick yourself up a Cotton ceramic tile is right here on our online shop.
We hope you’ve found this a useful insight into the story behind the Cotton tile, and our creative process. The next blog in the A to Z series is coming soon – D for Danger Mouse.
