Project Description
Changes of Use – The Moving History of the Moorbys and the Reeds
by Paddy Killer
2021
drawing in ink on cotton, washing line & wooden pegs
overall size 214x43cm
pillowcases 55.5x40cm each
selected for The British Textile Biennial
Connected Cloth – Exploring the global nature of textiles
a 62 Group exhibition at The Whitaker, Rossendale, Lancashire
www.thewhitaker.org
25.09.21 to 28.11.21
The starting point for the visual history of two Pendle cotton manufacturing families, was turning Paddy’s old Peter Reed sheet into pocket Oxford pillowcases.
From the 1850s, the Moorby and Reed families thrived in Pendle, turning farm buildings into weaving sheds. They went into partnership in the 1870s, moving from mill to mill, leasing some and building others.
Eventually settling in Nelson, they all resided on Manchester Road, a stone’s throw from Spring Bank Mill, shown in the drawing of it in 1900. They amalgamated further when Clifford Reed married Annie Moorby, and Thomas Edgar Reed married Dorothy Moorby. They all resided in Spring Cottage.
Times were challenging following Gandhi’s mission to stop the export of empire products to India, and growing competition from Asia. With the Cotton Act 1959, William & Peter Reed parted company.
Amazingly, Peter Reed continues to produce luxury bedlinen, the company remaining in the family until 2004, gaining the Royal Warrant twice. Raw cotton originally came from the West Indies to be spun and woven in Pendle: now it is grown in Egypt, spun and woven in Italy to the highest standard, but still finished in Nelson and exported worldwide.
Surviving countryside mills are being turned into housing. The Manchester Road residences are now occupied by workers and worshippers. Spring Cottage is currently being renovated as a mosque.
Paddy, from West Yorkshire, familiar with the woollen industry, was unfamiliar with the short-lived Lancashire cotton industry. Internet research proving intriguing and invaluable in these unusual times.
