British cotton manufacturing continued to thrive during the 19th century, peaking in 1912, when 7,300 million metres of cloth were produced. Indeed, cotton exports remained important to the Victorian and Edwardian economy, but overseas trade slowly declined as Britain lost its markets to cotton-growing and low-wage countries like India and Japan, whose own cotton mills proliferated in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Modern Asian producers avoided overspecialisation and installed new machinery, notably the faster spinning ring-frame, while British manufacturers retained old methods, separating the spinning, weaving and finishing processes and using traditional spinning mules. Complacency and unwillingness to modernise hastened the demise of Britain’s cotton industry, which earned just 16% of export revenue in 1930 and below 10% in the 1950s. In 1959 Parliament passed the Cotton Industry Act which compensated employers for disposing of outdated machinery: the government hoped to streamline production, but despite modernisation and extra work shifts, British cotton manufacturing contracted further. Cheap foreign textiles forced more mill closures, which averaged almost one a week during the 1960s and 1970s. Some buildings found new uses, others were demolished.

By the 1980s active cotton working in most of Lancashire and surrounding districts was consigned to history, but its legacy is far reaching and permanent. Whole towns had come into existence with the building of cotton mills, and, following the development of roads, canals, railways and ports to service the industry, the area had transformed into a major industrial region. Cotton manufacture also provided employment for millions of our relatives and ancestors. While many undertook gruelling manual labour in factories and mills, some learned and used important skills, while numerous specialists were needed, from engineers and builders to chemists and marketing professionals.

Cotton cloth itself revolutionised how people have furnished their homes and dressed. Emulating and largely replacing traditional linen fabric (see DYAP Sep-Dec 2021), the ready availability of affordable cotton cloth – light, absorbent and easily sewn – enabled ordinary people to buy or make cheap, washable sheets, handkerchiefs and other household linen, and to wear comfortable, hygienic clothes. The production of various printed cottons over time kept designs fresh and fashionable, and, being versatile, cotton fibres have often been blended with others, to create various mixed fabrics, even silk substitutes. Cotton sewing thread has also proved essential for dressmaking and repairing garments. During the 20th century cotton faced stiff competition from new, easy-care synthetic fabrics but nowadays there is a renewed appreciation of cotton and other natural vegetable-derived textiles.   {