Cotton Board (United Kingdom)

The Cotton Board was an organisation to oversee the organisation, research, marketing and promoting the cotton textile industry mainly based in Lancashire and Glasgow. It existed from 1940, and as a statutory Industrial Development Board from 1948 to 1972.

Prior to the war, the main organisation representing the cotton industry was the Joint Committee of Cotton Trade Organisations, established in 1925. A voluntary Cotton Board was set up in 1940 to “promote the welfare of the industry by internal reorganisation, by the development of export trade, scientific research, propaganda and other means.” Sir Stafford Cripps praised the work of the voluntary Cotton Board in a speech at the Midland Hotel, Manchester on 4 December 1946.

The board was given statutory status in 1948 under the Industrial Organisation and Development Act 1947. The Board had equal representation from industry and trades unions, with four members each, plus three independent members. It was given the power to levy up to £250,000 a year from the industry.

Although it was intended to be essentially focused on changing the industry through its own efforts, David Clayton says: “From the mid-1950s ... the Cotton Board also became a lobby organization demanding changes to industrial and commercial policies.”

Its headquarters was in Manchester, together with the “Colour, Design and Style Centre”, which became the public face of the board.

The Board funded research into cotton fabrics via an industry-wide levy. This was undertaken by the British Cotton Industry Research Association, better known as the Shirley Institute. By the 1960s, research also covered man-made fabrics, whose manufacturers began to pay a research levy to the Board from 1961, and the Shirley Institute was merged with the British Rayon Research Association.

...
Wikipedia