Richard Haworth was born in Bury in 1820, the youngest of eight children. At the age of 12 he was sent to learn to weave fustians at Charles Openshaw and Co.'s mill in Bury. One day while brushing a working loom, his hand was caught in the machinery and badly injured, and this accident to some extent changed the future course of his life. When his hand healed he secured employment as a weft lad and attended night school in his spare time, where he showed a great aptitude for figures and finance. From a weft boy he advanced to the post of cloth looker in Openshaw's mill. In 1838 he was employed by Rylands and Sons at their Ainsworth Mill near Bolton and in 1843 he was engaged by Thomas Clegg of Manchester as a bookkeeper. By 1876 he opened his own business of Richard Haworth and Co., a cotton spinning and manufacturing firm in Cannon Street, Manchester and also opened Tatton Mill in Salford. The company manufactured corset, cloths, cotton blankets, dress fabrics, drills, flannelettes, furnishing fabrics, gabardines, handkerchiefs, hollands, limbrics, linings, longcloths, pillow cases, rayon fabrics, sateens, sheetings, sheets, shirtings, and velveteens. They also produced cotton, canvases, ducks and linen alternatives for tents, wagon sheets, water-tank and sailcloth. Richard Haworth died in 1883, and his two partners shortly after in 1886. Richard Haworth’s sons, G and J Haworth took over the business, which became a limited liability company. In 1951 Richard Haworth and Co Ltd was advertised for sale. The business had evolved from a cotton spinning and weaving firm to one offering a whole range of cotton and rayon fabrics under the trademark ‘Spero’. By this time the company's head office was in Manchester, with mills and weaving sheds in Ordsall and Tatton. In 1953 the firm was sold to Vantona Textiles. Today the company is part of the Ruia group that comprises a number of companies that import, supply and distribute household textiles and hosiery. Richard Haworth and Co. Ltd. supplies bed linen, table linen and terry towels manufactured at Kearsley Mill to the linen rental, hospital and hospitality markets.

One of the two major companies which managed the South Maitland coalfields in New South Wales, Australia. The company merged with J & A Brown & Abermain-Seaham Collieries Limited in 1960 to form Coal & Allied Industries Limited.

Cotton spinner and manufacturer, based at Elisabeth Mill, Reddish, Stockport. Acquired by the Fine Cotton Spinners and Doublers Association in 1898.

Cotton spinner and manufacturer, known to have been active 1891-1907

The British Thomson-Houston Co. Ltd., (BTH) was created as a subsidiary of the General Electric Company, USA in 1896 to exploit the sale of products in the United Kingdom. BTH was a reconstruction of an existing firm, Laing, Wharton and Down (1886). The BTH manufacturing works were based at Rugby, Warwickshire and the company’s products included induction motors, alternators, switchgear, turbo-generators and turbines, as well as a large number of rotary converters and motor converters, primarily for chemical plants. During the First World War, BTH’s most significant contribution was the development of marine apparatus for the naval service. The 1920s saw a period of vast expansion for the company with new extensions built at many of its factories such as Willesden, Birmingham, Chesterfield and Lutterworth. BTH amalgamated with Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company Ltd to form Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) in 1928 although both companies retained their separate identities and continued to compete for the same contracts. BTH developed manufactured electric torpedoes and electrical components for aircraft engines, munitions, etc., during the Second World War and in 1935 independently of each other, BTH and Metropolitan-Vickers were the first two companies in the world to construct jet engines.

Cotton spinners and manufacturers based in Swinton, Manchester. Known to have been active 1891-1911.

Cotton spinners and manufacturers based in Stalybridge. Known to have been active 1891-1912

Cotton spinner and smallware manufacturers based in Manchester and Bolton. Known to have been active 1891-1916.