Records of the Ashton Textile Employers' Association

The archive contains the minute books of the Ashton Textile Employers' Association, the Glossop, Hyde and District Cotton Employers' Association, the Manchester and District Cotton Employers' Association, the Stockport and District Cotton Employers' Association and the Wigan and District Cotton Employers' Association, together with published material relating to the cotton industry.

Original order has been maintained during cataloguing, with the records of subsidiary organisations following those of the Ashton Association as follows:

ATEA/1 Ashton Textile Employers' Association

ATEA/2 Glossop, Hyde and District Cotton Employers' Association

ATEA/3 Stockport and District Cotton Employers' Association

ATEA/4 Manchester and District Cotton Employers' Association

ATEA/5 Wigan and District Cotton Employers' Association

<p>The Library also holds the Oldham Textile Employers' Association archive, which has printed annual reports for the Ashton Association. The Greater Manchester County Record Office holds the archive of the British Textile Employers' Association.</p>

• <corpname>Ashton Textile Employers' Association, 1969 -, Lancashire</corpname>
• <corpname>Ashton and District Textile Employers' Association, Lancashire</corpname>

The papers may be used by any accredited reader.

The archive was originally deposited in Manchester University Library and transferred to the Deansgate building following the merger with the John Rylands Library in 1972.

The Ashton and District Cotton Employers' Association was formed in 1891 'to deal with cases in which leaders of the operatives attempt to enforce unreasonable conditions, either as to the working of the mill, or the amount of wages...' The rules of the Association were expanded and published in 1921 and minor alterations were made over the years, with the change of name to the Ashton Textile Employers' Association being recorded in 1969. The Glossop, Hyde & District Cotton Employers' Association amalgamated with the Ashton Association in 1921, and other local organisations contained within the archive amalgamated with the Ashton Association at a later date.

The history of employers' associations in this region is somewhat longer than the association represented by this archive. In 1830 fifty-two firms in Ashton combined to defeat a fledgling trade union by locking out workers, but it was only a temporary organisation. More powerful and better organised employers' associations were really a development of the second half of the century and grew in response to the rise of trade union power. Later, the Association attempted to arrest the decline of the industry in the region.