Quick-Thinking Wife Saved Her Husband's Firm From Disaster ; the Derby Telegraph Is Inviting Readers to Submit Short Stories. Here Is a Second Piece by Philip Neale, of Heanor, Called Cutting the Cloth

Derby Evening Telegraph › September 28, 2010

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Summary

THE year is 1901, Queen Victoria reigns supreme over the far flung British Empire and the Lancashire textile industry is at the peak of its industrial might. Products from the mills of Manchester, Bolton, Blackburn and a host of other crowded towns and cities travel the world satisfying an increasing demand from its dominions. In the small town of Rochdale, a place amidst the centre of the Oldham-Blackburn-Halifax triangle, a small acorn of a merchanting enterprise was extending its roots into the fertile textile soil of the northwest of England.

George Napkin had shunned the spinning, doubling and weaving industries in favour of a trade wherein he saw the potential for greater, more rapid growth in an already crowded market place. The large producers already had the market tied up in cottons (both American and Egyptian), lace, silks and wool. His passion, and that of his father before him, was linen. Alexander Napkin had started the family business in the early 1850s and a relatively modest but sustainable trade had provided an adequate living for him, his wife Caroline and their brood of four daughters and one son.

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Extract

Quick-Thinking Wife Saved Her Husband's Firm From Disaster ; the Derby Telegraph Is Inviting Readers to Submit Short Stories. Here Is a Second Piece by Philip Neale, of Heanor, Called Cutting the Cloth

When Alexander died in 1896, George, as the only son, took over the business. His years of tutelage under the watchful gaze of his father had given the young man a keen eye for business. This, together with a detailed knowledge of the trade, was to stand him in good stead as the sharks of the industry circled following the funeral. He was to surprise them all with his business acumen and the spe...

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