Calico printing pattern book

The vivid yellow and pink in these examples from an 1897 pattern book shows that the Victorian period was brighter than the sepia photographs from the era would have us believe.

Edmund Potter, founder of Edmund Potter & Co calico printing works was born in Ardwick, Manchester. His son Rupert was the father of Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), the artist and author of many children's books, including 'Peter Rabbit'. It is said that Beatrix used fabric samples from her grandfather's print works to make clothes for the animals which she painted and which became the characters in her books.

In 1825, in partnership with his cousin Charles Potter, he opened the Dinting Vale, Glossop, print works in a previously unused mill building known as 'Boggart Mill'. Primarily because of the then heavy burden of excise duty on printed calico, the business failed in 1831. The partnership was dissolved and Charles Potter thereafter concentrated on wallpaper printing in Darwen, Lancashire.

Despite this setback, Edmund Potter continued as a calico printer. His independent business flourished, especially after the opening of the Sheffield to Manchester railway in 1845. The line included a viaduct which spanned Dinting Vale near his printworks and so improved transport, previously a major drawback of the site. Edmund Potter & Co became major producers of printed calicoes, using cylinder rather than hand block methods, and the works expanded. The last development under Edmund was the establishment of new bleaching works in 1869. This enabled over forty printing machines to be supplied with material each week. At this time Dinting Vale was said to be the largest calico printing works in the world and its designs were widely admired, as were its use of new dyes. In 1873 Edmund Potter retired from business in favour of his son and partner Edmund Crompton Potter. Father and son died in the same year, 1883, Edmund Crompton Potter in May and his father in October.

After 1883 the manager of the Dinting Vale print works was John Barr who introduced many technical innovations. In 1885-1886, the firm diversified into soap manufacture. After the death in 1891 of Edmund Potter's widow, the business became a private limited company, of which John Barr was a director. In 1889 Edmund Potter & Co Ltd had joined the newly formed Calico Printers' Association in order to maintain competitiveness through pooling of resources especially to counteract the impact on their wares of cottons printed overseas. During World War I (1914-18), women were employed in the Dinting Vale print works to replace men on military service and the demand was not for prints but for dyestuffs for uniforms, etc. The same pressures occurred again in World War II when Edmund Potter & Co produced much camouflage material. The Dinting Vale print works finally closed in the 1990s.