Christy (also known as Christy UK and Christy Towels) is a manufacturer of household linens and is known as the inventor of the first industrially produced looped cotton ( terrycloth) towel. It was founded in 1850 in the English mill town of Droylsden,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

(now part of

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

History

John Rylands Library The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a Victorian era, late-Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to t ...

archives show that the roots of the Christy company date from at least 1833, when the

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

firm of W. M. Christy & Sons Ltd – established by banker and hatter William Miller Christy – was manufacturing cotton goods. Christy's son, the noted collector and ethnologist Henry Christy, discovered the product that would make the company famous. While travelling in

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, he saw an example of the looped pile fabric that is known today as terry towelling, but which was initially known as the 'Turkish towel'. The company found a method of weaving the looped pile fabric on an industrial scale using a machine designed by one of their employees Samuel Holt, who patented the design. The first Christy towels factory opened in Droylsden in 1850. A year later, Christy towels were displayed at The Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace,

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

became an early client. By 1891, the company's Fairfields Mill in Droylsden had 310 looms and 30,000 spindles, according to ''Worrall's Cotton Spinners Directory''. Christy was purchased by Fine Spinners and Doublers in 1955, and became part of the Courtaulds group eight years later. The company relocated from its Droylsden base to

Hyde, Greater Manchester Hyde is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic county boundaries of Cheshire, and became part of Greater Manchester in 1974. The built-up area as defined by the Office for Nati ...

in the late 1980s. When Courtaulds spun off its textile businesses in 2000, Christy was sold to a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

team.

The company today

Christy became a subsidiary of Welspun India Ltd in 2006, shifting towel manufacturing from its base in

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

in 2010. The company's UK headquarters was relocated to Cheadle in 2012. In addition to retailing towels, bathrobes and bedlinen in stores throughout the UK, the company sells online and in Europe, the U.S. and Australia. Notably, it supplies towels to Bloomingdale's. Christy also produces for other brands, including Harlequin and

Agent Provocateur An is a person who actively entices another person to commit a crime that would not otherwise have been committed and then reports the person to the authorities. They may target individuals or groups. In jurisdictions in which conspiracy is a ...

. The company has a long-term relationship with tennis, producing the towels used by players at Wimbledon since 1987. In 2012, the company produced over 99,000 Wimbledon towels, which are also sold to tournament attendees.

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

reported in 2013 that only a third of the towels Christy supplies to the Championship are returned, due to the players keeping them or throwing them into the crowd as mementos.

References

{{reflist

External sources

Christy website detailing company historyW.M. Christy & Sons Ltd archive at the University of Manchester Library
Textile manufacturers of England Companies based in Tameside Manufacturing companies established in 1850 Manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1850