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The Witney Blanket Company

Witney Blanket Company 'Buttercross Brand' blanket label.
Witney Blanket Company 'Buttercross Brand' blanket label.

Dates of operation: 1885(c)

Origins and history
The Witney Blanket Company was set up in Witney around 1885 as a blanket finishing and cleaning business and did not manufacture blankets. Fred Clapper and Sons were the early owners of the business, selling it in 1895 to a Mr A.A. Barrell who had moved to Witney from East Anglia. Following the ruling in 1908 that only blankets made in the town could legally be labelled as 'Witney' blankets, Mr Barrell turned the business into a limited company and started the then-novel idea of supplying blankets through mail order. Most of the blankets were made in Yorkshire but were 'tabbed' (labelled) and finished in Witney. In 1913 he bought the premises at 39/41 Market Square (near the Buttercross) and by the end of the First World War he and his sons decided to expand and built a new factory which became known as the Buttercross Works.

The mail order side of their business closed in the face of increasing competition in 1976 and the bedding factory closed shortly afterwards.

Products and operations
Over its lifetime the Witney Blanket Company finished and supplied blankets, bedding clothing and shoes through the post. They also had a blanket cleaning service and made quilts, feather beds and specialist mattresses. Their company logo was at one time a graphic representation of the Butter Cross in Witney town centre. The mail order side of their business closed in 1976 and the bedding factory shortly afterwards.

Premises
The Witney Blanket Company Ltd certainly had shop premises in the town at 39 Market Square, Witney, by 1913 as photographs of this exist. This may not have been their first premises however, as according to Bennett's Business Directory for Oxfordshire 1898, the company had been trading in the town since at least the 1880s [1].

During the 1920s the company built a large two-storey factory known as the 'Buttercross Works' at The Leys near St Mary's Church in Witney and moved all its operations to there. The building, which is fairly typical of its time in design, was very seriously damaged by fire in 1939 and 1968 but was rebuilt each time and still houses a retail outlet today.