Many spinning mills and weaving sheds had closed down, the stock market had crashed and a general slump was affecting western economies.

Things were hard for shareholders; they were no better for the banks that had, in effect, had the assets thrust into their hands as companies defaulted on their loans.

It promoted the establishment of a quasi-governmental authority, to be called the Lancashire Cotton Corporation (LCC), which was set up in 1929, headed by Sir Kenneth Dugald Stewart.

The aim was to win back export markets, and thus save some of the Lancashire industry; but this failed, its customers were in the main domestic.

It was for £2 million six-year 6.5% First Mortgage Debenture Stock and in the event, though competitively priced, 96% was left with the underwriters, The Sun Insurance Office.

[2] In the 1944 Platt Report, he emphasised the labour productivity gap between the British and American mills, and argued that the United Kingdom should reorganise on their vertical model.

The corporation used Hopwood Hall, in conjunction with Blackfriars House to run the firm during the wartime years.

After the war the Lancashire Cotton Corporation sold the hall to a trust in 1946, under which it became a training college for Catholic teachers under the De La Salle Brothers.

In the autumn of 1962, Courtaulds conceived a plan which it called its Northern Project and it entered into negotiations with five major textile groups, namely Lancashire Cotton Corporation, Combined English Mills (Spinners), English Sewing Cotton Company, Fine Spinners & Doublers and Tootals.

Between December 1962 and April 1963 Courtaulds, ICI and the five textile companies concerned together examined the Northern Project in detail, but a financial agreement was not reached.