Shirley Institute

The Shirley Institute was established in 1920 as the British Cotton Industry Research Association at The Towers in Didsbury, Manchester, as a research centre dedicated to cotton production technologies.

[1] A significant contribution to the purchase price of The Towers was made by William Greenwood, the MP for Stockport, who asked that the building be named after his daughter.

[2] The Institute developed Ventile, a special high-quality woven cotton fabric.

[3] It also developed the tog as an easy-to-follow measure of the thermal resistance of textiles, as an alternative to the SI unit of m2K/W.

[4] Douglas Hill was director of research of the BCRA before the merger, and led the new organisation.