Packaging for fabric face masks made by English Fine Cottons. White cardboard box with dark blue 'English Fine Cottons' branded ribbon, white tissue paper with repeated English Fine Cottons logo in silver with dark blue 'English Fine Cottons' branded ribbon.

Based in a Victorian cotton-spinning mill in Dukinfield, Tower Mill, English Fine Cottons was established in 2016 to bring commercial cotton spinning back to the UK. The company drew on Dukinfield’s heritage as a centre of cotton spinning production from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, utilising the local population’s skills in textiles production.

On 5th June 2020, Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock announced that all hospital visitors and outpatients would need to wear a face covering. This was in addition to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ announcement on 4th June that from 15th June all passengers on public transport would need to wear a face covering. The government stressed that the face coverings to be worn by the public should not be surgical masks in order to preserve supplies for health staff.