Cotton 'Manchester Bee' face cover made by English Fine Cottons

Fabric face mask, 'Manchester Bee Face Cover / Cough Catcher' made by English Fine Cottons. Pleated cotton with repeated bee and 'MCR' design, with elastic ear loops. Made and sold by English Fine Cottons during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021); £2.50 donated to NHS Charities for every face mask sold. Yarn spun by English Fine Cottons in Dukinfield, fabric woven in Devon, fabric printed in Manchester, mask sewn by English Fine Cottons in Dukinfield. Fabric treated with anti-viral textile treatment.

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.

The mask design was based on a design developed in partnership with an NHS surgeon at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. The pattern on the fabric shows the ubiquitous Manchester bee symbol which has been used as an emblem of the city for over 150 years. It has been used to represent Mancunian’s hard work ethic and the city as a hive of activity. More recently it has come to represent a sense of unity within the city. It was widely used in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017. The design alternates the repeating bee motif with ‘MCR’ as shorthand for Manchester