Walter Hough was the Principal of the School of Cotton Fabrics, which is known to have been active between 1922-1933. Initially based at based at 36 Spring Gardens, Manchester, by 1926 the School had moved to 41 Faulkner Street. The School of Cotton Fabrics appears to have been a small tutoring business based in central Manchester offering vocational training for the textile trade.

Hough reportedly began his career in the textile industry at the age of 10, when he began working half time hours at the Bentinck Street Mill Company's cotton mill. By taking evening classes he obtained his City and Guilds qualifications and was promoted to the position of pattern-maker and designer. He also began teaching evening classes, working as an evening assistant at Salford Technical College for 14 years before resigning to start his own School of Cotton Fabrics.

Hough was also the author of the "Encyclopaedia of Cotton Fabrics for Students and Others in the Cotton Trade", first published in the 1920s, which went into at least seven editions.