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Cliteroe is a charming little market town in Lancshire bd they had an annul Cotton Festival. This may seem a liitke strnge because not one cotton ball grows in Lancashire or for that matter all of Britain. But the Indutrial Revolution began in Britain (mid-18th century) and it was based on textiles. Englbnd;s medieval economy was centered on the wool trade and eventually wool textiles. But to mechnize production you needed a cheaper raw material and this would be cotton. The manufacturing of cotton textiles boomed with power-looms. The machinery was turned first by huge iron water wheels and evebtually steam engines. To the north of Clitheroe there was a vast limestone bed which fed kilns that supplied energy to the mills. By the mid-19thb century there were 2,300 mills in Lancaster alone. Almost all the cotton came from America. Some 70 percent of the American citton crop was exorted to Britain. Lacashire was the cotton capital of the world. When the Civil War broke out in America (1861-65), the Federal naval blockade caused a Cotton Famine in Britain. But into the 20th century, cotton textiles as an imprtant part of the Btitish economy. And we see coyyon festivals in several like Clitheroe. We note a celebration in 1935. There is the Queen and two page boys . They participate in the town procession in which the Cotton Queen is crowned. It was a town celebration with a procession of floats, individuals in fancy costumes, bands and uniformed organisations. The Queen is holding an important piece of cotton weavers equipment -- the shuttle. With the decline of the textile industry in Britain, the festival is no longer celebrated.
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