Behind the Brand: Reed Family Linen

From sheep farmers to wealthy mill owners, Reed Family Linen has a rich history. As a result of Liverpool’s wealthy shipowners searching return on their cotton cargoes, the fibres were processed by equipping outlying farmers with hand-powered spindles and looms into cloth for the booming consumer market.

It was here that sheep farmers, the Moorby family, in North Lancashire took the opportunity to earn additional income from hand-weaving cotton fabrics. Transforming cowsheds into ‘weaving sheds’ and soon after utilizing steam engines to power the mills as the business grew.

After thirty years, John Moorby had saved enough capital to build his own mill in nearby town of Nelson in the Calder valley of Lancashire, letting half the mill to the Reed family who had a thriving weaving business in the town. Eventually, the Moorby’s and the Reed’s become closely related through the marriage of two Reed sons to two Moorby daughters, creating an alliance that formed a strong textile dynasty.

During the Second World War, the family business contributed with the patented ‘graduated reed’, a loom part which enabled cheaper hospital sheets to be produced by concentrating a higher thread count.

The fourth generation of the Reed textile dynasty, Peter was the youngest member of the family. Deciding to continue in the weaving business, despite the state of the industry, he was able to concentrate on the higher thread count and better-quality fabrics that oversea rivals could not produce at the time.

In the 1970s, at the request of Harrods, Peter Reed was asked to brand their bed linen to differentiate the range from foreign imports. Initially naming the brand ‘PR’, this was used until his death in 2000.