What is Manchester????

[sarahw]

Yep, you guys are right - its to do with cotton mills & covers all bedding - that's why dept stores have 'Manchester Dept' & why shops have 'Manchester' sales regardless of what brands they sell.

Taken from Wordweb: "Noun: manchester
Usage: Austral, NZ (=household linen)

Drygoods for household use that are typically made of white cloth
- white goods, household linen"

(website: http://www.wordwebonline.com/en/MANCHESTER)

Taken from Aussie slang dictionary by Dunway Enterprises "Manchester - Household linen such as sheets & pillow cases"

(website: http://www.dunway.com/html/aussie_slang.html)

[Andy-Dee]

No one who supports Manchester United lives in Manchester - so it seems entirely plausible that no one in Manchester ever refers to bed linen as Manchester - only those who live thousands of miles away.
Another lovely Northern phrase:
We live south of Manchester in Warrington where they used to make wire on enormous bobbins - hence the word for rubbish here is 'bobbins' (the bit they threw away).
D

[NZ Hopeful]

No one who supports Manchester United lives in Manchester - so it seems entirely plausible that no one in Manchester ever refers to bed linen as Manchester - only those who live thousands of miles away.
Another lovely Northern phrase:
We live south of Manchester in Warrington where they used to make wire on enormous bobbins - hence the word for rubbish here is 'bobbins' (the bit they threw away).
D

My boss (in Warrington) says bobbins all the time - (thankfully he's not referring to my standard of work ) and I'd never heard it before and I did wonder for a while what on earth he was talking about so thanks for that!

[Joanne100]

No one who supports Manchester United lives in Manchester D

Sorry have to disagree with that Andy!!

Being from Manchester (and supporters of Man U) i was very confused everytime i walked into the linen dept and saw a sign reminding me how lucky i was to escape! i asked all the girls i worked with why they called it that and no one knew, thanks so much...after 2 and a half years finally getting an answer