Dolly Blue Works, Wordsworth Street, Halliwell, Bolton

In 1872 William Edge, who for many years represented Halliwell on the Town Council, started a business in Raphael Street, Halliwell, producing shading blues, used by bleachers and finishers in Lancashire using a combination of a synthetic ultramarine and sodium bicarbonate, the dye enhancing the apparent whiteness of the cloth. The firm expanded until the firm's special shading blues, special tints for cotton and linen fabrics and their cotton softeners, cloth glazes and fillers, bleachers' soap etc, were exported to markets in America, Canada, India, France, Holland, Belgium, and Sweden.

To increase sales further, William Edge turned to the domestic laundry market. By 1883 he had commenced manufacture of blue in the form of a cylinder enclosed in a calico bag to which a small stick was attached. The stick was to be held while the blue was to be immersed. This he named “Dolly Blue” and after spending large sums in advertising he obtained extensive sales on the market where it obtained a considerable reputation. In 1886 he registered it as “Edge’s Filtered or Dolly Blue,” and by 1888 the company was selling over 40,000 one-ounce blocks weekly. 

Some time after 1890 William Edge built new works on open land to the rear of his original Prospect Street works to the designs of Edward Potts. The 1:500 Bolton Town Plan shows the original works in Prospect Street with still undeveloped land to the north. By 1907 Wordsworth Street had been formed and the new buildings marked as Blue Works, erected. By the1920s it had warehouses and offices in London, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, New York and Melbourne.

Although the complex is still in existence nothing has been found regarding its original construction during the period 1890-1899.