Records of Pasolds Limited, clothing manufacturers of Langley, Berkshire, and various predecessor companies including Chilprufe Limited of Leicester; 1921-1999

This collection contains core business records of Pasolds Limited and the subsidiary companies which it acquired between the 1930s and 1980s, including minute books, registers of members and directors, and annual reports and accounts.

The Pasold family connection with textiles goes back to the seventeenth century in Bohemia. By the 19th century the firm of Adolf Pasold & Sohn was well established in Czechoslovakia. Changing markets after the First World War, and rising tariffs in Western Europe in the 1930s prompted Eric Pasold to extend the company's manufacturing interests in England.

A factory was opened at Langley, Berkshire in 1932, and by 1939 the company partnership had become Pasolds Limited. Its most famous product was the Ladybird childrens' clothing line. Pasolds took over a number of existing businesses, including Chilprufe Limited of Leicester. In 1965 Pasolds was acquired by Coats Paton & Baldwin, the world's largest sewing thread manufacturers, and became part of a multinational company. In 1967 Coats Patons Ltd amalgamated with Vantona Viyella to form Coats Viyella plc. The company became Coats plc in 2001.

The arrangement into groups based on the Pasolds structure was inherited from the records' previous storage system at Coats plc. Within groups the records are arranged chronologically, but with minute books and other core records placed at the beginning of each group.

The collection is accessible to all registered readers with advance notice and agreement and subject to the conditions of the Data Protection Act.

Copyright in all finding aids belongs to The University of Nottingham.

In the Reading Room, King's Meadow Campus: Typescript catalogue, 21 pp.

On the World Wide Web:

Catalogue accessible from the website of Manuscripts and Special Collections, Manuscripts Online Catalogue.

Good, except for minute book MS 814/1/1 which is unfit for production

Reprographic copies can be supplied for educational and private study purposes only, depending on access status and the condition of the documents.

Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult.

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in writing from the Keeper of Manuscripts and Special Collections

The material was acquired in July 2007 from the ultimate parent company of all the companies, Coats plc.

Records from the Pasolds Research Fund (ref: BPS)

Records of Chilprufe Ltd (BCH)