My membership of the Manchester List is through the Digest system so I'm late coming to the conversation going on re Newton Heath - apologies. To clarify: yes, Martin, I'm definitely wanting info re Newton Heath, not Cheshire, due to his Marriage Cert from Manchester Cathedral stating that William WATTS was from Newton in the parish of Manchester and his wife, Nancy MILLER, from Failsworth, plus the fact that the baptismal records of his two children were taken from Newton Heath All Saints registers. And yes, Pamela, I too saw the Wikipedia entry with its mentions of Huguenots in the 16thC and the building of the (impressively large) silk mill in 1825. This suggested to me that silk was definitely being processed to a larger or lesser extent throughout the years in between. I'm looking now for the evidence to support that theory. Some members of the very large WATTS family in Cheshire did work with silk whilst others worked with cotton. My area of research is concerned with 'Machine Makers in the time of Machine Breakers' and I'm working through this with the Cheshire family of WATTS. William WATTS senior - he of the marriage cert above - was baptised in Stockport in 1739 and is descended from a line of comfortably-wealthy Cheshire yeoman and 'esquires'. William was the youngest child in a large family whose father was a 'joiner' who himself had been a 'younger' member of his generation in the WATTS line. It appears that both had had to find their own way in a competitive world and not rely on family money. William WATTS senior and his wife Nancy then disappear from the records as published on Family Search, Lancs OPC, CPR or FMP. However, William junior and his brother Ralph (the two children baptised in Newton Heath) can be traced on their return to Cheshire where they marry and have families of their own. William junior is a joiner on his marriage record, later a machinist and eventually goes into a business partnership as a cotton manufacturer in Rainow, Bollington. Ralph is a weaver in Macclesfield, which again suggests 'silk' to me rather than cotton although I have no conclusive evidence. I would like to thank everyone who has sent such useful guidance and suggestions in my efforts to answer the question, "Why Newton Heath?" I'm determined to bottom it. Maybe Manchester RO will provide a definitive answer. Ruth