The union was founded in 1884 as the
Northern Counties Amalgamated Association of Weavers, with the participation of thirty-four local trade unions: The majority of the union's members were female: in 1894, 45,000 of its 80,000 total membership were women. This was unusual; outside the cotton industry, very few women were members of trade unions. By 1937, membership had risen to 94,000, and the proportion of women had grown further, to a total of 75,000 of its members. The union took its final name in 1923. In 1974, it merged with the
National Union of Textile and Allied Workers to form the
Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union. ==Affiliated membership==