Washing Machine, Cotto

The Cotto company was a manufacturer of white goods, such as washing machines and dryers. It was founded in the early 1920s by Rufus Frank Cottingham (c1899 – 1971), who used a war gratuity of £20 to do so.
Cottingham started off mending tins and pans in a shed. In 1922 R. F. Cottingham & Co was listed in the directory as a sheet metal workers on 12 Market Hill in Scunthorpe. In 1926 Cottingham also owned an ironmongers on Frodingham Road.

The Cotto factory was set up at Digby Street, Scunthorpe. The company’s motto was “Cotto’s Does The Nation’s Washing”.

In 1936 Cotto Products was the largest sheet metal works in the county, employing nearly 300 people. The factory specialised in Cotto Washers and could produce five machines a day.
Besides white goods, Cotto also made ice cream containers, toffee cutters and wrapping machines. During World War Two the company started to make a device that allowed house holders to remove bombs. Its name was the Bomb Gobbler. In 1946, Cottingham patented an invention for a golf practicing and teaching apparatus.

The company stopped producing goods in 1986.

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