HEADLINES today told Lancashire’s 290,000 operatives in the cotton and rayon industry they were to get a six per cent pay rise, starting the following week.

The news, received by the employers and trade union organisations from the Industrial Disputes Tribunal, was set to put between 6s and 14s a week into workers’ pay packets.

It would also add more than £5million a year to the industry’s annual wage bill, so as operatives welcomed the move, companies warned that customers would end up paying for the increase.

Although the cotton unions had asked for a 10 per cent increase in wages, they were pleased with award, as it was more than many of them had expected.

Tom Seed, secretary of Great Harwood weavers said: “It’s an agreeable surprise; An increase was needed to compensate for a rise in the cost of living.”

Tertius Spencer, chairman of Burnley Cotton Employers’ Association said, however: “The customers will have to pay for this increase and they may well be driven to buying cheaper goods elsewhere.”

The Northern Daily Telegraph, interviewed various weavers in the Blackburn area, including six loom weaver Richard Holden, of Devon Road, Blackburn and Bertha Butterworth of Eastwood Street, Blackburn a weaver for 50 years.

The price of a cuppa was also making the news, as shops and cafes began to pass on the 8d a lb rise in the price of tea, to their customers. The shift worker who started his day with a cuppa from the trolley, the shoppers chatting over the teacups and office workers on their elevenses, would all feel the jump.After holding prices at 3d a cup since 1950, prices were going up by a halfpenny.

We also brought news of 18-year-old Mr Muscle – Allan Robinson, of Taylor Street, Blackburn winning his 20th title and 50th award after only five years’ experience of weight training.

An apprentice plumber he was a member of Blackburn YMCA.