THE rapid growth of the cotton industry in East Lancashire also saw the rise of a new skyline in our streets.

For where there were mills, there also mill chimneys and hundreds of stone turrets towered over all our textile towns, bellowing out plumes of soot, smoke and steam, decade after decade.

Old photographs of the Weavers Triangle at Burnley, or the Nova Scotia area of Blackburn reveal smoking chimneys as far as the eye can see.

India Mill chimney in Darwen which still stands today, was the tallest and most expensive in the country when it was completed in 1867.

Built in the style of an Italian campanile, it reflected the confidence in the local cotton industry in the middle of the 19th century.

The structure rose beyond the 300 ft mark, thanks to its cast iron crown, which was dismantled in the drive for scrap metal during the Second World War.

Back in the 1860s, the story goes that the ownership of the land for the mill was disputed between the Shorrock and Hilton families.

It was agreed that the land would go to whoever came up with the most impressive plan. Cotton magnate Eccles Shorrock won hands down over the paper-makers.

The opening of India Mill in May 1868 by the Marquis of Hartington was a very grand affair with lords and ladies and a vast exhibition of paintings, including Gainsborough and Van Dyck.

For the lads who actually built the chimney with their hand-made bricks there was a more modest lunch at the nearby Crown Inn.

In Barnoldswick, Bancroft Shed was the last steam driven weaving mill to be built and the last to be closed. In 1905 it was reputed to be the world's largest weaving shed.

After its closure in 1979, the boilers, engine house and chimneys were preserved.

In Burnley, Trafalgar Street and the adjoining Sandygate, in particular, were lined with mills and their towering chimneys filled the town's skyline.

Within this area was Clock Tower Mill, which was home to a major cotton waste processing operation, six storeys high in places with a weaving shed and several large chimneys.

The mill was built by George Slater around 1840, but was practically destroyed soon after by a large fire.

Slater persevered, rebuilt it and opened it again some 20 years later, this time with a clock tower, which was the town's first time piece.

As many of the 300 textile workers he employed didn't have clocks back then, his plan was to ensure they arrived for work on time.

Of course, the decline of the textile industry, meant the closure of many of our mills and then demolition, along with their chimneys.

Here we take a look at some of the chimneys which were felled in the 1960s and '70s.