EAST Lancashire's growth and prosperity resulted from its weather, its hilly terrain and the ingenuity of local inventors.

More than 200 years ago they combined to put it on the map as the main cotton weaving and spinning district of the world.

Our damp weather ensured the cotton thread did not snap, while tumbling rivers and streams powered the water wheels, as early automation for the looms.

Of course, it was the Industrial Revolution and inventions such as Hargreaves' spinning jenny, Crompton's mule and later the arrival of the Lancashire loom, which led to the saying 'Britain's bread hangs by Lancashire's thread'.

All this led to textiles moving out of the hand loom cottagers' homes and into the mills, built close to the canal, for both water and easy transport and the sudden growth of our towns.

For centuries whole families worked in the textile industry, not just in weaving and spinning mills, but also in hundreds of ancillary trades, which grew to feed it.

Our archives reveal the heritage it left and here we share some of the images.