PENNINE Lancashire was built on the cotton mills and inventors of the Industrial Revolution - but a new generation of businessman and entrepreneurs are now spinning new hi-tech yarns of success for the 21st Century.

The thread of ingenuity so evident in the 18th and 19th Centuries stretches unbroken to the new aerospace, paper and computer-based products creating wealth and jobs across the area today.

The Leeds-Liverpool canal which was the artery taking goods in and out of Blackburn, Accrington and Burnley now brims with leisure facilities, new homes and firms along its banks.

Where textiles was once the signature product of Pennine Lancashire, now aerospace flies the flag for innovation with automotive and precision engineering not far behind.

BAE Systems at Samlesbury, with its world-class military aircraft, and Rolls-Royce aero-engine factory in Barnoldswick support a massive supply chain of companies large and small including Burnley's fast-growing Aircelle and Blackburn's Neonickel.

Blackburn also is home to two of Britain's largest paper and tissue producers - Accrol Paper and Star Tissue.

The town's Promethean World company supplies its revolutionary interactive 'whiteboards' and other education technology to classrooms across the UK and the globe while Nelson's Daisy Group is at the heart of the telecommunications revolution.

Crown Paints in Darwen and Graham and Brown in Blackburn are world leaders in the decoration field.

Major automotive companies like Jaguar and Aston Martin turn to firms like Burnley's BCW Engineering and TRW Automotive Body Control, Systems for key components.

Blackburn's Pressparts and Precision Polymer Engineering provide precisely created products for industries including the pharmaceutical and chemical sectors.

East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce chief executive Mike Damms said: "East Lancashire's prosperity was originally built on cotton and machinery.

"The legacy that has given is one of ingenuity, innovation, manufacturing,a good work ethic and flexibility of skills to meet the changing needs of the world.

"We now have a new generation of entrepreneurs and innovators building on those talents to create new products, new jobs and new businesses.

"Modern days, hence Pennine Lancashire has a real assets in the glorious countryside and surrounding areas which it makes it an attractive place to invest, work and play."

The thread of Pennine Lancashire innovation that began in the 18th Century with James Hargreaves invention of the Spinning Jenny in Oswaldwistle and Great Harwood man John Mercer's development of the cotton softening named after him has continued throughout the following 250 years.

Then in 1880 Richard Kenyon devised the Ewbank Sweeper while the 1940's saw the creation of Terylene.

Wallpaper printing started in Darwen with Charles and Harold Potter while the ubiquitous plastic mesh known as Netlon came out of Blackburn.

Accrington's Nori bricks have housed a nation while the Cosworth DFV and Frank Whittle's jet engines revolutionised air travel and Formula One in the 30 years after the Second World War.