HERE’S a shot of the Hole House Mill workers in Blackburn, taking a second out of their busy day to pose for a picture in 1911.

At this time, out of the town’s population of 133,000, roughly 42,000 were working in textiles.

There was around 28,000 working in looms like this.

Blackburn employed more weavers than any other town in the world, with Burnley not far behind, employing nearly 26,000 workers.

The years before the First World War were a time of boom for the cotton industry, with the number of looms soaring to 87,000 between 1910 and 1911.

Between 1900 and the breakout of the war, 21 mills were built in the town, bringing its total to a whopping 150.

As the young faces in the photo show, many of the mill workers were children.

Around 840 boys and girls as young as 12 worked on the half-time system which required them to also spend half of the day in school, before it was stopped in 1920.

Children over the age of 12 were awarded a labour certificate by the education authority to prove they need only attend school part time.

The period between the two world wars began the steady decline of the textile industry and orders went abroad.

Hole House Mill’s weaving shed finally came to an end and stopped weaving in 1959.