Pioneer Mill, Mill Hill, March 2011 (Image: Newsquest)
This photo from 2011 records one of the last remaining brick mill chimneys in Blackburn being demolished.
The chimney belonging to Pioneer Mill at Mill Hill had been the town’s last purpose-built cotton mill, opening at the beginning of the 20th century.
Situated next to the Leeds-Liverpool Canal it would later be where managing director Brian Mercer began to produce a new mesh in 1958 on a machine which he had developed in secret.
By 1964, Netlon was all that was produced at the mill and exported around the world.
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