THIS week's Readers' Recollections take us back to the late 'fifties when the cotton industry in Lancashire was just winding up.

Many people will still remember working in the factories where the hot, damp conditions made it a misery for everyone and everything except the cockroaches.

Reader Lorraine Atherton (nee Bamber) worked at Horrockses in Stanley Street.

"On a warm day, it was sweltering in the weaving shed," she said: "They used to turn the sprinklers on which sent out steam to keep the cotton damp. It was a horrible atmosphere.

"If you had just had your hair done, you'd wasted your money. Everyone knew that."

Lorraine worked with her mother and all her friends and neighbours from Frenchwood: "They were happy days," she smiled: "There was a real sense of camaraderie.

"And the bosses looked after you. Every factory had a nurse, and when you first went to work there you were checked out by a doctor for TB.

"Well, they didn't want you off sick, did they?"

Lorraine (pictured third from left) and her colleagues (from left) Monica; Jean Terry and Alice Martin, claim to have woven the seat covers of the first Minis ever made.

They took a pride in the job: "It was very interesting work," said Lorraine: "It was lovely watching your cloth grow, like building something, watching the pattern develop in front of your eyes."

But woe betide anyone whose work was not up to scratch, they would be called up to the manager's office and given a good telling-off.

The same happened if you were late: "The gates automatically locked at 7.30pm so if you were not in, you had to go through the watch-house where your name was taken.

If you were late more than once a week, you were in real trouble." Lorraine was battery weaver which means she had at least 16 looms to oversee. She worked alongside tatlers who maintained the looms; beam gaitors who put the big beams of warp on the looms and loom sweepers, who swept up beneath the machinery.

Besides the friendliness of the mill, another great incentive to the work was the pay packet, Lorraine said: "It was very good money, if you worked shifts, you could expect to earn better money than some working men."

But like all good things, it could not last.

The mill where Lorraine worked is now a Sainsbury's Homebase.

Many others have been demolished or turned into all sorts of things from museums and antiques centres to warehouses and business premises.

Ironically, the Horrockses down the road in New Hall Lane is currently a factory for making jeans from imported cloth.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.