A NEW book that tells the rise of East Lancashire’s cotton industry through the memories of mill workers has been released.

Author Ron Freethy has produced a follow up to his 2007 book Memories of the Lancashire Cotton Mills after a new wave of stories and pictures materialised when it was published.

The Story of Lancashire Cotton captures the life in mill towns such as Blackburn and Burnley.

Conscious to create a human account of the industrial revoluntion, Lancashire Telegraph columnist Ron has aimed to bring the boom time era to life.

He hopes the area’s textile industry heritage will live on through his latest book.

And he said he wanted it to spur on others to record their memories of life in the mills.

In the book Ron looks into the beginnings of the industrial revolution, which started within East Lancashire homes and weaver’s cottages that were dominated by huge looms.

Through the 10 chapters he explains how Lancashire had tapped in to a niche market which saw production increase and orders soar as inventions such as the Spinning Jenny and Mule revoluntionised the industry.

Mill after mill and home after home was created to meet the demand which resulted in the area becoming the textile hub of the world in its heyday.

Ron said: “There are a lot of books about cotton, most of them are about statistics. How many machines, how many people worked in the mills but I’m not bothered about that. This book is about people’s memories.

“We need to ensure our school children know what their heritage is and we need to hold on to it. It is my collection of people’s memories but I have only scratched the surface.”

The book has been published by Countryside Books and is available to buy from £9.95.