DURING Peace celebrations in July 1919, local factory interiors were decorated with “flags, streamers and coloured papers”, some opening their doors to the public, who visited in large numbers.

At Prospect and Damems Mills, Messrs H Hey and Co and John Wright, worsted spinners and manufacturers, offered prizes for the best departments, cannily taking the cleanliness of the machinery into account.

Here at Low Mills, Messrs Heaton’s spinners have created a temporary fairyland, posing their youngest workers at the front.

The half-time factory system was officially discontinued in 1918, but some of these youngsters would have started their working life as half-timers.

Forty years ago, a local 68-year-old proudly announced that: “I still work half-days at the same factory where I started half-time as a boy of 12.”