Reg worked there for the next three decades. He explains: 'After seven years working as a loom assistant, I got the promotion I was hoping for. I was put in charge of my own loom. It was a proud moment. It is a skilled job controlling the weaving process alongside the creeler who tends the thread spools. The factory was like family. At one point I worked alongside my brother William on the next loom. My three brothers were all weavers, my father was a yarn sorter and my wife Christine worked as a setter putting the roll bobbins on the back of looms.

Everything changed when the factory closed down in 1990 and hundreds of jobs were phased out. I was made redundant two years before my 65th birthday. You might know it's coming, but it's a big blow when it actually happens, especially in a town like this where so many people depend on one industry. People were sobbing and crying everywhere. Luckily I had a part-time Saturday job delivering bread for the West End Bakery to 10 local shops, which I still do. It's a grand job which gets me out and about.'