Raw cloth went in at one end and colourful printed fabric came out at the other.

But in a sad day in 1966, Dinting Vale Printworks, which had opened  in 1825, closed for good.

The large mill, which ran for around 100 yards at the side of the A57 at Dinting Vale, was the latest in a long line of Glossopdale factories that employed hundreds of workers to close.

Olive and Partington’s Paper Mill on Turnlee Road; food processors Pickerings and Maconochie; Volcrepe, which manufactured rubber products; Ritz Manufacturing Company and Lux Lux Ltd, which made women’s and children’s clothing at the town centre Woods and Howard Town Mills, were all casualties.

The building that once housed the largest paper mill in Europe burned down, Pickerings factory was knocked down to make way for the Tesco store, Volcrepe at Milltown was also demolished to make way for homes.

Maconochie in Waterside, Hadfield, which went on to become part of the Nestle and Rowntree’s food chain, saw its buildings housing a number of small companies.

Most of the roadside printworks buildings still stands, although now occupied by a variety of firms.

The printworks is often referred to in books relating to world famous children’s author Beatrix Potter.

Her grandfather Edmund founded the factory and for a time lived close by in a house, now demolished, called Dinting Lodge.

There are tales that as a child Beatrix visited him there and allegedly was given pieces of cloth which gave her the inspiration for the clothes her storybook characters wore.

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