[MargaretR]

I remember my dad going for tackler training on Northrop automatics at Whitebirk, and my mother eventually weaving on them, but the whole mill wasn't converted to them.

In that Tv programme I mentioned in an earlier post, the biggest advances in textile machinery were in spinning - and both weaving and spinning technological advances were late being implemented by Lancashire mill owners.

Put simply - the customers found that cotton fabric produced by those advanced machines could be bought cheaper - the market was lost.