An 11-part television history of Britain at work in the 20th century.
4: Cotton People
Eighty years ago cotton goods were Britain's biggest export by far. A quarter of all overseas earnings came from cotton - 600,000 jobs depended on it:
'The biggest majority of Lancashire girls were in cotton. They all had to go into the mills. And they were weaving, winding, beaming, reeling, picking the cops. They were everything.'
But the cotton people were about to go over a precipice. Trade slumped, and foreign competitors took over.
Was Lancashire an innocent victim of lower Asian wage rates, or could she have done more to re-equip and change with the times? Music by CARL DAVIS
Producer ANGELA HOLDSWORTH Executive producer
PETER PAGNAMENTA (R)
* CEEFAX SUBTITLES