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 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 competititors 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?
Narrator John Woodvine
Music by CARL DAVIS Film editor DAVE LEE
Assistant producer MAGGIE BROOKS Producer ANGELA HOLDSWORTH
Executive producer PETER PAGNAMENTA
(Book (same title) £10.75, from booksellers)