AFTER I printed last week a story about Edge's Dolly Blue works, and the Drummer dyes and radios they also produced, I received this photograph from Mrs Carole Heron, of Lonsdale Road, Bolton, who tells me that this 1962 photograph shows a group of women who worked for the firm, packing Drummer dyes.

"I am second from the left on the second row, and my mother Edith Lonsdale is in the centre. Others are my cousin Freda Taylor, Jessie Tonge, Alice Bryon, Alice France, and Edith Greenhalgh.

"I also worked on Movol, a thick clear liquid which was in small bottles like test tubes. To fill these you had to be well covered, with head cover, goggles and rubber gloves. You had three or four bottles in your hand, and as you put each one under the nozzle you pressed a pedal and the liquid shot in; if you didn't have it just right it would shoot anywhere - hence the goggles."

Another letter came from M. Smith, of Constance Road, Bolton, who says that "Years ago I lived in what was called The Valley where the Gardeners' Arms was (it is now called Arkwright's). At the side of the pub were stables, and across the road a bowling green. On the way to school I cut through allotments and hen pens, went down Raphael Street to St Joseph's where the Dolly Blue works were. It wasn't wash day without Dolly Blue. I also remember a large quarry which was very deep. It took a long time to fill it in. There were no houses then, but now it is a big estate."