THE weaving shed at Hole House Mill in Blackburn in 1911 paints a different society to today.

At this time, out of the town's population of 133,000, almost 42,000 were working in textiles. And with more than 28,300 of them tending looms like these, Blackburn employed more weavers than any other town in the world.

Burnley was close behind with nearly 26,000 weavers. The years before World War One were generally a boom time for the cotton industry. Between 1910 and 1911, the number of looms in Blackburn soared by over 19,500 to 87,377. And from the start of the century, 21 new mills were built in the town, bringing its total to 150

As the young faces show, many of mill workers were children, out of Blackburn's massive weaving workforces in 1911, 814 were boys and girls as young as 12, working on a half-time system - spending half a day at school.