The recent announcement of the closure of the Brookfoot Company gave rise to nostalgic reflections, since many generations of Brighouse people were employed there, many for the whole of their working lives. It was proudly said of any kind of cloth: "If it could be woven, Brookfoot could dye and finish it".

Its history goes back to 1870, when Mr Joe Richardson started at Brookfoot because he saw the potential of the site, fed by a constant supply of soft water from the Shibden and Walterclough valleys and the Pennine Hills beyond. The company was sold in 1894 to Mr Hannam and became Thornton, Hannam and Marshall.

The owner of the company, which provided ever-increasing employment locally, lived on the premises in a large house, better described as a mansion, known as Brookfoot House. It was situated in the lee of the hillside that formed Brookfoot Hill, the road up to Southowram. The water storage dam was built on the site of his ornamental lake, and the mansion fell into decay.

By the turn of the 19th century the dyeworks at Brookfoot had joined the Bradford Dyers Association (BDA) along with 20 other companies. One of the original BDA companies was Edward Ripley's in West Bowling, Bradford. Another company which joined the BDA was the Craven Dyeing Company further up the valley.

The famous red seal of the BDA was a familiar sight in the area, it was part of our youth. We saw it in the days of horse-drawn transport, on the covered waggons somehow reminiscent of the wild west. They were kept nicely painted and the horses were always well groomed. With the coming of motorised transport, the familiar BDA transport plied regularly between Brookfoot and Manchester and, of course, Bradford.

Power was obtained in the old days from a large water wheel situated in the line of the stream, or brook, from which the place took its name, the remainder of the machines being driven by individual steam engines. The 1950's brought problems; trade was good, but power supplies were insufficient, and it was decided to build a large power producing unit between the two dyeing and finishing companies big enough to serve them both. It cost £ ¾ million and today is still one of the largest units of its kind in the country.

The new power house contained six boilers and two turbines which generated electricity for the two works. The boilers consumed 100 tons of coal per day, and this was carried by two canal barges owned by the company, conveying coal from the colliery direct to the Brookfoot wharf, which was situated on the bend of the canal 500 yards from the Ganny Lock.

Despite this expensive solution to the power problems, Craven Dyeing Company failed and was closed down. In 1957, it was decided to merge Ripleys and Thornton, Hannam and Marshall's on the Brookfoot site to use the modern power plant. It became Brookfoot

Limited.Woollen fabrics were slowly being replaced by newer synthetic cloths like Terylene and Acrilan. In 1964 the BDA was taken over by Joe Hyman and Viyella International who produced a variety of synthetic fabrics, such as 'Everprest' for gents washable trousers. A few years later Carrington and Dewhirst joined Viyella and became Carrington Viyella. The dyeworks became the Brookfoot Company.

Because of the new fabrics it was decided about three years ago to introduce new machinery into the original Craven Dyeing Works at a cost of £ ¾ million and to demolish the Brookfoot Company site.

One thinks of the days when it was customary to take dad's dinner to the mill in a basin wrapped in the familiar spotted red handkerchief before canteens were thought of. The factory buzzers which were so ridiculously loud that they frightened dogs and children. One small boy was going down Brighouse Wood Lane from Lane Head to the dyeworks with his dad's dinner, the buzzer blew, and the poor little soul flew on to his backside. He arrived at the works with gravy dripping through that red cloth.

Louisa Stocks has long since fried her last fish in the little wood shop opposite 'Thornton, Hannam's; the grabs that emptied the barges were stilled long ago; the millions of miles of cloth, the gabardines, the plush velvets, worsteds, silks and satins that came down those production lines are no more.

We can be sure of one thing. When production is over and Brookfoot has been demolished, it might be, 100 or 200 years hence, that some curious fellow will be saying, "On that site there was once a dyeworks, they used to dye and finish cloths of a quality you only dream about today".

The beck, you can be sure will still be chattering its way down the valley to join the River Calder long after the best laid schemes of men are forgotten.