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In November, 2001 it was just over a month since it was announced
that the giant W and J Whitehead wool-combing mill at Laisterdyke
near Bradford was to close with the loss of 600 jobs.
Many
saw the closure of Whiteheads as another nail in the coffin of Bradford's
once mighty textile industry - and a sign that the day may come
when there are no mills in Bradford at all.
A
handful of staff were kept on in the run-up to Christmas.
Philip Hunt had worked at Whiteheads for 36 years, almost all his
working life. His colleague Tony Hobbins had been at the mill for
29 years.
In one of the spinning sheds new machines stood silent. The remaining
staff saw themselves as the lucky ones, processing Laisterdyke's
last few bales of wool.
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