THE engineering giant that was Foster Yates and Thom has forged lasting memories for many people in Blackburn and beyond.

And many came forward when we appealed for stories or photographs from the days when the company exported its Lancashire boilers and later footwear moulding machines around the world.

Among them was 77-year-old Bernard Shorrock, who served his time at FYT, joining the boilershop in 1946, which employed around 30 men, in the manufacture and repair of its huge boilers.

Names he remembers are Terry Grogan, George Woodacre, Alan Margerison, boilershop manager Arthur Hulme and foreman Jimmy Barnes.

Bernard went on to work at Star Paper Mill, Feniscowles, later in his career.

Engineers were attracted to FYT from all over the country, enticed by adverts in the national newspapers, including Walter Cattell, who moved to Lancashire with his family from Sheffield in the mid 50s.

With staff issues headed by personnel officer Henry Heaton, the company had a reputation for looking after its workforce, and Walter moved into one of its available houses in Palatine Road, paying 12s 6d rental.

Peter Grimshaw told how his grandad, Tom Wilson, once worked there as a crane driver. "His hand had been hit by a bullet in the war, but he was still able to climb the long ladder to the cab of the huge crane which traversed the entire works, moving parts and boilers here and there.

"As a youngster I used to go to the entrance of the foundry near Birley Street and wave up to grandad who cheerfully waved back."

The great great grandson of William Thom, Michael Humphreys, of Simonstone, has spent many years researching his family tree and the part his forebears played in forging FYT's global industrial might.

FYT started out in 1824 as little more than a blacksmith's shop, before William, born in 1833, joined up to created Yates and Thom by the mid 1800s. It wasn't until the 1920s, however, that the Foster arm was added.

William had died in 1913 and it was only when his three sons, William, Henry and Frank, came into the business that it really started to move forward.

During the First World War the factory manufactured arms and in 1919 William junior was knighted by George V for services to the Ministry of Munitions.

For more than a century FYT was renowned for manufacturing Lancashire boilers and steam engines and one of the great sights in Blackburn was to see the firm's huge Clydesdale horses pulling their mammoth loads to Blackburn station.

The Thom family were bonded with the Dugdale cotton dynasty, which owned several mills in Blackburn, including Daisyfield and Plantation mills when Henry and Frank married two sisters from the family, Ethel and Florence.

As the male line of Dugdales ended, Henry, who was chairman of FYT, was asked to take over the running of the mills.

FYT was eventually taken over in 1957 and closed in 1973.