TO a small boy during the late 1940s, Hong Kong was just another stamp in the 'Empire' album. Later, 'Hong Kong' appeared on cheap toys and cheap clothing.

Every Friday evening, shire horses from 'Bullough's' and the LMS Railway would clip-clop over the cobbles in Wellington Street, Accrington.

They were on their way to weekend pasture in the Co-op fields at Broad Oak.

Then, I didn't connect the sound of those hoofs with the stamps of Hong Kong.

Accrington, when cotton was king, exported the machines that would dethrone 'King Cotton' in Lancashire and made possible the transformation of Hong Kong from a simple colony into a rich power base.

It was apt, then, that, recently, on the words: 'Like Earth's proud empires pass away' were especially poignant and I remembered the small boy sticking stamps in his album and the shire horses on their way to weekend rest.

(Hong Kong leave the Empire? - Don't be silly).

D PRATT (Mr), Plantation Street, Accrington.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.