ONE man's search for information about a key role played by Blackburn workers in the war effort has produced a flood of responses.

Regular Evening Telegraph contributor Ron Freethy is currently researching a book into the role played by civilians in Lancashire during the Second World War and asked Looking Back readers for details about a gas mask factory somewhere in the town.

No fewer than 47 readers responded to his appeal for help, many of whom either worked on the production lines or had relatives who did.

It would appear that there were actually two factories producing the essential equipment -- one situated in the Armenia Mill and the other near the Griffin Hotel on Garden Street in a building now occupied by Newman's Shoes.

According to workers at the time rubber from the factories could be smelled several streets away.

The gas mask factories were a good example of how the former cotton mills in East Lancashire diversified to help the war effort -- and to survive.

Because of the war, cotton was in short supply and some mills were forced to close. Others had to seek alternative means of production and made tents, munitions and aircraft parts.

One tragic legacy of the war work was that a number of those working on the gas mask production lines were affected by respiratory problems in later life.

Filters for the gas masks were made up of charcoal and blue asbestos, a substance which has subsequently been found to be extremely harmful. The women -- it was women who were predominantly involved in gas mask production -- were exposed to the asbestos as they made up the masks.

Both adults and children's gas masks were produced in Blackburn, the children's ones being a Mickey Mouse designs to encourage youngsters to wear them.

And as every school child from the war years remembers, woe betide you if you forgot to take your gas mask to school.