A FORMER factory chargehand has died 34 years after he left Leigh to make a new life Down Under.

John (Bert) Clayton, 74, who was born in Yates Street, had a fatal heart attack on Saturday in hospital in New South Wales.

Bert, who started work at Leigh's famous Rope Works, moved into the cotton industry working at Tunnicliffe's and later became a chargehand at Mill Lane.

He and his wife and three sons, Paul, Ronnie and Sean, left their Hope Street, Leigh, home to join brother Bill who had emigrated to Newcastle two years earlier.

He found work in the cotton mills there and retired as a chargehand.

The brothers were joined by their parents from their Richmond Drive, Higher Folds, home and third brother Ronnie was due to join them in 1975, but his plans were shattered when his sponsor dropped out at the last minute.

However, the family kept in touch by phone and Ronnie, and wife Elsie, of Carisbrooke Road, Higher Folds, have made many trips across the world to visit the family.

Ronnie said: "I was only speaking to Bert two days before his death. It is upsetting at a time like this for a family to be so far apart. It is a long time since he left the town but I am sure many factory workers will remember him."