AS the bulldozers loom over a former Preston factory the one-time boss has revealed the secrets of its wartime past.

Tony Pickston, 78, was managing director of the former Gold Thread Works, Avenham Road, for 20 years, taking over the job from his father Leslie.

Military badges, Christmas decorations and telephone cables, all incorporating gold and silver, were made at the factory until its closure in 1991.

But during the Second World War factory bosses were given a top secret assignment -- to make authentic German badges for British spies.

Tony, of Chain House Lane, Lostock Hall, who retired in 1985, said: "My father told me that a small room in the factory had been used by three women to produce authentic badges for English spies going to Germany in the Second World War.

"It was top secret. These women had been working in there from 1941 to 1945 without any of the other workers knowing.

"Even I didn't find out until nearly ten years later."

The factory was established at the beginning of the nineteenth century by businessman Stephen Simpson before being taken over by his son and later the Pickston family.

In its heyday, hundreds of local people were employed there and at the company's foundry in Syke Street where gold and silver was cast into ingots and bars for the manufacture of various artifacts.

Now a planning application has been submitted to Preston City Council to develop the site of the listed building into 26 flats.

Tony said: "The world moves on. It was very difficult to compete with the production in places like India and Pakistan and as the military got smaller so did our orders. It's very sad."

The history of the former Gold Thread Works forms part of an exhibition of Avenham at The Harris Museum, Preston, until February next year.