THE Telegraph certainly gets down to the nitty gritty of things -- well whatever will the Lancashire people think? Cobblestones to be laid by men from Portugal (LET, December 3).

I think it is a snub to our people. I feel furious to think that our roads and streets and back streets were all covered by the 'horrible black stuff' many years ago.

All our crafts, which are the brainchild, I suppose, of Lancashire, have been passed on abroad. The old craftsmen are up above.

When a cobbled street was replaced it was sealed round with tar. The smell of it cured your bad colds. Our mothers would say "go and stand by the tar and smell it."

Hanging flags was a craft as well, once a flag was laid there was quite a lot of knocking it down with a wooden hammer. But once it was done, it didn't tip up like they do today.

I feel so angry, as a child we would sing 'Britannia never, never, never shall be slaves.' We are slaves for other countries, instead of standing on our own feet. Our welfare, railways and many more have all suffered, but to come down to cobblestones.

Probably someone one day will be telling me how to donkey stone my step! I wonder what other people think.

ADA GIBSON, Grange Street, Clayton le Moors.