A FORMER weaver was spinning with excitement after being treated to an access all areas tour of the mill where she learned her trade.

Rita Holz, formerly Broxholme, started work at Bancroft Mill, Barnoldswick, towards the end of the Second World War.

Then just a young lady, she lived at Folly Cottages and was taught the art of weaving by her mother Ruby.

She worked at the Gillians Lane mill until 1949 when she had her first child, but she was never allowed in the engine hall, which was strictly off limits to weavers.

Rita, accompanied by her daughter Valerie Ormerod, visited to the mill on Sunday and was thrilled to catch a glimpse of the once-forbidden engine hall.

The pensioner, who also spent 25 years working at County Brook Mill, was even given the honour of starting the steam engine.

To show her gratitude she has presented the museum with a photograph of herself with her infant daughter in the mill’s canteen during the 1949 Christmas party.

Harry Moore, of the trust, said: “It was great fun, I have got to say, because I am more than interested in the stories of the mill when it was working.

“We have only really had one mill girl previously who has been able to tell us anything about it.

“She is called Hilda Elsworth and is still alive and well in Barnoldswick.

“We didn’t think there was another, but then out of the blue in came Rita and blew that wide apart.”