I was very interested in your feature "Memories of the Nylon" Mylate ffather, John McCoubrie, worked there for many years. He was a knitter and then became a Knitting nstructor. He was one of the organisers of the annual Children's Christmas Parties.for many years.
I spent many happy hours helping him to select and wrapthe presents for the party and each age group was carefully chosen so that younger siblings had different toys from the older ones.
Sometimes my father got a lift to the Nylon whilst on shift-work. but I recall on many wet or freezing cold nights he had to walk from our home on the Gransha Road to the Six-Road Ends and then another 2-3 miles to the factory in Newtownards; then of course he had to repeat and reverse the journey home the following morning. Public transport wasn't great but then, as an ex-marine, he was used to hard physical effort.
During his time at the Nylon he and a few of his colleagues won the Pools, fantastic in those days!. Much partying went on and with short-time that year my father bought box loads of toys from Jackie Hillis's shop in Ards and gave them to friends so that their children could have as good a one as we had!
He also bought a brand new bungalowfor about £1500 I beleive. His share of the win was about £1800 and there may have been 6 or 7 in his syndicate.
Dad enjoyed his time in the Nylon and made many good friends.
One especially bad winter we had very heavy falls of snow and the road between Bangor and Ards was closed. many people couldn't get to work for days and then eventually the first bus re-started thejourney and dad needed to collect his wages at the factory. What a journey!. That bus was all over the road, sliding everywhere but despite the nervewrecking experience we got there and back safely, in one piece and with his wages.
My aunt, Margo Fulton, also worked at the Nylon as an examiner and spent hours keeping her hands, and finger nails in a smooth condition for handling the fine stockings.
I recall too the introduction of tights for children and I entered a competition for choosing a good name for them. The winning name was Bunny Hugs.
The people I met seemed to enjoy their time at the Nylon. Good luck with the website.
Yours faithfully, Lavinia Stewart