FORMER employees of Avon Rubber are invited to an event looking back at the lives of staff at the Bradford on Avon-based factory.

The event, starting at 2pm on Saturday in The Vaults in Lamb Yard, hopes to collect photos, artefacts and short clips from workers about their lives when they worked at the factory which will be contributed to a short film and exhibition later in the year.

The gathering project is a joint effort between the Preservation Trust, Museum Trustees, Made in Bradford on Avon, the Col Llewellyn Palmer Trust and the Bradford on Avon Community Area Network.

Jim Lynch from BoACAN said he was surprised to find that there had not been any previous recordings of the Avon factory which focused on the lives of their workers and families.

He added: “What we are proposing to do with the exhibition and film is to engage with the former workers to find out what life was like in Bradford on Avon back then and to allow the young people to talk about what life is like in the town today.”

The collaboration will also see organisers engage with the younger generation of Bradford on Avon in the making the film and have teamed up with the town’s Local Youth Network.

The reunion is part of a larger, joint Preservation Trust and Museum project to return the Iron Duke to the town. The machine rolled sheet rubber and cotton together and was used by Stephen Moulton to start the town's rubber works in 1848.

It is expected that the project will cost £45,000.