Platt Brothers & Co. was a huge textile machine engineering works based right here in Oldham.

By 1890 Platt’s employed 15,000 people in Oldham which represented an amazing 42 per cent of the population.

One of the reasons for Platt’s success before the First World War was a flurry of orders from the continent and as far afield as India, Brazil and Japan, as new cotton mills comparable to those in Lancashire were being built.

Platt Brothers & Co. responded by setting up a new planning department which assisted companies in every aspect of setting up cotton and wool manufacturing.

This was down to the finest detail including advising on the arrangement of the equipment and items needed in conjunction with machinery such as cans, bobbins and testing equipment.

Teams of fitters were set abroad to assemble the machinery and set up the factories.

Platt’s employee, Albert Lord was born in 1867. A family member recently donated various documents linked to his work supervising the installation of Platt’s cotton spinning machinery.

His passport reveals that his job took him to many places in the world including France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and the USA. His family also report, which is supported by a number of gifts which he brought back, that he went to Russia however this is not recorded in his passport.

Not surprisingly, his wife, Hannah became a bit fed up with being left in Oldham to look after their four children on her own with only an odd postcard now and again.

During one business trip to France which had lasted nearly six months, Hannah, on the spur of the moment, packed a suitcase and scooped up the youngest child (Emma, aged about 11).

She travelled to Lille where she found first a boarding house then her husband. Slightly surprisingly it all ended happily.

The passport, along with five others, were donated to Gallery Oldham in 2002. They all belonged to Mr Peter Edwards who worked as a textile engineer for over 50 years before and after the Second World War.

Peter started as an apprentice with the firm J Hetherington and after obtaining his qualifications went to work for Platt Brothers & Co, who over the years extending their operations opening the company Platt International in Accrington. Peter worked all over the world installing machinery.

He started travelling in 1938 going by train to Poland, by 1939 he had to come back due to the imminent declaration of war against Nazi Germany. Under the circumstances it was rather a long and dangerous trip.

The train was stopped frequently throughout Germany, where Peter had to repeatedly produce his passport for the Immigration authorities which was stamped with the official swastika.

These six passports are silent proof of the many countries he visited doing the job he loved. Amongst them are Brazil, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Hong-Kong, Philippines, Mexico, Venezuela and South Africa. Quite a travelling achievement for an Oldhamer in those days.