Hard at work or telling a joke on the factory floor, we celebrate the region's factory workers down the decades
Living along the River Mersey has meant Merseyside has long been associated with dock work - but its factories have also played a major part in the region's commercial success.
Many historic factories once called Merseyside their home, based in businesses across the region from Vauxhall and Speke to Moreton in Wirral. A source of employment for generations of families, sadly many have now closed their doors.
Recently, the Liverpool Echo looked back at the dockers at work and play, and so we thought it's time we celebrated Merseyside's legion of factory workers through the decades. We took a look in the ECHO archives and found photos of factories and their workers during their heyday.
READ MORE: 26 fascinating photos of Liverpool dockers at work and play
From the munitions workers - mostly women - in the early part of the century to some of the region's most iconic factories including Jacobs, Tate and Lyle, Plessey, Mecano, Bryant & May and Ford's motor plant in Halewood.
For beautiful, historic images from the past have a look at memorylane.co.uk/ and see what you can discover
Below are 42 images of factory staff hard at work but also in those candid moments, clocking off for the day or laughing on the factory floor where so many workers became friends for life.
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Do these awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Ogden's Tobacco factory Boundary Lane Liverpool. Circa 1910
Women manufacturing shell casings, Cunard Shell Works, Bootle, Merseyside, 1917
Lever's margarine factory, a view of the vast packing section. 1st June 1932
A section of the Hayes Engineering plant at Speke. January 1940
1926: Employees at work in one of the flour blending plants at W & R Jacob and Co's biscuit factory at Aintree, Liverpool
Women icing biscuits in a factory in Liverpool, England in 1926. Biscuits being coated with coloured sugar icing. Scenes at the biscuit factory of W. R. Jacob & Co (L'Pool) Ltd., at Aintree, Liverpool
20th October 1931: A production line at Dunlop's rubber shoe factory in Liverpool
3rd April 1954: Women at work for a football pools company in Liverpool
Shop floor factory workers at Plessey's Edge Lane site in the 1960s later being taken over by Marconi
Women working at Brough's, helping to meet the enormous demand for steel drums and containers of all kinds. 10th January 1946
Making meters at Prescot. British Insulated Callender's Cables factory, women making electric light meters. 18th January 1946
English Electric activities on Merseyside: Assembly of Napier 'Deltic' 2,500 B.H.P light-weight diesel engine for Marine and other applications which the Duke of Edinburgh will see when he visits Netherton Works, Bootle. November 1954
A section of Napier's dispatch department showing part of a line of 24 cylinder Sabre engines receiving their final adjustments. Liverpool, 16th January 1946
Cadbury's factory in Moreton. View of the packing and wrapping room. Here half pound boxes of biscuits are checked and weighed before going on the wrapping machine
Liverpool FC stars visit Taverner sweet factory, seen here are Ian Callaghan, Phil Thompson, Terry McDermott and John Toshack watch the lollipop making process. 3rd September 1976
Bill Tavener, managing director of Taveners, watches the production line of marshmallows at the factory in Beech Street, Liverpool. Picture taken October 28 1991
Workers from the Automatic Telephone Co, Edge Lane, pouring out at a quarter past five and blocking local roads around the factory. Circa 1963
Tate & Lyle factory in Liverpool. Circa 1960s
Tate and Lyle sugar refinery in Love Lane near the docks in Liverpool. 8th April 1968
Women at work at Tate and Lyle. They packed sugar from 6am til 2pm and then did the family wash at the corpy laundry, finishing at 5pm. 10th January 1961
Female workers of the Tate and Lyle sugar refinery in Liverpool make their way to the staff canteen to consider action to offset the threat to the sugar factory. Around 1500 workers were told by Mr E Clarke, the managing director, that the firm was doing everything possible to safeguard the jobs of the 2000 employees against a threat arising from European negotiations. 29th October 1974
The chimney on the old Tate and Lyle factory site comes crashing to the ground
Women on a production line in a factory manufacturing the antibiotic penicillin at Speke, Liverpool. Circa 1954
Kirkby Manufacturing and Engineering Works, Kirkby, Wednesday 28th March 1979
Kirkby Manufacturing and Engineering Works, Kirkby, Wednesday 28th March 1979
Kirkby Manufacturing and Engineering worker's cooperative, members leaving meeting, Kirkby, Monday 20th February 1978
Hometime - workers leave the Halewood Ford factory in 1971
The new Ford Corsair car on the production line at the Ford Motor plant in Halewood, Merseyside. October 1963
Scenes inside the Ford factory at Halewood showing the production line. 23rd January 1967
20 years old Mrs. Margaret Barber's verdict on the mass-production chips she is eating. Margaret is one of the chip-loving workers at the giant Ford Car factory at Halewood, Liverpool. December 1967
Scenes inside the Ford factory at Halewood showing the production line. 23rd January 1967
Scenes inside the Ford factory at Halewood showing the production line. 23rd January 1967
Princess Diana seen here chatting with machinists Doreen, Dot and Betty in the sewing department at Ford's Halewood plant. HRH the Princess of Wales toured the Halewood plant as part of the factory's 25th birthday celebrations. 27th September 1988
A Ford Capri rolls of the production line at the Halewood motor plant in Liverpool. March 1969
The process of manufacturing matches at the Bryant & May Match Factory in Garston, near Liverpool. A worker is taking sectioned logs from a belt and removing the bark so that they can be cut into sheets. Circa 1955
Process of manufacturing matches at the Bryant & May Match Factory in Garston, near Liverpool. Boxes of matches are being checked and labelled on a production line. Circa 1955
Vauxhall Ellesmere Port’s first car. In 1964 a white Vauxhall Viva came off the line following the building of the all-new factory on the site of RAF Hooton.
Save our jobs - a protest against the closure of the Meccano factory in 1979
Women at work in a factory sewing leather products. Speke, Liverpool, 8th January 1946
The Schofields factory, Dalrymple Street, Liverpool. 8th March 1991
Workers at a Liverpool bottling plant have been voted the tops, The Coca Cola Bottlers (Scotland and Northern) Limited factory in Charnock Road, Fazakerley, has won the company's Factory of the Year Award for 1982
Workers are proud to say "Made in Huyton" as Rita Canello holds up the first pair of trousers to come off the production line at the Wilson Road clothing factory of The Knowsley Garment Company, a business set up by Hong Kong businessmen. Picture taken 8th March 1987