THE nostalgic sound of the Holloway factory whistle rang across the Five Valleys this morning.

Former factory workers gathered to hear the whistle on the site where the factory’s canteen used to stand in Brickrow, Stroud, which now houses The Exchange workspace centre.

The whistle was placed on top of a steam traction engine which took an hour and a half to produce enough steam to release the customary noise.

Stroud resident Faye Woodward has fond memories of helping her father to sound the whistle to let the workers know it was time to go home.

He had worked at the factory and when it closed in 1975 he was given the whistle as a gift.

Faye told the SNJ: “This has really been amazing, it’s brilliant to hear it again.

“Many of the people here remember the noise well and actually remember me as a little girl visiting my dad.

“As soon as I heard the sound again all these memories came flooding back, it’s very emotional.

“It reminds me of the smell and the noise of the boiler house where I would spend a lot of time with my dad.

“The whistle will stay with me and it’ll be passed down the family so they can choose to hear it again in another 40 years.”

BBC Radio Gloucestershire Breakfast Show presenter Mark Cummings has made it his mission to revive this historic sound, with permission from Faye.

Cheltenham-based steam management company Spirax Sarco managed to get the whistle working once more in January.

The sound which rang across the Five Valleys at 8am this morning was heard as far away as Rodborough and Ruscombe, on a good day it used to be heard as far away as Painswick.

One former Holloway factory worker Pauline Pope had worked in the warehouse dispatching garments from 1954 to 1970, leaving to have her first child, she told the SNJ: “It brought back so many happy memories – though it’s a lot louder than I remember, but that’s because it used to be on top of the factory and not this low down.

“I worked here all my working life, it’s great to see a lot of people here from when I used to work here – I remember Faye coming down each day to visit her dad.

“I used to ride my little vespa to work each day and store it in the canteen here when it was wet and cold, so there are great memories of that too.”

The Holloway Company started in 1849 and became a worldwide clothes manufacturing company employing 1,500 people and were the first to use steam to manufacture clothes.

They were the first to make ‘off the peg’ clothes as opposed to tailor made, and George Holloway was the first employer to introduce sick benefits and a lump sum upon retirement.