For at least 200 years the textile trade flourished at Otley Mills - until it all came to an end 21 years ago when it succumbed to the recession with the loss of 120 jobs.

The closure of William Ackroyd and Company - which had traded on the site for 170 years - was a huge blow to the town.

The family-run company had a reputation as a good employer, and in many cases generation followed on generation to work there.

The company's chairman Ronnie Duncan was the fifth generation in his family to run the mill - and he found himself on the dole along with the workforce.

But despite the collapse of the textile trade he was determined to save the historic buildings and develop the site into a business centre.

The process of converting and renovating the mill buildings was a long and hard one.

But his dream became reality, and now the Wharfebank Business Centre is flourishing, with around 500 people working at more than 50 enterprises on site.

Now Mr Duncan is planning a reunion of the former mill workers to mark the 21st anniversary of its closure and his own 50th anniversary with the company.

Anyone who has worked for William Ackroyd's up until January 1983 is being invited to come along with a partner to the event at the Grove Hill Social Club at 7pm on Friday, February 13.

Mr Duncan, 75, said 30 people had already accepted the invitation even before it was officially advertised.

"There seems to be great enthusiasm," he said. "I don't know how many people will come - it is a long time ago. A lot of the elderly people I knew have died now, but if we got 50 people it would be fantastic."

"I know there are one or two people in their 80s who will come if they can," he added.

It is a sign of the mutual respect between employer and employee that former staff are so enthusiastic about getting together again.

And it is the sort of amicable relationship which the company has long been known for.

In 1925 on the death of Mr Thomas Arthur Duncan the Wharfedale and Airedale Observer said: "For nearly 40 years Mr Duncan and his younger brother, Sir Hastings Duncan, were the principal partners in the large textile concern known as Otley Mills, employing upwards of 1,000 hands, and during the whole of that time an industrial dispute was unknown.

"Scores of their workpeople have been employed at the mills all their lives, and the intimate and friendly relations between them and their masters were of a character practically unknown under modern business Conditions."

Not only did the Duncan family build a reputation as benevolent employers but they were also well known for their service to public life in Otley.

Thomas Arthur Duncan became the first chairman of the council in 1984 and was a leading light in ensuring the town got a new water supply with the building of the March Ghyll Reservoir.

He was also chairman of Prince Henry's Grammar School Governors, and a chairman of the Otley bench of magistrates.

His brother Sir James Hastings Duncan also threw himself into public life. He won the Otley Division back for the Liberals when he stood as a parliamentary candidate in 1900. And it was his appeal to the Minister of Education in 1917 which led to the re-opening of Otley's 300-year-old Grammar School after a lapse of 43 years.

Under their leadership William Ackroyd's joined forces with the Duncan Barraclough company to buy Grove Hill Park, a house and eight acres of land on Ilkley Road as a recreation ground for the mill's employees.

The landscaping and development of the site provided work in the years of industrial depression following the First World War.

But despite the Duncan family's long involvement with the company it still bears the name of its founder William Ackroyd, one of ten brothers from Bradford, who in 1815 at the age of 23 bought from Mr Read, of Otley, "a well built stone mill, complete with dam, goit and three water wheels."

The business grew and in 1836 William Ackroyd took into partnership a Scotsman Thomas Duncan.

By 1865 both were dead - and control had passed to Thomas's sons.

Rapidly expanding business mean that by the mid-1800s the firm needed to operate out of Brick Lane Mills, Bradford, and Dumb Mill, Frizinghall, in order to cope.

But in 1889 these were given up in favour of the newly built Pegholme Mill on the Otley site.

For many years the firm went from strength to strength, becoming Otley's biggest employer - but less than a century after Pegholme was built the textile trade was facing near extinction.

Ronnie Duncan said: "The textile industry as a whole virtually came to an end. There were no suppliers and no customers - it was an awful period."

"When we closed our doors we had people working for us who were third generation, because employment was for life and son followed father and daughter followed mother into the business."

The close links between the families as generation followed generation meant it was especially difficult to make employees redundant.

"It was awful, awful," he said. "You can imagine - I was fifth generation and the idea that it was going to end under me was terrible."

"There was terrible pain and anguish. I was on the dole as well and I didn't think I would be able to work again."

But as William Ackroyd (Holdings) Limited the company has managed to preserve the past whilst moving with the times.

The heritage of the historically important mill buildings has been preserved - but in a way which was financially viable.

And now the Wharfebank Business Centre has a waiting list of prospective tenants eager to move in.

"We had to start from scratch.We gradually started to redevelop, and now it is so successful that we don't need to hold back for lack of money," Mr Duncan said.

Anyone wanting to attend the reunion and celebration should contact Ronnie Duncan, on 01943 466444, Ann Smith, on 01943 461423, or Bill Bower, on 01943 465781, before Saturday January31.