Looms in the old Moorside Mills could be back in business again - more than a quarter of a century after they stopped weaving.

Production at the mills in Moorside Road stopped in 1970, a casualty of the city's declining textile industry and the building was saved only when it reopened four years later as Bradford Industrial Museum.

But this week Joyce Dalton, technical director of Dalton Lucerne which produces Alpaca fabrics to line luxury yachts and private Lear jets, was at the museum to meet its trained loom tuner Greg Kotovs.

In June she commissioned Mr Kotovs to produce some Alpaca fabric samples based on the wool weaving techniques of Sir Titus Salt.

He spent 40 hours on one of the museum's working looms producing a selection of weaves for her and Dalton Lucerne's managing director Tim Owen to examine.

The results impressed them and if their clients give the go-ahead Mr Kotovs could be producing orders for the Macclesfield company.

Mr Owen said: "These are very, very interesting samples indeed. Greg has done very well. There's tremendous enthusiasm for these unusual and original designs, especially in the United States.

"These are building blocks for us. What we'd do next is take these samples to the luxury yachts or designers and see what they thought of them. They might use the materials for wall linings, curtains, or even for valances for beds."

Mr Owen said the fabric would be heat treated and de-haired before its silky sheen appeared which made it so sought after as a material.

He added the beauty of the museum's operation was it could produce small orders which the large textiles companies couldn't cater for.

Mr Kotovs, who has worked in textiles since he was 16, said he had been given some Alpaca wool samples with the remit to "have some fun" with the designs.

He said: "Joyce said she wanted a Bradford lustre fabric which is what Salt was doing in his time. It's helping us at the museum because I can demonstrate these old techniques to visitors as well as making her the fabric."

l Joyce Dalton is desperate to get any information about the G&L Turner weavers who owned the Beckside Mills in Great Horton. Anyone with any information should contact her on (01625) 572381.

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