A RIDER to the letter from Stuart Wilson, headlined “Happy memories” (Letters, October 23).

Polishing my gate-legged table recently, I began to muse over the hundreds of tiny indentations in the polished surface.

These had been caused by my brother and I puncturing holes in the hundreds of button-cards which had been delivered, along with thousands of buttons, by a chap from Gansolite, the button factory on Haxby Road.

Puncturing the cards made it easier for my mother to sew buttons on the cards for which she would be paid 1d (per card).

After thinking about Gansolite, it was a natural progression to recall just what an industrial city York was in the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. People under 50 will be quite surprised to hear just how much industry there was.

Cooke, Troughton & Simms (precision instrument makers, where I served my time), Rowntree, Terry’s and Cravens (confectionery), Adams Hydraulics (iron foundry), Gansolite (buttons), Sessions and Ben Johnson’s (printers), carriage and wagon works (British Rail), British Sugar (sugar beet factory); Redferns (glassworks); Ebor and Capaldi’s (ice cream); Eborcraft (furniture), Armstrong Patents (shock absorbers) and the tiny mattress manufacturer in Osbaldwick.

Now, with one exception (Ben Johnson’s), all are long gone.

This lack of Industry is repeated throughout our once-great country.

Britain is now only a service-base country.

Philip Roe, Roman Avenue South, Stamford Bridge.