As hundreds of Nestle Rowntree workers lose their jobs, Charlotte Percival looks back at happier times.

ROWNTREE didn't only make chocolate in the 1960s and 1970s - it produced plenty of laughter too.

For Mollie-Marie and Brian Summers, their days at the factory were among the happiest of their lives.

Mollie-Marie, now 71, was 17 when she joined the company. Her job was to weigh the chocolates and send supplies to departments that had run out.

Lunchtime was her favourite hour of the day, where she would enjoy "lovely" food in the canteen before joining the rest of the workers in the dance hall.

"We would spend the last half hour dancing, " she remembers.

"They'd put on records like Twist And Shout and all the girls and the lads would dance. We had lovely meals too, better than they had at school."

Her husband, Brian, now 75, was an operator in the same department. He used to enjoy billiards and snooker at lunchtime, or visiting the picture house next door: "Cowboys, the lot, " he said.

Mollie-Marie's uniform was a simple white overall and a "turban". She recalls popping many chocolates into her mouth.

"My favourites were Walnut Whips and Turkish Delight, " she said. "It was two for me, one for Rowntrees - I had hundreds."

She remembers the sound of bubbling chocolate, clattering trays and hands packing.

There were 15,000 people working at Rowntree then and Brian and Mollie-Marie knew many of them. They would meet up at night to dance and the men often arranged trips to Blackpool or Bridlington while the women visited Scarborough. Many marriages arose from Rowntree - including Mollie-Marie and Brian's.

Brian's job was to keep the machines full of chocolate and check the temperature. The couple remember their employment fondly. "They were beautiful days, everyone was very cheerful, " said Mollie-Marie. "I'd go back tomorrow."

John Boyne, 65, has similar happy memories. He went to Rowntree aged 15 and left when he was 60.

"It was very family orientated, all the families used to work there, " he said. "You'd go in and there'd be someone's brother, their mother, their father - the whole family working there."

Mr Boyne's father was disappointed when he shunned a career in joinery for Rowntree. "But I got paid more at Rowntree than I would have as a joiner, " he says.

Initially, he used to help package Dairy Box chocolates. After a short break he worked on the Kit Kat and Aero lines.

The atmosphere was very jolly, he recalls, and there was a fishing club, football club, youth club and a snooker room. "They used to play music while you worked and you could request a record, " he said. "Everything always smelled of chocolate - even when you went home you smelled of chocolate."

Mr Boyne's early uniform was a simple apron, but in the 1970s it progressed to a coat, trousers and a hair net. The clattering of metal molds quietened in the mid-1970s, when plastic molds were brought in. Wrapping by hand was also phased out with new machinery.

"When Nestle took over they were very good and put a lot of money into the business, " he said.

"I can see what they're doing now and I can understand it, but it's not good for the workers."