THE spotlight will shine on one of Westbury’s lost industries when glover Lily Munday talks about more than half a century of gloving.

She will give a talk on Gloving in Westbury and Warminster on Tuesday, May 28 at the Methodist Church Hall in Station Road from 7.30pm.

Lily, who got her first job aged just 15 at Boultons in Westbury Leigh, went on to work in the industry all her life, learning a wide range of skills from operating specialist machinery through to hand felling.

Lily, who still works at Dents in Warminster, will be putting her knowledge on show as part of the regular series of talks and events organised by the Westbury Heritage Society.

A long term member of the heritage society committee, she will share her 53 years’ experience of working in the gloving industry.

Mrs Munday will also show a range of artefacts from handmade gloves through to specialist tools and articulated wooden hands used for display.

Westbury once had several gloving companies as well as many outworkers producing in their own homes.

The Westbury heritage and visitor centre still holds many reminders of the town’s once important industry including a gloving machine and a selection of gloves.

Westbury Heritage Society chair Sally Hendry said: “This promises to be a fascinating talk about an industry that was once so important for our town.

“It is particularly great to hear from someone like Lily who has such first-hand knowledge of this specialist industry.”

The last surviving glove manufacturer in the town was Reynolds and Kent, which had workshops in the Oak Inn buildings in Warminster Road.

Their factory closed in 1999 and the building was later controversially demolished to make way for the Aldi car park.