Meet the wartime pact factory girls who have been reunited every decade for 70 years

The camaraderie a group of 16 young girls shared as they went about their essential war work at British Belting and Asbestos (BBA), one of Cleckheaton's largest employers during the Second World War has lived on in the get-togethers they have held every decade since.

Gladys Kell, who instigated the pact when the girls left the sewing department at St Peg Mills, where they worked stitching tapes for the cigarette industry, believes that this year's reunion - taking place at the same location, Cleckheaton Town Hall, at the same time, 11am, on the same day, July 4, every 10 years - will be the last.

Gladys, who turns 90 this year, has been planning the final get together since Christmas. Each lady who turns up will be presented with a white carnation which Gladys has intricately crafted from tissue paper, as she has done for several reunions. She also bakes a themed cake, usually trimmed in red, white and blue, and puts on a party at her Cleckheaton home, which will also be trimmed up in the colours. This year her daughters, Christine Rhodes and Wendy March, will be helping her with the celebrations.

Gladys explains that the reason why the former colleagues decided to meet on American Independence Day was in honour of one of the girls who married a GI. "She was a GI bride and so she would remember to come to the 10 year reunions, we said we would have it on Independence Day. We have met every 10 years," smiles Gladys.

The first reunion involved lunch at the former Busby's department store in Bradford, as well as a show and a champagne party at Gladys's home, which has become a tradition of their get togethers.

The pals have met at various venues over the years. Sadly though the numbers have dwindled over the years as some of the women have passed away.

Gladys is anticipating that only a few may turn up to this year's get together which will be particularly poignant as it is the final one.

BBA developed from a small belting works set up in Dundee in 1879 by William Fenton, a manufacturer of textile belting for machinery, and Walter Cobbett, a merchant distributor.

Initially the main product it produced was solid woven belting for power transmission and mechanical conveying in industries such as mining.

It was in 1901 that the business opened a new base in Cleckheaton and in 1911 it became known as Scandinavia Belting Limited.

During the First World War, production switched to khaki and brace webbing and puttee tape and in 1925 the company changed its name again to BB&A Limited.

Eventually manufacturing developed to include a wide range of industrial products and automotive products sold and manufactured around the world.

In 1908 large quantities of belting was ordered from America by Henry Ford which were found to have been used as transmission linings on Ford's then new Model T car. Soon the company was producing new linings for other manufacturers including Morris, Austin and Vauxhall in the UK and Renault and Bugatti in France.

Its automotive and friction products were produced under the brand name Mintex. Brake linings were also produced for British aircraft.

By the early 1980s the BBA Group, the holding company created in 1967 and now mostly focused on automotive and friction materials, was the world's largest supplier of original equipment brake pads to the automotive industry.

Working together as young teenagers until their 20s, the girls and young women formed a strong bond. "I started there at 14 and left at 20. It was essential war duty - I wanted to go into the Land Army and they wouldn't release me because I was sewing tapes for cigarette machines for the forces," says Gladys.

She recalls the department being known as the 'harem room' as the workers were all female. "We used to sing and all sorts, we used to have a bit of fun," she recalls. "We all had a light over our desks and we used to dong the tune of the Bells of St Mary's with our scissors on the lights! We had a lovely time."

And the fun didn't stop at the end of the working week. "We went out dancing on a weekend. We'd go to the Town Hall and Drill Hall dances," recalls Gladys. "We'd all lost our sweethearts - my boyfriend was abroad for three years. Everybody's husband was in the war so we used to go out in gangs together and we went dancing together."

Gladys's late husband Cyril, who died three weeks before their Golden Wedding anniversary, also worked at BBA, one of Cleckheaton's largest companies which provided automotive components.

"Most of my family worked there. It was a family place," says Gladys. "Even when people were at university they would come into the office and work part-time. I remember my first wage - it was nine shillings for a week and we worked from 7am until 6pm."

After taking time out to raise her two girls, Gladys returned to BBA where she worked in the lab testing materials.

Since retiring she became a member of the BBA retired workers association. It is a place which remains close to her heart, and the fact that the reunion pact has been kept as long as it has is indicative of the strong bond Gladys had with her fellow colleagues.

She says despite not being in contact with each other during the 10 years between reunions, she and 'the girls' always acknowledged the pact and every one of them turned up - including the GI bride who came all the way from America for the occasion.

She has now died, but Gladys says her memory will be honoured during this weekend's reunion - the seventh get together since the pact was made.

And, in keeping with tradition, Gladys intends to arrive in style! She has travelled to previous reunions in a white stretch limousine and a horse and trap. She had hoped to attend this weekend's final reunion in a helicopter, but couldn't find anywhere to land near the location.

Among the constant supporters of the women's get togethers was BBA's late managing director, Charles Fenton, who appears on many of the photos taken at gatherings on the steps of Cleckheaton Town Hall.

"He went to every one of them," says Gladys.

What makes their meet-ups even more cherished is the fact that the women don't see each other during the 10 years in between.

"It is so unusual, 70 years is a long time to keep in touch," says Gladys. "When we made the pact that day we made the pact and I was going to see it was carried on every 10 years. I have never informed anybody to come, they just turn up."