A GREAT-grandson is on a quest to collate memories from his family's business in a website.

Nick Pinkham is the descendent of William Pinkham, who founded the Pinkham Glove business in Witham during the eighteenth century.

Nick, 62, is appealing for those who remember the factory to share their memories so he can create a website to keep the legacy alive.

He said: "My mother, who is 94, sat down with me and we pulled out wonderful pieces of information about people at the factory and recollections of workers.

"John Pinkham was my father, who was the grandson of founder William."

He recalled some of his favourite memories of the factory, including taking the Queen a pair of their famous gloves.

He said: "I remember driving to Buckingham Palace to take the Queen her gloves, I was a little boy in shorts in the back seat of my dad's MG.

"My grandfather was in the business in the 60s and he was quite a character. He was a great big man and always had a cigar in his mouth and the factory was always a buzz, it was enormous."

The business started off in the 1850s, operating from a small house opposite Witham Train Station.

In 1915 the first factory was built on site, and another built on the same grounds in 1948.

Mr Pinkham, who now lives in Kent, said: "My motivation is to get information together for a legacy site which will pull all the stories together- it really needs to be recorded.

"I have an awful lot of memorabilia which needs to be shared with the world.

"The Great Depression hit the business very hard and they survived- it was very much a case of coming back stronger."

At its peak in the 1950s it employed over five hundred people in Witham alone, and manufactured fifty thousand pairs of gloves a week.

The business closed in 1966 as competition was strong.

Mr Pinkham said: "In the 60s people were driving cars so they weren't outside wearing hats and gloves.

"There was also a lot of foreign competition."

Once the memories are collated they will become part of a website with images and personal anecdotes.

Anyone with memories can email nick_pinkham@hotmail.com