Cyril Ostle, who died this week, worked for the Bata shoe factory in Maryport for over 50 years.

It is where he met his wife Ann, who worked there almost as long as him - as did her mother before her.

When the factory closed, Cyril was the last person out on the last day of operation.

But that was not the end of the story for the Ostles and many of their colleagues, who were, several years later, invited to the Bata head office in the Czech Republic.

These pictures tell the Bata story.

Look at the queue gathering for the opening of the new Baa shop in Maryport, situated on a corner that older people still know as Bata Corner.

Tomas Bata, from Zlin, Czechoslovakia, chose Maryport as the most northerly outpost for his shoe empire, operating a factory at Grasslot from 1940 to 1980.

One of the town’s biggest employers, it had 2,000 staff and, from listening to tales and seeing these photos, it seemed a happy place to work.

Some years ago, when the BNP was on the rise and immigration was hot topic, the Times and Star ran a story about the number of immigrants who had provided employment to West Cumbrian.

The results were staggering, accounting for hundreds of thousands of jobs from Aspatria to Whitehaven.

In Maryport alone, we had Hornflowa, the second-largest button factory in the UK employing up to 400. Set up by a Mr Krauss. from Czechoslovakia, it was said to have the best working conditions of any factory in the area. Dr F M Herzberg was managing director from 1943 to 1958. He came to this country in 1939.

Cumberland Childwear in Maryport employed up to 300. Austrian Maxwell Steiner was a key figure in its setting up ss.

New Balance was formed by William J Riley, an English Immigrant in Boston, Massachusetts, the USA in 1906.

He set up a British factory which has put the village of Flimby on the map.

So, in the Maryport area alone, immigrants created well over 2,000 jobs. And that is not all: literally, hundreds of people in the town owe their very lives to these immigrants. If people didn't meet their 'significant' other at the Civic Hall, with its spring dance floor, then chances are they met at one of the factories where bot h worked.They courted, married and produced many of the babies now grown.

READ ABOUT EARLY JOB MARKET OUT WEST: https://www.timesandstar.co.uk/news/17057699.how-immigrants-put-west-cumbria-on-the-working-map/