Mr. Robert Dean at work in the design office of Burgess Ledward and Co. Ltd., where he got a job when he came over to Manchester in 1932. He worked there till he retired in 1975. Just after the war they would deliver extra work for him to do at home in the evenings, modifying old designs to use less cotton ? less dye ? and collect the finished work with a horse and cart. The design office was in Minshull Str., and moved up to the factory at Walkden, just before the Second World War. Mr. Dean would be called out to deal with complaints from customers with washing problems etc. with their cloths. He designed dress fabrics, not furnishings and was an amateur painter and gardner in his free time.