Hearing about redundancies in the current economic climate has become the norm recently.

With a 900-strong workforce, the Keystone Knitting Mills was a major employer in the area from the end of the Twenties to the beginning of the early Sixties.

Even with a slowdown in sales of stockings, the factory’s main product, the announcement of job losses shocked its workers.

The business dated back to 1919, when friends Henry Nathan Lewis and Morris Twogood started door-to-door distribution of stockings imported from the United States.

They opened a factory in Shenley Road in 1927, specialising in high quality ladies’ hosiery and lingerie.

Philip Attewell, 55, of Thornbury Gardens, has fond memories of his grandfather, uncle and father, working there.

After his wartime service Mr Attewell’s grandfather Harold returned to the family business of hosiery. In 1929, he moved from Notting-hamshire to Furzehill Road to help set up and manage the factory’s hosiery department.

Mr Attewell said: “My father Norman’s family came to Borehamwood precisely because Keystone was setting up a new factory there. The Attewells had been in the hosiery knitting trade for generations, back at least as far as the 1790s.

“Grandad was evidently well suited to his job and remained until retirement in 1956. His elder son Dennis, my uncle, joined his father’s department as soon as he was old enough and remained until it closed.

“My father Norman, who attended Furzehill Junior School, also joined the firm after his service in the Fleet Air Arm in the Second World War.

“I am the first Attewell of my branch of the family for at least 200 years never to have worked in the hosiery or knitting industry.”

Mr Attewell recalls how nylon eventually replaced silk for stockings and how, as a result, machinery had to be replaced at Keystone.

He said: “I remember being told about what a major change this was to the manufacturing process.

“Apparently in the late Thirties, German machinery was being installed in the factory and my grandad’s job included supervising the necessary work.”

It was built on a site between Glenhaven Avenue and Clarendon Road, behind the shops in Shenley Road. It became a public limited company in 1928 and survived during the Second World War when the factory was taken over to make munitions.

Fully fashioned stockings were preferred by women because they were silk and tailored to the shape of the leg. The factory also made stockings in wool and cotton, which were cheaper to buy but not such a good fit.

Irene White remembers her mother Cath Cherry working at the factory as a supervisor in the mending department.

She said: “My mother worked there in the Forties before she was married. Hundreds of people were employed like at Elstree Studios as it was such a thriving business.

“She later worked at home which a lot of people did. You would often see people walking around Boreham-wood with boxes filled with piecework for the factory.”

Keystone attracted famous actors and actresses who often modelled for the company. Actress Janette Scott, daughter of Thora Hird, visited the factory which provided stockings and underwear for the film industry.

Alan Lawrence, from Elstree and Boreham Wood Museum, in Drayton Road, said: “A lot of the products made were given to Elstree Studios, so actresses would come and model the garments for the company. Janette Scott was among many who visited and this gave the garments a good reputation.

“Keystone had connections with another company in Reading, Pennsylvania, in the US, which is known as the Keystone state, so it is believed this is where the name comes from.”

In the late Fifties, competition for customers became intense with Italian seamless and nylon stockings flooding the British market. In 1958 the company was taken over by Alicia Hosiery and in the early Sixties the factory closed its doors for the final time.