After years of service, the giant was no longer needed. Obsolete and old, it was given a spot of oil and the blankets were put on. The giant went to sleep, resting, and maybe mourning the loss of it’s twin next door, cut up by the scrapman after a boiler explosion ripped apart it’s lungs.

And so the giant slept.

The mill changed and the workforce shrank, and the two mills became one. The world outside changed – the mining town lost its mines and the industrial age slipped away.

And still the giant slept.

But now, 40 years after the blankets went on, salvation is at hand. The leaky roof has been fixed, the pigeons have gone and the guano has been cleansed.

The blankets are off and the giant is beginning to wake……..

To be continued…………….