ONE long-standing Darwen company has provided work for generations of families - very often at the same time - as this image shows.

In 1987, a Telegraph photographer was at the gates of Crown Paints to capture this image of six members of the same family who were on the company payroll.

They were from front left: Mick Kelly, Garry Chadwick and Matt Stirling; at the back are Barbara Turnbull, Julie Stirling and Pat Sutcliffe.

Unfortunately, there is no mention of the relationships among these six Crown employees, but throughout its 240-year history, the company has provided jobs for thousands of local folk.

Crown's heritage goes all the way back to 1777, when Dob Meadows print shop - where the head offices have remained ever since - was first established for calico printing.

Over the following century, the business began to produced commercial wallpaper at Belgrave Mill, in the centre of Darwen and in 1904 began its first experiments into water based paints.

Just two years later, the first batch of paint was produced and sold under the brand name Hollins Distemper, with the company becoming the Walpamur Paint Company by 1910.

A landmark year was 1966 when its first range of paints manufactured and sold under the Crown name, as Crown Plus Two paints, was launched.