The factory where memories returned

The factory where memories returned

Riverside Textile Mill in Manchester, that extraordinary gateway to secure work and a settled urban life which employed, trained and organised thousands of arriving workers (9) ________ 1892 and 1924, has been turned into a museum. (10) ________ lain derelict for years after its official closure, the factory’s huge purpose-built production hall has been restored. It has become a place of discovery for the descendants of the young workers who filed through its echoing main hall to answer questions and (11) ________ in the forms using whatever written language (12) ________ understood. To reach Riverside Mill, you follow a canal path from the busy centre of Manchester. (13) ________ you pass beneath the old railway arches and walk through to the yard outside the enormous entrance to that imposing factory building, it is impossible (14) ________ to reflect on (15) ________ it must have looked to those crowds of workers who hurried through the gates with their bags clutched (16) ________ them and their tools packed into boxes and sacks.