Long-serving employees at an historic glove makers in Warminster have spoken of their memories as the firm prepares to move premises after 72 years.

It will be the end of an era for many workers at the Dents Factory in Fairfield Road, who have spent all their working lives there.

The firm has confirmed it will move to land on Furnax Lane if planning permission is granted.

Employees at the firm, which is favoured by royalty, have been reminiscing about their first days, old-fashioned machinery and a visit by Princess Anne in 2001.

Dennis Smith, 59, from Dilton Marsh, left Matravers School at the age of 15 to work for the company.

He works on the factory floor and has even had the opportunity to help create some of the more famous items, including dress gloves for Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, and black leather gloves for movie star Jack Nicholson for his role as The Joker in the Batman movie.

He said: “It has changed here since I started, but only in the fact that people change. We are not a modern factory. We still work in the same ways with the same old sewing machines.

“We all do our own bits in the factory and we get special requests for films and things all the time.

“It’s a very good atmosphere here. We are a small unit of about seven and we have all worked together for ages and ages.”

The Fairfield Road site has been taken on by Henry Boot Developments, which hopes to turn it into a store, specifically for upmarket chain Waitrose.

Warehouse manager Tony Foreman, 60, of Pound Row, has worked at the factory for 45 years, following in the footsteps of his father, uncle and cousins.

He said: “I have enjoyed the people I have worked with. We have been very lucky over the years; it’s a very friendly place.”

Mr Foreman left Kingdown School and joined his dad Charlie, who was a glove-cutter, at the factory in April 1964.

“He worked here all of his life until he retired. There were quite a few family members working here at the same time,” he said.

PA Heather Ambrose, 57, of Barley Drive, Warminster, left Frome Grammar School aged 17 to join the firm.

She said: “When I started they had a very old switchboard, dolly’s eyes they were called.

“My mother Pam Murray worked here for 42 years as a typist and then a credit controller; that’s why I came here.

“I wanted to leave school and mum said I wasn’t allowed to unless I got a job. She was looking around for me and found one here at Dents.

“From day one everyone has been so friendly here. It really is like a family. It is a joy to come to work.”

Dents, which employs 50 full-time staff and many part-time, was established in Worcester in 1777.

It moved to Warminster in 1937 when it took over the former Jefferies Manufacturing Company premises in Fairfield Road.