THE death of Les Winfield, who has died just two days short of his 96th birthday, is more than just the passing of one of Worcester's great master craftsmen. It also marks the death of an industry.

Because Mr Winfield was the last man standing in the city's glove trade, which at one time totalled more than 150 manufacturers, employed 20,000 people and produced seven and a half million pairs a year.

In the end it all came down to Mr Winfield, his one employee Brian Fincher, and his company Alwyn Gloves, operating from the ramshackle surroundings of the old village school at Crown East. Long gone are the huge factories, the rows and rows of workers and the racks of finest leather hides.

The two man band at Alwyn kept going until Mr Winfield succumbed peacefully in Worcestershire Royal Hospital, having only been admitted a few days before from his home in Rushwick. He died pretty much of old age, for he had no serious illness and drove his car well into his 90s, all the way down to Oxfordshire to deliver to his outworkers. Appropriately, his funeral service will be in Worcester Cathedral, on Tuesday, November 24 at 11.30am.

Les Winfield left behind him a business caught in a time warp. But the Dickensian clutter of the little works on the western edge of the city could well prove an historical gem, because Worcester Civic Society would like to see it saved.

Chairman Phil Douce observed: "Surely Alwyn Gloves should be considered one of the heritage assets recently highlighted in the Royal Society of Arts report, which identified Worcester as having a considerable number of assets but criticised us for not using them. Perhaps we should look to retaining what is left of the factory located in an old village school at Crown East and allowing it to be opened allowing the public to see the last remnants of Worcester's once proud trade. Worcester Civic Society would be happy to work with other interested parties in making this a reality."

The hey day of the Worcester glove industry was from the 1790s until the 1820s, but even when Mr Winfield set up Alwyn Gloves in 1963 there were a dozen members of the local glove manufacturers association. At its peak, his company employed a workforce of 50, including five specialist glove makers, and supplied gloves to Prince Philip for his carriage driving, Lady Thatcher and Cliff Richard, among a register of famous clients. When Prince Andrew married Sarah Fergusson in 1986, Alwyn was commissioned to make a pair of uniform gloves for the wedding.

As foreign competition decimated the British glove industry, Mr Winfield kept his ship afloat by concentrating on the top end of the market and niche areas such as tight fitting gloves to prevent contamination of vital component parts in the munitions and space research industries.

He made some canny business decisions and bought up machines and tools from other glove firms as they closed down. Some of Alwyn's equipment was more than 100 years old. But it was a hard battle.

Even so, as recently as the 1980s, 18 people crammed themselves into the old school rooms and Les Winfield had a secretary and a PA. In the end it was just him and Brian Fincher and the ghosts of times past.