IN this day and age, it's fair to say people don't often stop to think about the origin of the humble needle.

But for one man, this uncomplicated tool has provided a lifelong career and now, in his retirement, the basis of three years of research into the history of needle making.

Bernard Lee, 83, has just completed his second book, The Development of the Needle (or from Stone Age to Space Age), which has great relevance to Redditch, of course, because of the town's proud needle-making tradition.

Mr Lee, who now lives near Evesham, spent about 45 years as a works engineer at manufacturers Henry Milward & Sons, which had about 15 or 20 factories dotted around the area.

After retiring in 1980, he wrote The Personal Reminiscences of a Needlemaker, which dealt with the history of Milwards.

His new book is more a look at the processes involved in making needles, from those carved out of bone by our stone age ancestors to the modern surgical implements used in operations and, of all things, sewing heat resistant tiles onto NASA's space shuttles.

The history of needle manufacturing in Redditch is a long and interesting one, involving fact and, as Mr Lee points out, fiction.

The town's needle industry did not, for example, grow out of Bordesley Abbey, a common misconception.

Rather, it started in the mid-17th century, with a man called Lee (no relation) who set up shop in Studley after escaping London where needle manufacture was being stifled by draconian by-laws which prevented, for example, women from working.

Before this, the knowledge and wherewithal to manufacture needles on a mass basis had been brought to the country by the Huguenots - Protestants escaping Catholic France to a more welcoming Elizabethan England.

And before then, needle making in England was just the preserve of local blacksmiths.

But Mr Lee believes it was in the 1600s the real industrial revolution kicked off.

More and more needlemakers were migrating to an area stretching from Henley-in-Arden to Stoke Prior and from Alcester to Kings Norton, with Redditch slap-bang in the middle.

By the end of the 17th century, there were about 600 needlemakers around Redditch, with power for the manufacturing process being supplied by a network of streams and rivers such as the Arrow.

This migration continued until about 1862, by which time Redditch was the only town in the country making needles on a mass basis and by the Second World War producing about 45 million of them a week.

Mr Lee, who was born in Crabbs Cross, said it was his aim to record as much of this history and more, before the old employees of the once-proud needle trade pass on and nobody quite remembers the true story

"When I retired I was asked to be a consultant for the establishment of the Forge Mill Needle Museum and since then have attempted to quash some of the fables which have grown up about the industry," he said.

"I've always been interested in the history and, to my knowledge, nobody who worked in the industry has written a book about it apart from a few of the old needlemakers."

He added: "Sadly, there are just two or three Redditch companies making domestic needles now because of factory-made clothing, which is a pity."

To order a copy of The Development of the Needle, write to Cherrywood, Cleeve Prior, Evesham, Worcestershire WR11 5JY.