Question
Regarding the enquiry about a Dye Works on Wingates Lane - you mentioned that there used to be a famous iron foundry at Brock Mill at the end of this lane, which is now occupied by a small housing development. The housing estate is actually built on the site of what was the BLUE PRINTERS factory. It closed down in the late 50's / early 60's and later became the printing works for the Lancashire Evening Post.
Answer
You may be interested to know that there was an article written about the foundry by Bob Blakeman in the December 2006 edition of Past Forward. It mentioned that here, in the mid 18th century, they were making (amongst many other things) screw fasteners on an automatic machine, which is perhaps the earliest record of this activity (you can read the article and my subsequent correspondence with Bob here.