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Formerly, as details elsewhere in this guide show, Halstead was a centre for the textile industry with the name of Courtaulds prominent for many decades. That, however, is now past and the hard industrial times that followed Courtaulds’ closure (and a few other industrial departures) caused much depression in the town.

However, new industrial firms have come into the town, especially to the Broton Trading Estate alongside the Colne; the Bluebridge Industrial Estate on the east side of the town; and, nearer the town centre (and the site of Courtaulds’ factories) is the quite extensive Factory Lane Trading Estate. The new companies on these sites, and elsewhere in the town, offer chances for new skills and talents well away from former textile and allied engineering activities. Noakes Foundry, Premaberg Limited and Electric Motor Company, PLC Hunwick and Charles Portway & Son Ltd are quite large employers. The Electric Motor Company firm is one of the major producers of small electric motors in this country; motors that are used in commercial and domestic appliances both in this country and overseas.