Parallel Fortunes traces the careers of two cloth mills, Longfords near Nailsworth, and Ham, at Thrupp near Stroud. Both mills began the century with an uncertain future but prospered while many mills were closing. The talk considers not just the products and the investments in buildings and machinery but also the relations between management and workforce: often fraught in many industries. The talk also considers why both mills closed within a few years of each other in the 1990s and the impact this had on the employees.