Came across this on youtube, does anyone know more about it?

Its about the buffer girls from Sheffield, I have a feeling I saw bits of it at school, but i'm not sure.

Anyone?

(to find it just go to www.youtube.com and put diamonds in brown paper into the search box)

This was a film made locally for Channel 4...

"Diamonds in Brown Paper (1989)
16mm, 52 minutes
Directed by Jill Booth; produced by Bernadette Malloney for Sheffield Films for Channel 4

This dramatic film follows the lives of two young women in the industrial North from their shared experiences as factory workers in a Sheffield cutlery plant through the separate paths destiny has in store for them. Filmed on location in Sheffield, the drama features period sequences spanning the 1920s to the 1960s."

(From an American academic site (http://rtf.utexas.edu/faculty/schiesari/films.html).)

There was also a pamphlet with the same title associated with the film. I once was in a scriptwriting workshop led by Jill and we bump into each other every now and then in Sheffield.

Hugh :)

You can Google it also.

Just watched it...love it

brings back memories,my aunt was a buffer girl,she used to shout all the time due to the noise at work,the lasses used brown paper as aprons to stop the swarf getting in their clothes,years ago there was a book with the same title

Takes me back about 60 yrs when I used to go past their works on my way home from school somewhere near the Lyceum
I was fascinated because they also had brown paper cardboard tied round their legs probably for the same reason.

Their language was a little rough and it was said that no errand/delivery boy was safe from thier clutches something about washers on odd parts of their bodies.
hazel

My mum was also a buffer girl at viners,the bbc made a short film for play school showing how spoons were made and my mum was in it.I think it was through the square window.Ha ha

Brilliant! Another time, another place, eh?

most of the buffer girls I remember wore green smocks , brown paper wrapped around their legs and scarfs like turbins on their heads. They always seemed to be cracking jokes and laughing like drains.

I'm trying to get a copy of the film, Diamonds in Brown Paper,for my mum who'll be 84 in September. She used to be a packer in a cutlery firm called Thorntons in Owlerton. It was behind where the Crown pub is on a side street and I well remember her stories about the buffer girls. She said she never got tired of going into work cos they were a great bunch of women.

I've tried searching for it on DVD but so far nothing. Does anyone know if there is a Sheffield stockist or where I'd be able to get a copy.

Thanks in anticipation.

Mum worked at Viners in the early 1930's. inspecting the buffers work.

hiya
my mum worked at viners she was a buffer girl also,she started working there in 1930 and finally finished in 1971 to care for my dad before he died in 1972, there were names she would tell about ., she worked with her sister ann burgess mums name was edith white their maiden name was howarth and lived on bath street, some of the names she worked with were mr pat bohan, mr dennis appleyard,mrs rosie britten i think,bernard pitts further back into the 1940s were sisters ivy dodds,lu-lu dodds lu-lu was i think a war bride and went to america,then there was annie allibone i stiill have the menu for the celebration of her long service award ( 60years) mum got a few autographs of the people who were there. mum worked in the re-pro department,after she died in1973 i had a chance to see where she worked and i was really shocked at the conditions they worked in to think she had worked like that all those years i could hardly believe my eye's,people say buffer girls had a sense of humour they had to have to work in that place.when i was a youngster on bath street you could see the working girls all walking in twos and fours there were hundreds of them all walking towards the town hall on wellington street, viners was a way from any transport links.

My mother was a buffer girl.
She worked with Annie Allibone and all the other buffers in the Holloware buffing dpt at Viners.some of the other ladies and gents who worked with her was Rosie Burrill.Doris.?
Ada Goring.Dirk,Derek.Norah Bown.Stan French,I still have photos of some of them when they went on their annual outings.Can anyone else jog my memory and remind me of the names of the others.
I used to work in a different dept and when I went round to their dept you could hear them all singing or having a laugh at something,What a great bunch of women and men.Just remembered another name Chrissie?

My Dad worked at Viners for many years and I think he was the manager on the floor that made the knife handles.
I know he made real ivory handles for knives and forks before they invented Zylo? which looked just like ivory.He also made small penknives with lots of blades
He was always talking about the Buffer Girls and the tricks they played on the male workforce.
During the war he remained at Viners making munitions.
His name was Sydney Mallinson,does anyones Mum or Dad remember him?

they is a paper back book about this film if you can't get the dvd,from sheffield city libaries at£3.95p.By GILL BOOTH
ref number is:ISBN 0 86321 091 0.

My Mum was a Buffer Girl she died in 1954 she was only 41. You could'nt meet better women, if anyone was in trouble they would be there to help in anyway they could.along with brown paper they also had finger rags to protect there finger on the buffing wheels. A better gang of women never lived.

My mother was a buffer girl.
She worked with Annie Allibone and all the other buffers in the Holloware buffing dpt at Viners.some of the other ladies and gents who worked with her was Rosie Burrill.Doris.?
Ada Goring.Dirk,Derek.Norah Bown.Stan French,I still have photos of some of them when they went on their annual outings.Can anyone else jog my memory and remind me of the names of the others.
I used to work in a different dept and when I went round to their dept you could hear them all singing or having a laugh at something,What a great bunch of women and men.Just remembered another name Chrissie?

hya just reading your letter and it struck me have you or me got a name at odds i remember my mum mention the name what i thought was rosie berill now reading your name burrill it could have been the same person my mums name was edith ,(ede) white nee howarth, her sisters name was ann burgess.i think my cousin worked there for a while she was elaine burgess. another name was betty ? i think she worked in the cutlery case dept she married a buffer who worked there he was ron hudson.ps another was ken hayley.

You could be right,my mother always said Rosie Beryl like the first name Beryl is pronounced but I thought it was her Sheffield accent I don't really know how it was spelt.
I don't remember your mothers name but different names keep coming back to me.
My mother passed away last year her name was Nellie most of her friends knew her as Ford her maiden name but her married name was Doyle-Price she was a hollowwear buffer at viners.
She was a big friend of Rosies and she could tell a few stories about her friends and the nights out they used to have.

My mum was a buffer girl. She started at Viners when she was 14 where my gran was the Mrs Buffer. Her name was Selina Simmonett and my mum was Elsie. Mum was interviewed for the book Diamonds in Brown Paper along with Mary Turton and one or two others. She also worked at Mappin and Webb with Mary Turton, Mary Elvin and Ida Thompson to name but a few. Me and my sister used to love going down to the buffing shop to see mum they were great women and made such a fuss if either of us called in.

I worked at British Silver WARE Queens road in the late 60s just after i left school ,buffers frighten me to death,i was errand lass and always had to go to them first,sorry but i cannot remember any names,

hya just reading your letter and it struck me have you or me got a name at odds i remember my mum mention the name what i thought was rosie berill now reading your name burrill it could have been the same person my mums name was edith ,(ede) white nee howarth, her sisters name was ann burgess.i think my cousin worked there for a while she was elaine burgess. another name was betty ? i think she worked in the cutlery case dept she married a buffer who worked there he was ron hudson.ps another was ken hayley.

Hello willybite.
My mother worked with Ron Hudson at Viners and she still got christmas cards from him and Betty up to last year when she died.I can't recall The name Ken Hayley.

My mum was a buffer girl. She started at Viners when she was 14 where my gran was the Mrs Buffer. Her name was Selina Simmonett and my mum was Elsie. Mum was interviewed for the book Diamonds in Brown Paper along with Mary Turton and one or two others. She also worked at Mappin and Webb with Mary Turton, Mary Elvin and Ida Thompson to name but a few. Me and my sister used to love going down to the buffing shop to see mum they were great women and made such a fuss if either of us called in.
Did your mother and your Gran live in Watery Lane? if so she lived in the same yard as my Gran and I know all the family,I used to live over the wall in the next yard (until we moved to Hillsborough), and it was next to your mums house when she was younger first married.Do you have a brother as well as a sister or are you the brother?
If you look at the,( One Up And One Down) post last year I wrote about a newspaper clipping I have got mentioning your Mother and your Grandmothers houses in Watery Lane.

Hello willybite.
My mother worked with Ron Hudson at Viners and she still got christmas cards from him and Betty up to last year when she died.I can't recall The name Ken Hayley.
.
hiya nelly i lived next door ron and betty for nearly forty years unfortunately ron died at the end of last year betty stll lives in the same house,saw her yesterday matter of fact,their daughter kay gets married again a week on sunday.as for ken he lived at either coal aston or dronfield

Hello willybite I did not know Betty and Ron but my mother often talked about all the other buffers at Viners and trips they had.My mother died Last year age 86 and after being left Viners must be about forty years ago she still recieved Christmas cards from some of the buffers from Viners.