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I worked in 3 bay from 1968.

Smellty was our inspector at time until I emigrated to South Africa along with several others.

I think that only 2 Yards was still there when I returned to the UK in 2000

 

my uncle was Ron Byrom who worked in 4 & 5 bay for many years.

I was in the premises in 2014 and the works side is very much as it was but the different shops are owned by various companies

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Hi Mate

 

i know that I am rather late with this responce but have only just read the forum about Davy United.

I served my time at Davy,s starting at 15 in 1957 and worked in 6 bay.

Jack Allwood was a great fitter and I learned so much from him.

 

Fitters were rated on ability and Jack was one of the few rated at 25 shillings a week, (but in the early 60s worth quite a bit on top of you wage)

 

Jack was a character to say the least, he always went down to the wellington in Darnall for a pint at dinner time and had his sandwich on his return. Asked Fby Sos (the Foreman) why he hadnt finished his snap during the lunch break, he swiftly replied "What rush it and get F*****n indigestion)

 

 

He once removed a tooth which was giving him a lot of pain with a pair of pliers and then carried on working.

 

Jack was known as a rough & ready bloke and took no prisoners with apprentices.

By that I mean that he would give you a job and make sure that you did it right and in good time. Or else. Although Jack never gave me a clip it was common practice with some fitters.

 

I am 70 now, still enjoy working a couple of days a week (producing Rolling Mill parts) and every day use the experience I learned from my training at Davy,s and in particular the skills from great tradesmen like JACK ALLWOOD

 

I had great times at Davy,s and have lots of stories to share.

 

Your'e right. Not many got the 25/-. I was the only 25/- in our shop other than chargehands. When your boss brought a job in to our shop it was always "urgent". We called him "Urgent Streets"

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Sir Maurice Alberic Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes. What a mouthful. :)

Ralph and Joseph Fiennes are his grandsons.

 

RE salaries: It was said in the D.O. that when he was knighted by the Queen, that when she said "Arise Sir Maurice" He stayed on his knees because he didn't know what a rise was!

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I joined Davy Systems around 1974 or thereabouts, Coming from a research background I was used to freely expressing

ideas which was not always well received in such a traditional industry. I particularly liked swapping ideas with

John Young MSc and with Robin Clark MA, very clever people.

Robin was a chap who thrived on problems; if you got stuck with tricky computing you simply mentioned it in

passing and the next day a tidy little solution appeared.

I remember arriving, in the company of John, at a hot rolling mill in Milan Italy and the manager recognised

John by reputation; he said " It is-a OK, I have Plentya of Da Rolls". I thought he was joking but no he was not.

John had been responsible for the introduction of hydraulic control at a rivals mill before the science was fully

understood; he had broken every roll they had.

So why do you think a fellow with such a destructive reputation was welcome? Because that mill now produced

better steel than they did; he was interested in what it would do, not what it cost. We retro-fitted gauge-meter

to his mill without so much as bruising a roll.

It was impressive the way that Davy Systems allowed young engineers to commission live mills on their own,

making their own mistakes and fixing them under the glare of customers eyes; this resulted in confident experienced

engineers very quickly.

My first job was to produce a novel control system for an experimental mill that crushed steel powder into

wide stainless strip which was then sintered and cold rolled. The mill worked at 1400 tonnes and used glass hard rolls

that must never be allowed to touch. I smashed the first set; that was my baptism by fire. They were very expensive;

oh well eggs and omelets spring to mind.

We had trouble with some of the design and I suggested sticking parts of it together. Mechanical Engineering

were not best pleased with such radical suggestions; but it was the way it was done in the end. One of the more

forward thinking designers said that if they made another Craw it would be made out of modern materials, after some

discussion we agreed that we should get in touch with the designers of Americas Cup Yachts; they know how to make very

strong fibre glass hulls with strong points robust enough to hold a mast going round the horn; ideal technology for

our needs.

Unfortunately, the mill control system became unstable the first time they ran full powder flow at it; I had

seen broken glass armour that had been hit from shards flying out of a failing mill so, when my attempts to get the

plant engineers to recognise the danger failed, I pressed the red button and stopped the whole show. British Steel

banned me from that plant; no gratitude some people. I expect that a rating ringing down the speed on Titanic after smelling

ice would have received the same rebuff from Captain Smith; ego's are easily hurt.

Does anyone else remember this very odd mill or what happened to it? It did work but was put into mothballs

before I left.

Edited by Dr Spock

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My name is Roy Smith and the history of Davy United come various other names

Which included Davy Manufacturing which was already a registered name with a Blackpool Rock company and had to be changed, unbelievable.

This originally was a great family orientated company, with a sports club that provided an extensive area of sports, hobbies and entertainment, controlled in the early days as chairman by the company's chief rate fixer Mr Athur Cundy which left the club to be known as Cundy's Castle!

I left school at 15 and applied for an apprenticeship which was accepted with another lad called Keith Wells, both of us had brothers working there, there was 50 applicants, may have had a slight bearing!

From my light fitting start in 2 bay, Toolroom fitter, Toolroom Foreman, heavy Fitting 6bay Foreman, finished parts/Stores Foreman and eventually back to the Toolroom as Managing the department.

Made redundant in 1993 after 32 years service when the company was massively on the slide. Peoples names vary from department to department, my time in the Toolroom are: Stan Rushforth, Harry Trueman, Wilf Wragg (father in law), Roy Shaw, Raymond Hague, David Mayor, John Gabbitas, John Allcock, John Nugent, Frank Purcell, Frank Straw, Brian Warrender, Jim ?, Frank Ball, George Whomersley, Tony Bellamy, George?, Jack Aldred, Ted Smith, Ted Walker, Les Hoyland, Frank Hoyland, Eric Mawe, Ralph Pounder, Sid Rowbottom(shaky Sid), Alan Beedham ( top Sheffield Snooker Player), David Staniforth, Neville Wilson, Mick (stores), Cyril Chambers, Frank Bussey, 2 Harry's and Tommy Mayor ( hand grinders), Brian Beck, Len Duckworth, an old guy from the beginning, cutter grinder George Smith, known as Snowball due to his mop of white hair, many more I should know, but time tells.

Manufacturing, Drawing Office, offices, fabrication, Pattern Shop, Instruments, Garage, there are hundreds I can recall, but not necessarily in the right order, could tell many stories but would probably need a publisher plus lawyer.

 

---------- Post added 15-09-2015 at 13:28 ----------

 

I only worked there for a few months about in 64/65, I remember Dave Wragg (Henry) Frank Hammond, Roy Smith, anyone know if they are still around?

 

Hi, my name is Roy Smith and still kicking, just! Not seen Henry (Dave) Wragg for a few years now but it seems Frank Hammond is living in Wakefield, he has a Webb site showing his bald head and his history, married again, but Frank always had trouble with his zip!!!

 

---------- Post added 15-09-2015 at 13:47 ----------

 

I worked in 3 bay from 1968.

 

Smellty was our inspector at time until I emigrated to South Africa along with several others.

I think that only 2 Yards was still there when I returned to the UK in 2000

 

my uncle was Ron Byrom who worked in 4 & 5 bay for many years.

I was in the premises in 2014 and the works side is very much as it was but the different shops are owned by various companies

 

 

Ronnie Byrom was a legend with another Guy called Jack further up the shop, the best double act on Davys, caused absolute chaos if you were near them. One infamous tale was when the then Machine Shop Manager Stan Turner stopped on his duties at Rons machine, looking at the casting he noticed that all the tapped holes had various coloured rings round them. Some were yellow some were red, he then asked why some holes were marked red, Rons answer was they are scrap, off marched Stan in a sweat and wanting answers, his Forman explained that the yellow were Imperial Threads and the red were Metric, and that Ron was winding him up. For the next month Stan Turner avoided Ron even when he shouted him over, needless to say that went round the shop floor like wild fire!

Great memories!!

Edited by SMITHR

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When I was a kid living at Attercliffe I was always told Davy used to build railway carriages. Is this true or false? I remember when I first came to Manchester there was a pastic extrusion firm I used to visit and all their machines were Davy United. They must have been good. They kept going day and night! How in hell could a firm like that disappear!

 

Probably got mixed up with "Cravens" you could see the carriages from Davy's

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I worked in 3 bay from 1968.

Smellty was our inspector at time until I emigrated to South Africa along with several others.

I think that only 2 Yards was still there when I returned to the UK in 2000

 

my uncle was Ron Byrom who worked in 4 & 5 bay for many years.

I was in the premises in 2014 and the works side is very much as it was but the different shops are owned by various companies

 

I was one of those who went to Vereeniging !

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Does anyone remember the day George Vaughan took his jacket off? Normal day in the EDO - just after the lunch break and it was hot, George was in conversation with someone and slipped his jacket off, seemingly to adjust his sleeves.

 

All of a sudden the hubbub of the office dies away - word is going round that George Vaughan has taken his coat off! The ensuing silence made George look up and at that point he realised what was up... his face lit up with a huge smile as a huge round of applause (led by Dave Rotherham as I recall) reverberated around the D.O.

 

Brilliant!

 

---------- Post added 04-04-2016 at 13:03 ----------

 

Worth looking out for (I've got mine)---Corgi produced a model set of one of the Sicartsa Roll Housings on a steering trailer unit along with two tractor units in their 'Heavy Haulage' series.

 

I remember going to the bottom of the drive to watch when the first one was delivered and I'm pretty sure there are photos around about of the event.

 

Does anyone have a photo of the model the company had built of the Sicartsa mill stand to 'prove' the piping? It resided on display in reception for a few years as I remember.

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Hello

I'm a new member and came across the forum whilst looking for info related to where my mum used to work. I'm trying to write about her memories of when she was younger for her great grandchildren. She used to be one of the nurses at Davys in the late 1970's ( along with Nurses Beck and Newhall). My dad also worked at Davys since 1952/3 and was known as Little Eric. He was heavily involved in the First Aid class and worked there until his retirement nearly 40 years later.

I remember going to the social club on a Saturday evening. I hated the staircase because you could see through to the floor and I remember the fish pond at the bottom of the staircase.

If anyone can remember either of my parents I'd be really grateful for any memories you could share.

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Further to my first post - Just realised that I didn't give my mums name Nora Nelhams. I'll get the hang of this eventually!

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Further to my first post - Just realised that I didn't give my mums name Nora Nelhams. I'll get the hang of this eventually!

 

worked at Davys from 1967 moved over to instruments have lots of names in my head, been around the world a bit since and those days seem such a long time ago. The thread seems to be somewhat earlier so would be good to see some notes from anyone 1967 on.

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