Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers

[Nameboy 10]

Harris miller & Co Nameboy

Before moving on to the other remaining departments , here is reference to the offices of the Co , the first being in which I started in the Time and motion office . This was situate upstairs above the main reception area and could be seen from the deadly carriage way outside . This was the up and over road being 2 outer lanes with an inner under pass where many a serious accident took place from folk wishing to cross by jumping the fences. Our office was in beetween the main wages office and the accounts office on the top floor . Mrs Mumby was the chief wages clerk and she had the office bang above the reception which was on the corner of the building . Our role was to place the bonus calculations onto the clock cards after Mrs Mumby had placed the basic wages and that was the main liason within herself and us. A Mr Whittaker was the main Company accountant and used to work mornings only . This was just as well as our antics within the time office were kept a well secret ! I worked with Simon from square one and fun and games were part and parcel of the job . I remember to this date, 2 occasions where I got tape bound by Simon . The first was by the wrists and Mr Ibbotson ( a manager ) visited our office at the time , by pure fortune he didnt ask to see the filing cabinet " pull out " our office had a partition and what a plonker I would have felt had he have done so , I just sat in silence awating his departure , what a lucky escape . The second occasion was when Simon thought it was hilarious to tape bind both ankles and wrists and place me on the canteen trolley and push and let go from one end of the canteen to other . It was hilarious actually but I dont think Mr Whittaker have though so !!! Many more antics but cant remember although a game of cards was always on the agenda daily . This canteen did provide drinks and snacks for the workforce for a short while but ceased and turned into a cage . The cage was for monitering the daily steps of the work cycle for a particular job measured by tickets of progress brought in by time sheets from the work force. What a farce this was it was like being unable to complete the biggest jigsaw puzzle in the world . It was rare a job had been seen to finish with all the coloured tickets completed . I think Simon used to lock me up in there !!!These were the upstairs offices . Contd post

[Nameboy 10]

Harris Miller Co 5th Post by Nameboy

The offices contd

After approx a couple of years the upstairs time and motion office was then resited downstairs to the side of the building which ran along the road from the reception area. Our old office was a store room for some reason and the wages office was turned into our recreation come store room . It was myself and my new working partner assistant Kevin whom painted the wages office at weekend and many a dinner hour was spent playing cards with management . Harry Hunter , Roy Thackeray , Keith Taylor , Dick Hopkinson Simon Kevin and I were the main source of the daily card school which we all much enjoyed . By now Simon had taken over the Grinders department . Part of this new move was that we now had to share the company of Mrs Mumby on a Friday with her clock cards in our new office .She spent the remainder of the week in the main reception office , phew !!Nice lady in all aspects but big problem our privacy was well and truly disturbed . However how lucky was I , I had an assistant , I was in control , and my desk had a phone on it along with a tagging calculater and a tape recorder come radio as a bonus !!!Another big problem here was that the card games in working hours could be seen from the upstairs gantry through our window , just as well it was mainly Harry Hunter that was the main potential viewer !!!!I always remember this new office was now a well and truly escape unit for the managers to come and drink tea with me for up to an hour at a time . At a snap of a finger Betty the tea lady or her sister would make tea all round and in fact she always had a cup of tea awaiting my arrival at 9.30 am bless them to this day ! Well thats the new offices , I,ll chat more about some other work names next time , and by the way the work force was now slowly dwindling down from a 280 odd strong capacity to 230 and Neville M,d,s son used to come and request seing the pay structure on the clock cards more so than ever before !!!!!!Nameboy

[Nameboy 10]

Harris Miller Co Cutlers

Before we move onto the other departments not mentioned , here is some minor detail to the Main entrance reception office . This office was situated at the front of the building on the corner entry, ther rounded semi shaped part. On the switchboard was a Michelle ,cant remember her surname but she lived in Hillsborough s6 . In the office was a lovely Sue Parker , A Bev and her mom and a Josie . I cant remember any others except the office manager a Mr Senior . mr Senior used to give me the occasional lift in the morning in a Cortina Mk1 from Cartonknowle Road where I lived in a bedsit . It would have been the only time I was there for 9am ( in latter years ) The thing i mainly remember about this chappie was i paid him a weekly visit on Fri to collector a " backhander " from him . This was a pound , not a bad sum in those days !! Mr Krauz used these backhanders as a main tecnique to workers when he wanted quick results , although mine was an established one , as a request for a pay increase failed !!! I really never knew if Mrs Mumby was aware of this backhander , i,m pretty sure though she would not have been too pleased !!!I,m sorry thats all i have on the office but next time I,ll post on Mr Krausz,s headquarters and hopefully get round to some more great workers that keep springing to mind . Hope these names help Nameboy

[rickhornloom 10]

hi nameboy..been reading your passages with intrest...even though your time was spent in the 70s..quite a few people you have mentioned were actually still present ,when i did my time there...roy thackery was in charge within the clare shop...as i remember,he liked a drink on a friday afternoon..always stunk of booze..and came over all friendly...i got on really well with him...harry hunter (warehouse)..yes your right..a regular arthur daily character..nice guy though..tommy marsh was still hanging around the clock in office to deter anybody clocking out early..he was not very well liked around the place...old man kroutz was still there...he used to make himself comfy within the warehouse..not a very pleasant guy...grumpy actually...used to always ware a brown ,cream suit..neville was more of a friendly chap..he actually worked with me within the clare shop one day...you may remember pam..she worked within the ware house..she was partially blind...she worked near the dipper, packing cutlery...a truly great experience for me to have worked in such a place...you could write a book about the adventures i had ...sounds like you had some great times yourself...

[paul pobber 10]

i have a set of skinning knives made by malcberry made in 1897 in sheffield they havetrue love on one side & malcberry on the other side. they have stag handles & brass pommels if anybody has heard of malcberry hope to hear from you soon pobber.

[Nameboy 10]

Well I,ve chatted about our offices and I,ll move on to other departments within this Cutlery factory now . Nice to see a response from a Rickhornloom whom also seemed to enjoy his times at this establishment . Firstly going back to the Cutlers depo , well the Hilda I mentioned sprang back to mind whilst i was driving arround recently. Her name was Hilda Hilton and I remember I associated her with the pleasant smell of talc powder!!! on my many shop floor meetings ! Here comes another ... the other Tommy Marsh was a Geof Bishop amazing how these names still turn over 30 years on !!Geof seemed to be the handyman , a well built muscle bound male ( handyman) the type you would only perhaps argue with verbally if you dare !!!Still I got on with him , so thats what counted to me , i was still ****ting yellow anyway ! Ok we,ll move into the clairpol now where Rick worked. Roy Thackeray was the manager here in my day . A very serious chappy whom seemingly only let his guard down in dinner breaks playing cards or in my office over teas . I remember Roy liked his teddy boy days and he actually kindly gave me a mustard like suit , think I used it once and binned it or flogged it on !! I can see why he gave it me now !! He used to also like selling things as Harry did and Roy once came to our office with a raffle ticket selling plan to raise money for his watch collection , cant remember how it went though ! he was married at the time and I did bump into him once at Handsworth arround the 80,s to discover he had split up . In Roys clair shop I remember as other depo,s all the workers were serious workers here , really serious , a hard job and I seem to remember the rollers or simular but I didnt really do many timings here . Some of the jobs were piece work in the clair although bonus did exist here as well . Here are some names I recall Iqbal , Hussain , and a Spencer although Spencer could have been in grinding . Poor show for names here , sorry, but thats how it goes ! Well I also remember once Roy came into my office and a prase that wont leave me is that he said "writers write about it and singers sing about it " he was on about LOVE at the time, perhaps he had a bad night with his missus or somewhat , I dont know . Well thats Roy a nice friendly serious chap , liked his card at dinner as well , wonder how he is to date . Next time its the Grinders shop , By for now nameboy . Those were the days .

[kenny gray 10]

a lot of the machinery from harris millers went to isreal,my step dad harry gray had to go over and set up most of the machinery.no one as mentioned him but he worked there many years,they would not make him redundent and gave him jobs like sweeping up the shop floor to try and make him leave,he was treated terrible.my mother eliza gray also worked there she was a buffer at many of the cutlery firms.i nworked at chas.kirkbys who made the wooden boxes for the cutlery,and my wife lined some great cases for mappin and webb.

[Nameboy 10]

Moving on to the Press Department. Firstly I see kenny gray has mentioned Harry . Yes I remember that Harry worked in my days but unfortunately cant visualise him , amazing how these names spring to mind still . I reckon kenny worked there as well !! Onto Press , Ran by My Ibbotson . A bald headed serious man always in a white works overcoat , could have passed as the medic ! Once came bouncing into my office in my early days ( upstairs ) and accused me of spreading gossip that he had affair with someone . I seriously didnt know anything about it , denied it and never heard anything else about it . Suppose it could have been a cover up or somthing , i,ll never know . The rumblers was next door to the Press , both on ground floor although the Press could have been slightly lower level. I dont remeber the manager in the rumblers but he was on a steady decline being an alcoholic and I think he dies there in my time . Keith Taylor visited him at home often . Press Cont Nameboy

Edited February 19, 2010 by Nameboy

[Nameboy 10]

PRESS dept Cont Nameboy . Mr Ibbotson certainly knew how to pick his young attractive female workers . I did a bit of time and motion down there , the girls I remember here were Sharon Elvin , Sharon Casey and a Marie Ward these were the younger whilst there may have been an elder Dorothy "Dot" Hession . Dot had an eye disablity , it seemed to roll arround and when she talked i felt i was some 5 ft to one side when she looked at me ! Dot always looked as though she been she,d done about 3 weeks work without a break , poor lass . She lived on the Wybourn but I did bump into her in the 80,s in Norfolk Park , shed moved to the flats and hadnt changed at all ! Now, the other girls , well Simon took a fancy to Sharon Elvin whilst I did so to Sharon casey and Marie Ward . S Elvin and Maria lived on the Wybourn and the other Sharon lived in the Hyde Park flats with her mom and sister . I dated Sharon Casey and stayed a while one xmas at her flat . We often frequented the Queens head , a pub on duke street corner next to funeral place and the police ( or railway) W/m club on queens road . Sharon apparantly went to London as I bumped into Her mom at Parsons cross in the 80,s .I cans see how folk could easily settle down to a relation in this Co as rickhornloom seemingly did !!A big familyran Co it was in early days . Now Maria I did date once to a Woodhouse pub , didnt come to anything , I remember she was an avid Bowie fan and other lads in the area were chasing her ! Mt Ibbotson did frequent Isreal more so than other managers with old man Krauz or Nevill and frankel . Cont , i,ll move you into the old mans hide out , what I remember !Nameboy

[Nameboy 10]

Harris Miller and Co ( The bosses office ) Now this office was were the old man was dominant . It was situated beetween the main office and the warehouse . Entrance both ends if I,m right . Mr Krausz as rickhornloom stated , did always ware his creamish suit on and to this day reminds me of Master spy , the evil character in GerrY Andersons Supercar ( prior to Thunderbirds ) This was the guy with a somewhat triangular shaped head . Every week the old man held a managers meeting , my job was to present the production figures formulated from each managers department together with statistical costings . Mr Whittacker the Accountant as mentioned was the reader of the minutes of the managers meetings and I think I had the job of reading the production figures out , always in sheer silence !! When Whittaker was absent , oops it was my job to read out also the minutes of the previous meeting , I apsolutely hated this , but ohh what experience. On one occasion I recall a meeting which broke out into sheer silence again where the old man shouted out in total rage " who is this blagard , I shall dismiss him immediately " I cant remember the story behind this now , but I do remember I was in collusion with Keith Taylor and I took the wrap for it . I actaully put my hand up in the meeting in response to his question , I never got the sack , but I was ****ting it . One thing is I knew every single manager there each week always dreaded the good old meetings especially if the production was down . The office was generally the place where the workers went in for a " backhander " i,m coming on to the end of my postings now , but next is the Grinders Shop before I leave you . Nameboy

[Nameboy 10]

Harris Miller Co Cutlers Grinders Dept

Before we go into grinding , rickhornloom mentiioned a Pam , coming back slightly to me was it a Pam Goodison ! A Janet Handisides has sprang back to mind on this note and I think Janet worked in teaset packing under Harry Hunter.A Sadee Rodgers has sprang back here , anyone recall her ? Zazarus mentioned a George Waite, could have been here or Forge !

The Grinding section was ran by an elderly chap named Jim Smith when I first started my employment in Millers . Now Jim was a great chap , a friend of every one I would say and not just because of his money lending help . It was often the case I would visit Jim in his office and ask him for a temp loan while payday , no questions asked a £5 er was there for me , always paid him back and I guess he helped others out likewise .Jim was a keen angler like myself and he drove an 1100 Blmc . He always had his flat cap on and to me was one of the friendliest people arround . He once asked me about the girls and why I was chasing them arround all the time , when i could have stuck it in a jar of worms !!! Life on every shop floor was fantastic ...Anyone remember Jim? I think he died shortly after he left , may be wrong . I,ll never forget good old Jim though , a down to earth salt of the earth really nice genuine guy .In the grinding dept was a big family name of Pantin or Panting . A Bernard Pantin was there . Other names I recall were the females by time sheets in order ..Fretwell Clayton and Barnes and a Flanaghan and Greaves rings a bell . Harry Gray as pre mentioned may have been here ! Another name I remember was a character named Malcolm Whitworth . When my offices moved downstairs , shortly after Simon whom I worked with took over Grinders from Jim Smith . Simon went on to run his shoe shop empire and is still ( I think ) doing ok to this date . Finally i finish the next post by where i started in the Time and motion office and hopefully may remember other names for you !!! See you soon Nameboy

Edited February 19, 2010 by Nameboy

[kenny gray 10]

i never worked there but harry was there right to the end as i explained he was there until the end having worked there a long time.i worked at kirkbys as stated who made the cutlery cases.when i realised the poor pay and conditions of the trade i got out quick.