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The vanished Engineering firms..

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That may be your version of what happened, but I would like to know where the investment money came from to rebuild German and Japanese industries after the war while our manufacturing stagnated ?

Perhaps they were on lower wages eh......:huh:

 

Hi,

 

Don't know much about the financing of Japan's recovery but Germany's was done through the American "Marshall Plan". The main thrust of the plan was to rebuild industry in Europe, principally, West Germany's so that the whole region didnt fall prey to the Russian's. At the time, there was a good possiblity that this might happen.

 

Britain got next to nothing from the Plan: The Abbey/Margam steelworks complex at Port Talbot was the only thing I can think of.

 

They might have done better if they had sent a better negotiator. As it was, John Maynard Keynes, was a terrible choice. Keynes was a brilliant (in his own mind) economist but his speciality was arrogance and talking down to people. He rubbed the Americans the wrong-way from the start.

 

He had convinced the Attlee Government he could get a gift of $6bn, whereas the Americans offered a loan of $3.75 bn for 50 years at 2%. On the advice of Keynes, the British Government rejected the offer and every subsequent offer was worse than the one before. In the end they got next to nothing.

 

If you want a more detailed explanation, See "A History of Modern Britian" by Andrew Marr. In the paper-back edition, it's on pages 11&12.

 

Regards

Edited by Falls

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At Sandersons Bros & Newbold we had a sports club with fishing,football and we also had a car club where you could buy discount motor spares.We also had the Christmas dinner and dance and the fishing club presentation nights,they were great.

 

My dad, Wilfred Turner (Wilf to most people) worked at Sandersons from being a boy. He was a saw grinder. He was quite seriously injured when a grinding wheel broke and hit him. He ended up having a kidney removed which was a very serious operation in about 1950. The one thing that they didn't have in those days were good workers compensation schemes, Sandersons gave my mother a job etching until he could return to work. I went to a nursery school close by and can clearly remember being taken into the factory to see my mum. One of the ladies that she worked with painted my nails with purple fluid to make me look as if I had nail polish on! Goodness knows what was in it - probably something toxic. My dad died in 1957 and all I can remember of the people that worked there is that his best friend was a man called Brightmore.

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the biggest problem was that quite a number were family firms and more and more relatives wanted a living from thses companies rather than reinvesting

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retired now, served my apprenticeship at the NAVAL ORDINANCE FACTORY in the early 1950s left there in 1960. the had most of my working life at SHARDLOWS. not much left of the industry now. makes you feel for the young ones. somehow this city has to reinvent itself.and forget politics becauce like it or not only big bussness can bring work to or city . and that is what we need. we have gone from being a good city with work for everyone to the position we are in now . just begging of the goverment all the time

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Amen to that, ronn88.

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Sheffield was a small back water town with a population below 10,000 before the industrial revolution..

Now ,along with the whole of south Yorkshire, it's lost coal, steel and manufacturing, the industry's that first brought people into this area to turn Sheffield into a City.

so what's next ? ..

 

But that's not what I meant when I posted this thread. I spent most of my working life in Engineering, I met and worked with some fantastic people who left me with some great memories .

Like the annual fishing matches were we all met up at 6am travelled for a couple of hours to some god forsaken place out in the wilds.

Then trudging for miles across fields and over stiles dragging great big tackle and bate boxes to the bank side.

Finding your peg, setting up, throwing in loads of maggots then looking round to find the place deserted because the local pub, usually two minutes away, was open...

 

Happy days...

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i worked at footprint tools from '75 to '98 and like most firms then it had a thriving social section including a fishing club. we had a weekend away (2 matches) in the summer and an autumn match. there were always a few non-anglers on the coach so wherever we fished had to have a pub nearby. one of our anglers would disappear at opening time, leaving his baited hook in the water. when he returned for the last hour of the match he would generally have an eel which had hooked itself during his time at the pub. one year, the day before the match, i went to the market and bought the biggest mackerel i could see. when he went off to the pub i wound his line in, attached the mackerel to the hook and lobbed it back in the water. on his return he picked up his rod, felt this big fish and proceeded to play it carefully as it was a 'matchwinner'. when he got it to the top and realised what it was he looked around and everyone was stood up laughing at him! on the coach home he had a proper sulk on.

this company which had a workforce of well over two hundred in it's heyday now employs around nine or ten.

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When I left school in 1977, Sheffield still had plenty of steel and engineering firms, so I decided to pursue an engineering apprenticeship. I remember having job interviews at British Steel, Dunford Hadfields, Naval Ordnance, Laycock Engineering, James Neill Tools to name a few.

There were of course many other companies at the time Davy's, Firth Brown, Shardlows, GEC Traction, Tinsley Wire, Dormer Twist Drill, Presto, Rabone Chesterman, Stanley's, Jacobs Guylees etc ..... most of them of course are long gone or have become a shadow of their former selves.

Those companies would take on hundreds of apprentices and employed thousands across the city, as people have previously said there was also a great social factor, many firms had there own sports and social clubs, and some of those left still do, but they are generally a thing of the past.

Factory work, while not for everyone, even back when it was thriving, was great for making friends and having a good laugh. The pranks people played on each other and the stories of characters, some of which have been told on here over the years, are definately not as acceptable in todays workplaces. Happy days !

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When I was apprentice used to walk along Carlise st after work and all the biggie were thriving,Sanderson,FBT and Cyclops works which are sadly no more now,all had sports clubs and footy teams,we had a great one at Ecclesfield.

 

good old days dave !!

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i worked at footprint tools from '75 to '98 and like most firms then it had a thriving social section including a fishing club. we had a weekend away (2 matches) in the summer and an autumn match. there were always a few non-anglers on the coach so wherever we fished had to have a pub nearby. one of our anglers would disappear at opening time, leaving his baited hook in the water. when he returned for the last hour of the match he would generally have an eel which had hooked itself during his time at the pub. one year, the day before the match, i went to the market and bought the biggest mackerel i could see. when he went off to the pub i wound his line in, attached the mackerel to the hook and lobbed it back in the water. on his return he picked up his rod, felt this big fish and proceeded to play it carefully as it was a 'matchwinner'. when he got it to the top and realised what it was he looked around and everyone was stood up laughing at him! on the coach home he had a proper sulk on.

this company which had a workforce of well over two hundred in it's heyday now employs around nine or ten.

Did you know my grandad Harry Goddard? I think he retired from Footprint in 1992.

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yes, i remember harry, a smashing bloke. he worked on the auger section alongside jim almond, harry howard, george harmston etc.

an awkward question but is he still with us? if so, he may remember me as the young geordie lad who first worked under fred cartledge and later harry armitage.

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Sadly not he passed away about five years after retiring,I do remember him telling me that when BT who I work far started using cordless drills instead of the old hand drills it was a slippery slope for Footprints from then on.

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