The vanished Engineering firms..

[charliewag 19]

sorry to hear harry had passed away. he was right though, the auger section was the first to dwindle away followed by the merger / closure of others.

 

---------- Post added 24-02-2013 at 21:59 ----------

 

we had a works manager at footprint who was hated by 99% of the workforce, he was that horrible. one monday morning he came to give us our weekly instructions and you couldn't help but notice he'd had new false teeth fitted. the dentist must have given him the wrong set because they were massive!

when he went into the forge to see his old adversary geoff cartledge he was greeted with ' morning peter, i see shergar has been found then' 'oh really?' came the disinterested reply. ' well he must have ' replied geoff ' because you've got his teeth!'

[mediumfast 10]

I still have the yellow handled screwdrivers Footprint used to make for BT after 23 years they are as good as the day I got them they are fantastic especially compared to the garbage we get now which doesn't even have a manufacturers name on it.Perhaps that was the problem when the tools were really good quality if you looked after them you didn't need to replace them.

[charliewag 19]

i've got a set of them in my toolbox as well. as you say, they were a quality product.

[microkel32 10]

Hi My granddad worked at footprint tools from around the 70s to the 90s can anyone remember him Fred Cartleadge? xx

 

---------- Post added 06-12-2013 at 16:24 ----------

 

Hi If anyone did work with him or knew him would love a few story's I remember going on the Footprint tools day trips got some good memory's xx

[charliewag 19]

i worked for your grandad when i first started at footprint in the edge tool dept. then moved with him when he got his own department. i then moved on to another section which fred wasn't happy about.

he ran the fishing club for a long time and when he retired i took over. fred and me went

on the s.u.t coach from pond street a few times mainly to newark on the trent.

i remember an air pipe breaking loose once and fred, instead of turning the air off, tried to

grab the end and it was whacking him on the head, his backside and wrapping round his neck before he caught it! we were too busy laughing to help him out.

he was a strict bloke but you could have a laugh with him though.

is your mother diane who also worked at footprint?

[flyer 10]

Grandson just finish his engineering Deg got a very good job on leaving,now building the towers for communications ,so as one door close"s another opens

 

---------- Post added 09-12-2013 at 17:37 ----------

 

shphotos

the firm was spartan,s

 

Is this the same Spartan's the is now well into electronics as in submarine detectors??

 

---------- Post added 09-12-2013 at 18:01 ----------

 

This was in Leicester, British United Shoe machine had a world monoply on all shoe machine's we had 4000 apprentice under papers I worked about 15 miles from the main plant in every thing but metal, now all gone the way of the do-do bird

[vanner 10]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wednesday1 View Post

Hey, you'll soon have all the out of town Tories on in a minute telling us how much more engineering, Sheffield does than now than 30 years ago!!!

 

Yes and this one who will tell you how the unions destroyed the engineering industry by ceaselessly demanding more money, thereby making products too expensive and forcing production abroad.

 

The truth is that industry became more efficient. It had to. And it started during the early to mid `70`s. And picked up with a vengeance in the very early `80`s. Nothing to do with any political party. Just technology.

 

I watched it happen first hand in my particular industry, engineering. First we had the Automatic machines, which became much more common in the `70`s, then in the early `80`s the C.N.C.`s, (computer numerical control), machines came along. And as they progressed in sophistication, they reduced the manual tasks that were needed on all types of component.

 

This type of thing happened all across industry.

[mikep57 10]

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

 

I was told that under reparations, Britain got some old German machinery which the US replaced with new kit.