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Brooke Tool Greet

Graham

Graham

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
I was brought up never knowing who my dad was and when I was about 14 years old, in 1958, my mum remarried. I think that my step-dad, Albert Wittin, was much older than my mum and all I know about him is that he worked at Brooke Tool, I think this was at Tysley (or Tyseley) on the Warwick Road, Birmingham.

Albert Wittin was quite a well known angler and his son had a good tackle shop in Birmingham. I didn't know him for long as he died in 1963 and this very Victorian man never exchanged one word with me!

Does anyone know of this man, his son, have photos or memories of this company?

Graham.
 
Hello Graham, The Brooke Tool was actually in Greet opposite The Serk. My dad was a viewer there for many years after the war. My dad was also a fisherman and often went on days out in fishing competions with his workmates but I dont know if there was a works team. I dont think I ever heard him mention that name. Of course this could be because they worked in different departments.
Trevor.
 
Graham,
Both my dad and my brother were anglers, well my brother still is, and I was for a short time. What was the name of his son, who had the tackle shop? My brother might know of him, or made have used his shop.

Ann
 
lfred Owen was the Chairman.He used to come to work in his Roller and Float passed us without a word,I was only 16 and had to take messages up to him in the Directors corridor,I used to be frightened to death but not as much as when I had to deliver or fetch messages from the factory.I was so intimidated by the men and blushed like a tomato.I believe it changed to the Glynwed group,not sure if it was combined with wednesbury Tubes?
Shelagh
 
Ann B said:
Graham,
Both my dad and my brother were anglers, well my brother still is, and I was for a short time. What was the name of his son, who had the tackle shop? My brother might know of him, or made have used his shop.

Ann
Click to expand...

Ann,

I've been racking my brain to come up with his son's name, I think that he too was Albert Wittin but not so sure. My step brother was very good to me and his wife was more like a mother to me than my own mother. Though the takle shop was in Brum they lived in Bromsgrove and had a son who was a 'private eye' in the USA.

I was once allowed to go with them on a coach fishing trip and even allowed to use a fishing rod! The 'pitch' was somewhere on the river Severn and within 30 seconds I had caught a Perch that knocked the British record for 'six'! They took the rod off me, sent me to Coventry and I was never allowed to go with them again!:D
 
Hi Graham,

I phoned my brother yesterday to wish him happy birthday, so I'll leave it a week, as he's not much of a one for chatting on the phone, and I'll ask him if he knows them. The severn is his favourite river to fish. We used to have fishing holidays at my uncle's caravan at Arley, Bewdley. Then, for years, we went to Weir Meadow, Evesham, for our annual holiday.
I bet when you caught that fish, they mentioned 'beginner's luck'. And it was bigger than this one!

All the best
Ann
 
Ann B said:
I bet when you caught that fish, they mentioned 'beginner's luck'. And it was bigger than this one!
Click to expand...

Ann,

I dropped my float and hook, without bait, into the river Severn just to see if there was enough lead on it. My float went straight under so I thought "too much lead" and pulled up with a mighty jerk. This huge Perch came flying out of the water, over my head, and landed with a thud behind me! I looked at my hook and it was now dead straight from my pull and the weight of the fish.:D

Thanks for the lovely photo.
 
Hi All.

I am wondering if my grandfather is connected to this.

His name was Albert Harding and he ran a fishing tackle shop on the Warwick road in Tyseley. Grahame, I note you are researching the names Harding and Burbidge - both of these are connected to my family.

Albert had 2 sons, John (my dad, known in his youth as Jack, now 85) and Albert jnr, and a daughter Sybil (who married a Burbidge hence the connection).

Albert's wide was Ellen Nicholson who also worked in the shop, they used to make reels etc out the back. Dad remembers his parents' house on the warwick road, and the shop backing onto playing fields and the Coal Brook. I believe it is either demolished to make way for an industrial estate, or it is now a newsagents.

Contact me if you are looking for more info :)

Alison
 
Thorn1979 said:
Hi All.

I am wondering if my grandfather is connected to this.

His name was Albert Harding and he ran a fishing tackle shop on the Warwick road in Tyseley. Grahame, I note you are researching the names Harding and Burbidge - both of these are connected to my family.

Albert had 2 sons, John (my dad, known in his youth as Jack, now 85) and Albert jnr, and a daughter Sybil (who married a Burbidge hence the connection).

Albert's wide was Ellen Nicholson who also worked in the shop, they used to make reels etc out the back. Dad remembers his parents' house on the warwick road, and the shop backing onto playing fields and the Coal Brook. I believe it is either demolished to make way for an industrial estate, or it is now a newsagents.

Contact me if you are looking for more info :)

Alison
Click to expand...

Alison, thank you for your reply but none of the people you name rings a bell, not that they are not related but I know so little about them to be sure. Albert's shop was in the centre of Birmingham, not on the Warwick Rd.

On my mother's side Ann Burbidge, b 1831, married to Joseph Shakespeare, was my g.g.grandmother and on my dad's side Alice Beatrice Harding, b 1880, married to Edwin Webb, was my grandmother.

Thanks again, Graham.
 
RO258.jpg

The milling section

RO259.jpg

The grinding section.
1718182594752.jpeg
The turning section.
 
Thanks Pete - two threads now merged into this one. There may be earlier unseen posts.
 
blueminx said:
Brook Tools....... Let's walk down memory lane.
Click to expand...
Yes, you're right... Brooke Tools, Greet. We were Apprentices at the training room upstairs.... There were about five Apprentices in my year. We had to walk down the drive and on the left was the workers entrance. All the workers with their sandwich boxes, thermus and ta-ta hats on. I think the chap who trained us as engineers was Alf or Arthur with his white cow gown which was too long for him...... Taught us a lot in that first year. There was Neville, Rowan, Eugene and another two, can't recall their names..... Can still recall the heavy smell of Suds Oil and heavy sounds of lathes, millers, grinders etc. They made some incredible tools. This was where I bought my first Micrometer costing me £25 on the never-never. Learnt t use the Dividing Head, Vernier, and all the engineering machinery. These were the good tines.
 
I was an apprentice at Brooke Tool Automation, leaving in 1962. BTA was in Perry Barr near Kynocks and Amal carburetors.
We built automatic machining centers and unit heads. Our break through in those days was over 30 positions in a single head. We machined castings for BSA, Norton etc as well as 4 cylinder blocks for Ford and Austin and many many more.
Our shop looked like some of Pete’s photos with a majority of the equipment being belt driven.
 
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