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John Ready & Sons Brassfounders

  • Thread starter Thread starter davidh
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davidh

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I should be interested if anyone has any knowledge of my great-grandfather's business in Aston Road. His name was John Deakin Ready and the sons were Gerald, Clifford and Stanley. I believe the company went out of business when the remaining son, Stanley, emigrated to Canada in 1921.

David Hill
 
john ready &sons

hi davidh my g/father,father,and an uncle worked at abrassfounders on the aston rd called stringers the foundery was just above miller street
my dad & g/father worked there in the30/40s stringers MAY have taken over the site i know there is a 10yr gap but stringers might jog someones memory i hope this helps, best of luck

33bus:)
tom





barlow.sutton.griffiths.clarke.maund
 
Ready

Hello David H :) Just thought a bit of Electoral Roll info may help you.

1920 Erdington N, Ward, Stanley Spencer READY(Ro) 797 Chester Road
....................with Irene Marie (wife?) (Ho Ho) as above.

as above..William READY (Ro) & Geraldine READY(Ho Ho)179 Vauxhall Road
NOTE: Chester Rd is half mile from Aston Road in Erdington by Sutton .
.......Vauxhall Rd is quarter mile back/rear of Aston Rd by Nechells .

1925 Balsall Heath Ward, Daniel READY (Ro) at 30 River St
with Martha READY (Ho)
1925 Sparkhill Ward, Geraldine Catherine READY (Ho) 70 Vimy Road

1930 Edgbaston Ward, Joseph READY (R) 316 Bell Barn Rd(Quinton now)
1930 St Martins Ward, Morry READY (Rw) 50 Camp Hill (Digbeth now)
1930 Lozells Ward, William READY (Ro) & Geraldine READY (Rw Rw)
at 112 Lozells Street (this is half mile from Aston Road)

Hope this info assists your searches, John Y :cool:
ps, Say thanks to Chesterfield Royal Hospital, lovely place, good
Staff & people,, Our 1st Grandson born there Xmas,
No beds in Solihull or Sutton or B,ham Hosp,s
ps2, Glad little Lad got Chesterfield on Birth Cert,, Cheers John Y
 
Re: john ready &sons

Thanks for the info Tom. Can you recall the sort of products your father worked on and the working conditions at the time and can you remember the building. The Readys were originally at 42 Aston Road North, later at 178 Aston Road.

David Hill
 
Re: Ready

Thanks John Y, glad to hear of the happy event. Stanley and Irene Ready emigrated to Canada with their 2 children in 1921. He was the last of the male line in that branch of the family. The others may be distant relations but are not known to me. Thanks anyway

David Hill
 
hi david stringers were located about halfway between miller st and bracebridge st on the aston rd i was only a nipper 6ish 1940/41 but iwould go there 2/3 times a week to see my dad and to get my prize from the coremakers the letters of my name made in core sand sometimes they broke on the way home { a happy bunny i was not} so as a childs memory i remember the coremakers were on the right as you looked up the yard, the casting shops on the left about 5 or 6 my g/fathers c/shop was faceing i dont know about the other buildings on the right
i understand they cast water fittings in brass taps ,elbows,t/joints they may have done some fancy casting ie ornaments eyc,etc
i have two barley twist cadlesicks in nickel silver my dad cast when he was 18 they each weigh 2lbs my mom hated them i loved to use them like symbols cos they rang like bells(so did my ears when mom had ,had enough)all brassfounders were dirty smelly places they may cast bronze and gunmetal my father left and set up his own foundry in tower st opposite st georges church with 2partners ,i worked for my dad as a moulder we cast brass,bronze,gunmetal one of his coremakers was a mrs wells from my childhood (she never let me forget either)
differant metals gave differant side effects after working with them
brass,used to make you cold clammy sweat and some shaking
gunmetal ,used to give you a migrane type head ache also sting your eyes like hell when you knocked the moulds open after casteing
bronze,had a differant problem as the caster was pouring the bronze would suddenly loose its liqidity the moulder had to lift the furnace plates
off so that no time was lost in getting the pot back in the furnace to reheat the metal the side effects were known THE SMOTHERS
i left the trade in 1954, many years later whilst on a health and safety course at brighton universaty i was flipping through an industrial disease book and came across the word SMOOTHERS it is zinc poisoning mainly occurres in the non ferrous industries ie brassfoundrys
stretched the memory a bit but i hope this helps
feel free to contact if you require any more information im sure others have more info on this subject
best of luck
33bus
tom:)
 
Tom m8 :) That is brilliant posting from a Man who truly knows,,,,
Just to say Thanks,, i was on the old 33 going down Newtown Row with you for a minute or two then,, the parfum de odour :rolleyes: of the "smelting"
re-entered my taste buds just reading your great description,
Nice 1 Tom,, cheers John Y :cool:
 
right ,bearing in mind i have no technical writing skills(one finger ,sometimes two showing off)at the speed of the delete button, i will break it down into 3parts ie,paternmaking,moulding,casting my knowledge of patternmaking is zero(well thats a good start )but i have found a site which explains pattern making in better technical detail than i could
it also shows floor moulding the description is ok in principle its for much larger castings like some of the large valves pictured plus they talk about baking the moulds never in the small casting shops. smaller castings it also talks about the cooling off period ,this is the time after they have just been cast they dont talk about the bosh iwill save that for my effort
it also demonstrates the importance of shrinkage in metal when cooling down
im afraid im a computer illiterate my expert is busy launching a new web site ,my other ( ithink that s right,,,no it must be ,oh!!!ring steve he will know) is sunning himself in greece)
if you type ....history of patternmakers...on google
sea your history- founders&patternmakers idont know how to copy and paste yet but i will also i didnt want to infringe copy-write (heeding
rods warning a couple of weeks ago )if you are still interested i will continue with limited knowledge its good knowledge moulding & casting has played a
massive part in the development of birmingham there must have been a couple of thousand firms in the 1800s/1900s you have just see how many casters ,brassfouders there are in the census from 1841- 1950ish when the clean air policy took off in one six month period they closed over 300 casting shops jobs were lost BUT clean air prevailed
cheers for now
33bus:)
tom
p.s. most if not all knowledge of moulding,casting for the ordinary guys was past on by word of mouth and being shown what to do sometimes they didnt tell me enough iwillexplain later :)
 
hi there the following link explains in some technical detail what is required for casting in general far more educational for anyone interested in what their ancestors did because hundreds in the 1800s were involved in the foundry's this site shows modern ways for moulding ,gas,electric furnaces for melting metal it also explains pattern,and core making what it dosnt tell you is how dirty the trade was/is
if after reading this post if anyone wants to know about a working day in the 50s in a foundry use fairly traditional methods please let me know

33bus:)

tom








https://www.metal-technologies,inc sand casting explained
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sand-casting-packard bellhere is another link regarding the casting process this one brings the processes nearly up to the present time listing from patterns,coremaking,moulding, and casting between this link and the previous link take away the modern developments it gives you a rough idea of the process depending what you read the Chinese casted iron in the 600bc,,,the oldest casting found at the moment is a frog cast in the year 3000bc on one of the links it states a form of casting was being done 6000yrs bc my mind just boggles how they did it and what they used
33bus:)

tom

ps the bottom link isnt working properly




https://en.wikipedia.org/woki/sand-casting-packard bell
 
Last edited:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sand-casting-packard bellhere is another link regarding the casting process this one brings the processes nearly up to the present time listing from patterns,coremaking,moulding, and casting between this link and the previous link take away the modern developments it gives you a rough idea of the process depending what you read the Chinese casted iron in the 600bc,,,the oldest casting found at the moment is a frog cast in the year 3000bc on one of the links it states a form of casting was being done 6000yrs bc my mind just boggles how they did it and what they used
33bus:)

tom

ps the bottom link isnt working properly

in the search box put sand castimg the site opens on the casting site



https://en.wikipedia.org/woki/sand-casting-packard bell[/quote]
 
Re: John Ready & Sons Brass-founders+Hampton castings tower st

hi i hope you didnt have to much difficulty with the links on the previous posts (its the first time ive posted links) Hampton casting was my fathers with partners foundry it was situated up a long dark tunnel opposite St Georges church in Tower st the double storey building at the back was Barker Bros Brass founders the foundry was on the left, as you entered the door into the core shop it was about11ftx10ft a 6ftx4ft core stove filled the corner a bench where the 2 core makers worked was by the window it was always warm in there and it always smelled of scorched cloth to me ,it was the cores baking to dry them
The casting shop about 30ftwide x250ft long approx on the left was my moulding( benches) one was 10ft long the other about 14ft both were about 16ins deep from the front timber to the back wall about 3ft this means you work into the tub not on it like a bench
the 10ft bench was the moulding bench on the left hand side was your facing sand the pattern she side (cope)was in the middle the fine riddled backing sand on the right on the she side(cope) was a peg side(drag) mould ready for the next heat ( a heat is the actual name for the pouring of the number of moulds equal to the capacity of the crucible(pot)
the 14ft bench is for holding the moulds after they have been cast
on the long back wall there there are 3 furnaces but i will only describe the one of my dads
from my bench to the furnace hearth about12ins tall some 28ft long about 3ft deep made of steel ,3ft to the left and some 12ins lower were the2 pit furnaces each furnace had thick metal plates about 18x8ins with large looped handles which my dad used to lift off with his boots to either feed the furnace or fill the pot or to lift the pot out the hearth was used to hold the moulds up as they were Lent against it leaning at a slight angle inwards ,the furnaces i believe are pit furnaces because they are in the ground with a large cleaning pit in front covered by a heavy steel grill they must have a very tall chimney stack to draw the furnace ,crucibles(pots) used were either 60or 80lb capacity the coke was a special hardened industrial coke i hope you can under stand the process so far i have tried to give you an in-site of a foundry but i worrying about how to start i forgot to describe how much dust there is in the place, the building was about40/50ft tall every wooden beam every brick that was slightly out of alignment every window ledge was covered with a mixture of dust and very fine flour powder and how dry it was and the scorched scent that hung in the air i will pick up the process again in my next post
33bus:)

tom
 
tom.my dad was a moulder caster all his working life.as a child i saw the stinking, hot and dangerous task of brass moulding,one day he had a mould burst and ended up with a boot full of metal,although they wore assbestos laging over the boots,the heat of the crusibel still got through to the legs.as i posted on made in birmingham.it killed him in the end.i saw most toxic metals being melted down to re make castings.i tried it for a while,so i have the t shirt done it bin there.terrible terrible job,thanks for your post and memories.of that trade
 
hi Pete when we were ready to start pouring the metal my dad would sweep the floor throughroughly in front of the moulds he never let me do it he always said it was his job,it turns out that during the war years there was a terrible accident during the pouring ,as you know the pot is levered up onto the mould and gently tipped towards the caster as he pours the molten metal into the hole on top of the mold as he stepped back he trod on a piece of coke ,it crushed suddenly under his weight and he fell backwards pulling the pot with him the injuries were horrendous
My dad had a bad accident-as you know the casters steady the mould with their one foot whilst standing on one leg as they lever the pot up onto the mould,well the pot collapsed pouring the brass onto his boot and sacking wrapped around his leg he was off work for just over 18mths he then went back to work with his leg still in plaster .at5ft2ins and 8stone they bred em tough in Cowper st cheers
33bus tom:)
 
hi.tom it is good to hear from a fellow caster.yes the accidents were bad.dad lost his finger under the roller on the sand mill.as kids we went in the foundry at the week end and had a play around.dangerous i know.the sodium that you put in the aluminium to add silicon,used to explode if you put it in water.the scrap metal that was melted down was old brass taps.and fittings,when on the zink,anode casting,the scrap was old gutters.if you breathed the smoke,you had the haigs,a (A SHIVERING AT NIGHT).some of the junk we melted was fasinating.did you pore the melted down scrap in to sows,to make ingots?.the fires were coke.and later on a
gas oil furnace was bought.so it was quicker,but you still had to use the round crusible.the foundry was at the bottom of mount st nechells op spine cob park. cheers for reply
 
hi Pete i to nearly came to grief with the rolling mill while rolling the facing sand it pulled the shirt arm off from my shirt one day ,i never tested the sand from grabbing it as the rolles went by again i always used the side flap.have you read my posts for the above title? although i grew up with casters dad,g/father,uncles etc,i only worked at my dads foundry (Hampton castings )in tower st for 4yrs ive tried to give an insight into a dying trade which helped Birmingham grow from my memory you are the first person to post who was in the trade please feel free to put right anything i may have remembered incorrectly cheers
33bus tom:)
 
tom.the mill was dangerous,it would mangle a shovel.never mind your arm.
I will tell you a story it is funny now but not at the time.We had a friend he was just like doc brown off back to the future,in the thing he did.he was a gravity die caster,he had a big furnace heated by gas oil,to light it you turned on the blower and lit the oil.you prob now the type,well every time he would try to light it there was clouds of white smoke.you could not see any thing.then there was a bang and it lit.well one morning i went to help him do son casting,and when i opend the door,there he was sitting on a milk crate the place was all black and wet,he had completely
blown the roof off.so he had to move,
 
hi Pete to hold the pot back a few minutes dad would put some defective castings to top up the pot one day we were doing 4ins gunmetal valves there must have been some moisture inside the valve with a load crackle and harsh hissing sound the molten gunmetal come shooting out of the pit furnace like the biggest roman candle you ever saw it peppered the roof truss some 15ft above the furnace we lost about 10lbs of metal nobody could explain why it had happend ,because as you know you dip the castings into a water tub to blow the sand core out and the castings retain enough heat to dry themselves automatically it really brought home the safety rule water and molten metal dont mix
when i was moulding and levelling the mould prior to the backing board i had a steel bar like a 2ft tyre lever to scrape the moulds mainly on a Monday morning first mould i gripped the bar short and as i scrapped the mould little finger top joint left hand always caught the pegside pin and the more i tried to protect it the more i knocked i used to get blood blisters on top of blood blisters the sand stopped it bleeding and as you know moulding played havoc with your hands cheers 33bus tom:)
 
dad made is own gunmetal.he added this and that.we was making cyl for model locos,when the fetler tryed to clean em up the grinder would not touch em.so they had to get a diamond cutter on them,they were that tough.the water BOSH great tool for removing sand from castings hey
 
Further to my original posting, I have found from the probate records for the will of my g-grandfather, John Deakin Ready (died 7/11/1898) that the address of his brassworks was Carlyle Works, Aston Road North (no connection with Midland Red works as far as I can make out). His home address was given as 8 Sutton Street, Aston.

If anyone can add any further info, I should be very grateful.

David Hill
 
1888 No 42 Aston road north not listed
1890-1900 Ready, John & Son, brass founders, 42, Aston road north
1903 There is no Ready brassfounders listed, 42 Ast.Rd.North not listed. 178A Aston road has other occupants
1904 Ready & Son, brass founders, 178A, Aston road
1904 Ready Stanley, brass founder, see Ready & Son
1908-1913 Ready & Son, brass founders, 178, Aston road
1915-1921 Ready & SonLimited, brass founders, 178 Aston rd.
1932 The address is occupied by a number of people including 178B,Coates & Co .brass casters

I think no 42 is the blue building on the map, but am not 100% certain
Mike

map_c_1910_42_aston_road_north2C_probably.jpg
 
Thanks for the reply Mike.
According to family 'folklore', following John's death, his sons Gerald (the eldest), Clifford and Stanley (the youngest) took over the running of the foundry until after the deaths of Clifford and their mother Kate, both in 1901.
The foundry then closed for a while but was revived (probably, according to your info, in 1904) by Stanley with Gerald acting as the salesman until his death in 1907.
This would also explain the change of address from 42 Aston Road North to 178a Aston Road.
The business finally closed in 1922 when Stanley and his family emigrated to Canada.

David Hill
 
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