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Lucas Great King Street memories

welcome rebecca smashing photos....hoping someone remembers your mom and nan...my aunt worked there for well over 30 years and it would have been during the time they worked there...i wonder if your mom may know her..her names is joyce purnell and at 90 is still going strong

lyn
 
padgo said:
I have only just come across this site, what memories it brings back. I started as a trainee production engineer in 1955, spending 2 to 4 weeks in virtualy every department at GKS and ended up as a centre lathe turner in B3 until 1966. As you can imagine I met a lot of lovely people there and well remember the paternoster lifts, very scary until you got used to them. We had an interdepartmental darts league with games played during the dinner break, with finals night at the Trees in Wheeler St. Its heartbreaking to see the demolition pictures especially as I lived in Bridge St West very close to the factory, and of course, the house has gone as well. Dave.
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padgo said:
I have only just come across this site, what memories it brings back. I started as a trainee production engineer in 1955, spending 2 to 4 weeks in virtualy every department at GKS and ended up as a centre lathe turner in B3 until 1966. As you can imagine I met a lot of lovely people there and well remember the paternoster lifts, very scary until you got used to them. We had an interdepartmental darts league with games played during the dinner break, with finals night at the Trees in Wheeler St. Its heartbreaking to see the demolition pictures especially as I lived in Bridge St West very close to the factory, and of course, the house has gone as well. Dave.
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Hi,

My Grandad and dad worked. At GKS. Do you remember William (Bill) Byron or his son Les?

Robin.
 
padgo said:
I have only just come across this site, what memories it brings back. I started as a trainee production engineer in 1955, spending 2 to 4 weeks in virtualy every department at GKS and ended up as a centre lathe turner in B3 until 1966. As you can imagine I met a lot of lovely people there and well remember the paternoster lifts, very scary until you got used to them. We had an interdepartmental darts league with games played during the dinner break, with finals night at the Trees in Wheeler St. Its heartbreaking to see the demolition pictures especially as I lived in Bridge St West very close to the factory, and of course, the house has gone as well. Dave.
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And they lived in Bridge St West.
 
Hi Dave,

I was born (1946) and bred at the other end of Bridge Street West to you, and lived down an alleyway called 'Cottage Row'. It was slap bang next to St Saviours church where myself and my siblings were Christened. I went to 'Burbury St Junior Infants School' which was also slap bang next to Lucas at Great King Street as I recall. It later became a secondary modern and was called the 'Harry Lucas School'.

The family moved away to pastures new and I went back to have a look around about 1965/66 before everywhere was demolished. Why they couldn't have preserved the Lucas factory and converted it to apartments or something, I just don't know. For someone like yourself who worked there for a long time, as you say it must have been heart breaking seeing those photos of its destruction. But then Birmingham City Council has a long history of demolishing our buildings heritage without so much as a backward glance.

As well as my old school, Farm St School went as well as St Saviours church. Why didn't they leave important buildings like this intact and just build the new stuff around them? I had two spinster aunts who worked all their lives at GKS, Alice Bow and Minnie Baker who retired in the early 1970's.

All the best,

Trev. (This photo at 'Cottage Row' is of me in front of my mother, alongside my brother and sister c 1951)


Cottage Row.jpg
 
Angela H 1976 said:
Lucas works photo. My mom (Rita Willetts) is at the front next to the lady in the white top and long hair. The other picture is a works outing my mom is in the Turquoise twin suit and the white hair band. I will have a look if there are anymore photo's as a lot have come out the photo album and my mom might have put them in another album somewhere.
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What a lovely surprise to see my Mom in this photo you shared, she is behind the Gent on the right her name was Rene Foulkes
Angela H 1976 said:
Lucas works photo. My mom (Rita Willetts) is at the front next to the lady in the white top and long hair. The other picture is a works outing my mom is in the Turquoise twin suit and the white hair band. I will have a look if there are anymore photo's as a lot have come out the photo album and my mom might have put them in another album somewhere.
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That is a fantastic picture !!, it reminds you of Birminghams industry and innovation at its height. The design and structure of the building, it made me think of how many companies in that day had the (work’s) bus / terminus on site to get their staff on and off site . The BSA Small Heath had a route for the bus (number 8) to drop off and pick up on their site.
 
thanks viv..a sight i know so very well...good shot of my dads security box as well....i would still love to know what happened to the lucas clock...despite efforts and ideas put forward the mystery has never really been solved

lyn
 
jennyann said:
Thanks a lot for posting the photos of the history and the razing of
the Lucas buildings. My Mother worked as a Secretary at Lucas's
in the early l930's. She told me she had one of the first electric
typewriters in Birmingham whilst she worked there. She often told me how strict the Managers were in those days and how secretaries and typists had to be very careful indeed that their work was correct since
if they had too many typing errors in their work they had to forfeit a small
fine out of their wages!!! Lucas's did not allow married women to work in their offices at that time. If a women got married they were not allowed to return to work afterwards.

My Father spent three years in Canada, where he had gone to find work
and eventually send for my Mother. The Depression ruled that out and he arrived home penniless. At the time of their marriage in 1933 my Father was in training for a career in the electrical field so my Mother wanted to keep her job at Lucas's. Therefore, they got married in secret at the registry office in Birmingham, had a small family reception at my Aunt's house in Kingstanding. The only wedding photo I have is one of the wedding breakfast table, decorated with greenery, glasses, serviettes and a champagne bottle. No cake,no people. This was because they could not
afford to take any chances by having their photographs taken by anyone
in case someone at Lucas's found out. Only one of my Mother's close
friends at Lucas's knew about the marriage and she was sworn to secrecy also family members. I often wondered as a small child why my
parents had no wedding photos.

My parents first home was a flat in Kingstanding Road and no one they knew in this area worked at Lucas's. My mother left when she learned she was expecting her first child in early 1934. By all accounts the secret was then revealed.
Many years later I worked for a year at John Wilson & Sons(Wholesale Grocers) Ltd. which was just around the corner from Lucas's. I walked
by the place many many times and always thought it was a great
looking building.
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My late aunt, Alice Bow, worked at Lucas Great King St all her life until she retired aged 60 in 1971. She never married and perhaps either she never met anyone - or preferred working to being at home all day as a married woman !
 
trevor bow said:
Re your old house on that map Brian, I looked closely and realised I could see my old house as well. There was an alleyway called 'Cottage Row' that ran off Bridge Street West down the side of St Saviour's Chuch which was on the crossroads of Villa St, Guest St and BSW. There were 5 houses either side and my family lived at number 3. We moved to Northfield in 1954 when I was just coming up to 8 years old.

Would anyone out there who worked for Lucas remember my spinster aunt, Alice Bow ? She lived eventually in Tipton after the war, and worked for Lucas all her life. She retired at 60 in the summer of 1971, but unfortunately I don't know which department(s) she worked for.

Trevor Bow.
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hello Trevor - my father, Arthur Lees, also worked for Joseph Lucas [ known as 'The Prince of Darkness' since his bulbs were notorious for blowing]. Dad worked their pretty much all his life too - i started at the 'Engineering school' at Great Hampton Row when i was 15 [1963] but left two years later. "you leave that job - you leave this house" - so i walked to India - i've got lots of pictures of Lucas's that i will post over time - i ended up in Australia - Bob Lees
 
trevor bow said:
Hi Dave,

I was born (1946) and bred at the other end of Bridge Street West to you, and lived down an alleyway called 'Cottage Row'. It was slap bang next to St Saviours church where myself and my siblings were Christened. I went to 'Burbury St Junior Infants School' which was also slap bang next to Lucas at Great King Street as I recall. It later became a secondary modern and was called the 'Harry Lucas School'.

The family moved away to pastures new and I went back to have a look around about 1965/66 before everywhere was demolished. Why they couldn't have preserved the Lucas factory and converted it to apartments or something, I just don't know. For someone like yourself who worked there for a long time, as you say it must have been heart breaking seeing those photos of its destruction. But then Birmingham City Council has a long history of demolishing our buildings heritage without so much as a backward glance.

As well as my old school, Farm St School went as well as St Saviours church. Why didn't they leave important buildings like this intact and just build the new stuff around them? I had two spinster aunts who worked all their lives at GKS, Alice Bow and Minnie Baker who retired in the early 1970's.

All the best,

Trev. (This photo at 'Cottage Row' is of me in front of my mother, alongside my brother and sister c 1951)


View attachment 172964
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hello again Trevor - i went to 'the Annexe' opposite Farm st school - i was born in '48
 
trevor bow said:
Re your old house on that map Brian, I looked closely and realised I could see my old house as well. There was an alleyway called 'Cottage Row' that ran off Bridge Street West down the side of St Saviour's Chuch which was on the crossroads of Villa St, Guest St and BSW. There were 5 houses either side and my family lived at number 3. We moved to Northfield in 1954 when I was just coming up to 8 years old.

Would anyone out there who worked for Lucas remember my spinster aunt, Alice Bow ? She lived eventually in Tipton after the war, and worked for Lucas all her life. She retired at 60 in the summer of 1971, but unfortunately I don't know which department(s) she worked for.

Trevor Bow.
Click to expand...
my dad was a foreman at Lucas GKS - he was quite proud to be the 'water baliff' for the Lucas fishing club - this is a picture of me and him circa 1964
 

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bob lees said:
hello Trevor - my father, Arthur Lees, also worked for Joseph Lucas [ known as 'The Prince of Darkness' since his bulbs were notorious for blowing]. Dad worked their pretty much all his life too - i started at the 'Engineering school' at Great Hampton Row when i was 15 [1963] but left two years later. "you leave that job - you leave this house" - so i walked to India - i've got lots of pictures of Lucas's that i will post over time - i ended up in Australia - Bob Lees
Click to expand...
 
bob lees said:
hello Trevor - my father, Arthur Lees, also worked for Joseph Lucas [ known as 'The Prince of Darkness' since his bulbs were notorious for blowing]. Dad worked their pretty much all his life too - i started at the 'Engineering school' at Great Hampton Row when i was 15 [1963] but left two years later. "you leave that job - you leave this house" - so i walked to India - i've got lots of pictures of Lucas's that i will post over time - i ended up in Australia - Bob Lees
Click to expand...


Quite a story Bob, you were obviously the adventurous type !
 
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