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Smethwick

OK Peeps, cool it or loose it, this is a Birmingham History Site, the clue is in the title.
 
Hello Striver, only just found yesterdays posting, so will try and answer your questions.

You said that some consider Smethwick to be the very centre of the start of the Industrial Revolution, and then you went on to name factories. I was just disagreeing with the fact that they were not in Smethwick at the START of the IR, so it could not have been at the centre. It was just where factories moved to once established because there was space there, as unlike Birmingham, it was not overcrowded. I have not looked into it, but I suspect Smethwick was just a leafy suburb when Fox Henderson moved there, or at least had been until then. I certainly think there has been some muddling up of thoughts! I don't think I have ever seen on this forum anyone 'running down' an area or belittling it, and if you thought I was doing that about Smethwick, you are very wrong - I have no feelings on the matter really, it played its part, just as Dudley and Tipton and all the other places nearby played their parts in the making of the Midlands. Normally people don't really mind if they find out what they had belived all along is wrong, but you seemed to consider that I was putting you in your place when nothing like that was meant, or even thought about.

As I said, I worked for a short time in Smethwick at GKN, and so Thimblemill Lane?? and the GKN socal club has a special place in my memory. Live groups and dancing!!!! Never allowed to listen to music at home, this was the real start of my adult life, and oh how I loved it.

Shortie
 
Can we please not have these same points put forward over and over.

Please refer to posts from Pomgolian (moderator) and Postie (the owner of BHF).
 
I worked in Smethwick (South Road) for 12 months in 1976/77 but regret all I recall are happy pints in the Blue Gate before catching the train back to New Street.
 
With regard to your comment about Smethwick not being at the start of the Industrial revolution and in particular Avery`s Starting in Deritend. Let`s not take anything away from the Avery site in foundry lane. After all just look at the work of three gentmen who used to work there,Boulton,Murdock and Watt.

Best wishes from and an ex Avery Engineering apprentice from 1961 to 1966
 
Hello Newbie
I am glad to see that I am not the only ex Avery man who uses this site.I started at Soho in 1946 and after serving my Appentership in
1952 did my National Service including 12 months in Korea.I returned to Avery and lasted untill 1992
Any more ex Averys?
Regards
John Hughes
 
No John , but spent a few years of my life using their scales in the butchers first then wrensons, then transport.
paul
 
I worked as a temp at Averys in Digbeth. They were changing the prices of the maintenance of the scales and everyone who had a set of their scales had to have a card advising them. I spent many weeks there just typing addresses on a card, it was boring, but I could type Birmingham very fast by the end of it. Thank god for mail merge now.
 
There was no intention to take anything away from the Avery site at all. I just corrected the assumption that they had started there.

Thomas Avery and his brother inherited a failing weighing machine business that was situated in Heath Mill Lane, Deritend. It was only when, through sheer hard work, they turned the business round and made it the remarkable success it eventually was. Smethwick played a very large part, as has been previously mentioned, but almost all the businesses first cited did not start out in Smethwick. I am an avid Matthew Boulton fan, have been for over twenty years, and am not trying to put anyone or any place down, least of all Matthew Boulton. If you read further postings, you will see that.

We (or more truthfully my husband) has a friend, also living in Walsall, who was an Avery apprentice from about 1962/3.
 
Hi Colin

It's very interesting that Matthew Boulton is more often spoken about with regard to his association with James Watt and the engines, when in actual fact he was a silversmith first and foremost. He had fingers in many pies, was at the forefront of innovation in many ways. It was Matthew Boulton who campaigned for the Assay Office to be in Birmingham. His silverware designs are fabulous, there are many pieces of his work on show at the Assay Office, and some at Soho House, which was his home.
 
Hi john
i also worked in averys i worked in the electro plating and anodising deptment also painting the jockey scales as well
i got the job through my uncle billy smart whom worked there for years he lived in lodge rd oppersite all saits hospital at the church
from youth to old age his first job was for the council laying steel road side kerb stones then the council made themredundant way back inthe fiftyies he started as a wirer up in the dep his mate was the foreman
then he got the job in the electro plating department i am and was an experience chrome plater and anodiser
i remember when i first started the week off i had tosee the company nurse
and have the medical the silly nurse put the blood pressure around my arm to tight then she blew it up and the pressure almost took my arm off and i fainted so they ran and fetch my uncle bill from the shop thats my memory of averys smethwick
best wishes astonion
 
Shortie said:
Hi Colin

It's very interesting that Matthew Boulton is more often spoken about with regard to his association with James Watt and the engines, when in actual fact he was a silversmith first and foremost. He had fingers in many pies, was at the forefront of innovation in many ways. It was Matthew Boulton who campaigned for the Assay Office to be in Birmingham. His silverware designs are fabulous, there are many pieces of his work on show at the Assay Office, and some at Soho House, which was his home.
Click to expand...


Hi P!
The British History site is so comprehensive on the detail of the town. All of the stories are interesting. It mentioned Harper and Bean, too, where my dad started work at 13 - in 1916!
I agree that Boulton was very talented. I'm an old boy of James Watt Technical School, so I have an interest in him. Anyone out there who graced the school's marble halls? Apropos of which, his marble bust disappeared from the school in the 60s, I believe. Any sightings?:shifty:

PS Since starting this thread, I haven't read as much about Smethwick and Birmingham history since Spud Taylor's history lessons!
 
Hi Colin, I don't now if you have read Jenny Uglow's book 'The Lunar Men', or Shena Mason's 'The Hardware Man's Daughter'. Both worth a read, the second being about Matthew Boulton's daughter, Anne, but has a lot about the great man himself, and also much about the Watts. Both James Watt and his wife were very parsimonious, and their comments on Boulton's level of spending are quite amusing. They did NOT like him spending his own money!
 
Hello Shotie, I wonder if I knew your friend as our time as apprentices overlapped. I`m new to this site and I suppose it`s not prudent to reveal email addresses. Is there to your knowledge a way we could exchange email addresses?

Ken (AKA) Ton up boy
 
Hello John, which department(s) did you work in? I was an "E" dept apprentice and had I stayed there I would have put the testing machines together.

Best Wishes

Ken Whitehouse AKA (ton up boy)
 
Shortie said:
Hi Colin, I don't now if you have read Jenny Uglow's book 'The Lunar Men', or Shena Mason's 'The Hardware Man's Daughter'. Both worth a read, the second being about Matthew Boulton's daughter, Anne, but has a lot about the great man himself, and also much about the Watts. Both James Watt and his wife were very parsimonious, and their comments on Boulton's level of spending are quite amusing. They did NOT like him spending his own money!
Click to expand...

Hello P!
No I haven't read these. The Lunar Society, though, is an intriguing group. As for the parsimonious Watts.......Being a Smethwick Striver, I can appreciate that!:D

I am really pleased that the Avery boys and girls are linking up on the thread.

Not far away from the Soho Foundry was the Galton Bridge. I did this little picture a little while ago....The white thing along the towpath may look like a pantomime horse, but it's meant to be the real thing! Maybe use those glasses?:rolleyes:
 
Hi Col, firstly, all you pics are great, we have some smashing artists on this forum. I did not see a pantomime horse, but pehaps I was not looking properly! LOL. James Watt was a Scot, hence his parsimonious side - his wife used to comment in her letters about how much Matthew Boulton used to spend, the letters are deliciously gossipy. Shena Mason's book about Anne Boulton is compiled through the letters of Anne Boulton and her father, plus a few others and is certainly worth buying. It gives loads of info about the small stuff, whereas The Lunar Men speaks of larger and greater things. When you next come up here, you should seriously consider going to Soho House (closed during the winter. It's modest considering Boulton's immense wealth, but actually contains the actual table that the Lunar Society used to sit around for their meetings. Last May Bank Holiday they had actors there dressed up as James Watt, Matthew Boulton and Erasmum Darwin, and conversations with these men were more than interesting as they replied to questions in 1700's idiom. You can obviously see where my interests lie!

Shortie
 
Thanks for your kind comment re pictures. Must get back to painting.
I haven't yet been to Soho House but must in the spring. I remember Time Team doing a dig on part of the old factory site. Now much is under people's gardens. However, they found some blanks for coins and buttons, plus various foundations, I think.
 
hi col
yes i think we all agree you do great pics and regarding the galton bridge and that part of the cut along the tow path
i wish i had a pound for every time we and the gang walked along there up to thhe stables i would have been rich every week i would along that section
and in fact that grey horse could have been charlie the horse i spoke about before he was a great big grey shire horse most regular tramping up and down back and fore
he chased us out of the stable yard and along the cut with the boat man in pursue as we ran as fast as we could our little hearts was pounding heavy
and as we looked over our little shoulders to see if he was still coming after us the boat man would eventualy stop him and shout at us with a word and wave his fist towards us
what a picture and what a memory thanks col best wishes astonion
 
Smethwick Striver said:
Thanks for your kind comment re pictures. Must get back to painting.
I haven't yet been to Soho House but must in the spring. I remember Time Team doing a dig on part of the old factory site. Now much is under people's gardens. However, they found some blanks for coins and buttons, plus various foundations, I think.
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hi col...i have that episode of time team on disc...they dug up a friend of mines back garden and patio in south road but drew the line there as the rest of the factory site ran under the living room:rolleyes:

lyn
 
Oh, God, that reminds me of one the the things I had to do in my first job. On discovering that I had ' nice handwriting', I was given the task of writing all the invitations for the opening of the wholesale fashion house that I worked at in Albert Street.
carolina said:
I worked as a temp at Averys in Digbeth. They were changing the prices of the maintenance of the scales and everyone who had a set of their scales had to have a card advising them. I spent many weeks there just typing addresses on a card, it was boring, but I could type Birmingham very fast by the end of it. Thank god for mail merge now.
Click to expand...
 
A group of Forum members had a great time on a visit to Soho House (meeting first in some pub in Factory Rd) arranged by one of our members, probably Lyn who seems to organize most of our trips. Very enjoyable and well worth a visit. It even inspired me to do a painting (attached). Eric
 
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Glad it brought memories back Astonian. My aunt used to live nearby in a prefab, up from Great Arthur Street and Roebuck Lane. As a lad, I used to go all over the place. A free-range life. Great in the 50s.
 
Hello Newbie
I was also a E dept man.Testing m/c's were my interest.Harry Travers was the foreman of E DEPT.After national service I joined Planning
Dept
When they shipped Testing m/c's to Denisons at LEEDS,I had to go on the scales side.not so interesting. Eddie Cox was the Planing Boss.
He was the tennis champ.Any one of his staff who beat him didnt get a rise for ages.I played for various Avery football teams starting with
the Apprentice side.Jimmy Hay( a Scot) was in charge of us Apprentice lads and he had an office in those old building in the main drive
In the course of my apprentice I covered E,D,S,drawing office.
Best Wishes
John Hughes I
 
Hello John, the name Jimmy Hay rang a bell. I checked on my apprenticeship Agreement and the name and signature of the personnel manager is James Henderson Hay. Here are a few more names from E,dept in the 1960s that you may remember, E,dept Foreman Doug Barnes, E,dept fitters, Cyril Brown, George Wolfindale, Howard Cox, Wilf Taylor, George Axhorn, John Carey, Ron Riddler, Wilf Leigh, Norman Rawlings, Aiden Prosser, Jess Gill (charge hand) Bill Mason (pipe fitter) fellow apprentices Alan Rudge, Alan Bailey and Alan Robertson.
I hope these names will prod afew memories.
Regards
Ken Whitehouse
 
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