History of Laycocks

[grinder]

Chuffinel.

Pretty certain I do, Looking forward to it......

[JackiePalmer]

Hi everyone

I worked at Laycocks from late 60's to about 1972.

I worked in the large office at the bottom of the drive and through despatch.

John ?? was in charge and someone called Robin???

Bill Fairbrither was in there and a lovely man called Ted. There were lots more but cannot remember their names.

We did all the paper-work that went in the stillages with the clutches.

I loved it at Laycock's. Lovely happy days.

I was also one of the g0-go dancers at the Sports club on a Thursday night with my friend Anna. Her Dad, Walter Allsop, worked on inspection.

Later on I worked in the office that was facing the bottom of the drive with Barbara Fish and Sue ???.

I remember that everyone knew each other and the Sports Club was fantastic.

I remember George Goode had an office on the shop floor near to wher you got hot water for tea.He was a lovely man.

There was a girl called Jennifer Hutchinson, her Dad worked in export. We went on Day release together, she was a real laugh and we had lots of happy times together.

I later married Chris Pennington who was a charge-hand. All our friends worked there, Geoff Dungworth, Ian Barrow.

Would love to hear from any-one who remembers these lovely times.

[Michael_W]

Hi Keith..

Your Name rings a bell but can't put a face to it yet,

We must have been ships that passed in the night, When I started at Archer road I was on the C4 Reg Warrington was foreman the setters while I was on there where Dennis Smith, Joe Wild, Alan Keyworth, Eric Chapple the ones I can remember off the top of my head...

Tommy Barnett got me into the C/G in 64 the squad then were Bert, Harold, George Marsh. Edwin, Stan, Arthur, George Millner . Tom went into the tool room

 

I worked with Tommy Barnett, while I was in the toolroom 1983-88, just heard that Alec Dewhurst recently passed away if anybody remembers him.

[cornishmaid]

Hello , my Father worked as a manager/supervisor I think, at Laycock Engineering in the 60`s, his name was Henry Styring and we lived at Coal Aston at the time .

[willybite]

i started work at laycocks in june 1964 just before 3 shifts ended i started in the clutch m/s on archer rd.i have read the letters for a few weeks but ive only just joined the sh/forum.i remember a lot of the names mentioned and a lot more, here goes, eric holland, jim minnard, taffy jones fred brookes,dennis oldham,ken beck,george toothill., all were setters in m/s foremen were ,les hayles, jack hewitt. manager was arthur slynn i remember maurice starbuck benny abbott.

m/s operators were vin grist, tony constantine(spiritualist medium) joe elliot

ken berridge, tommy padley bob bales pat coyne jan tereschak(the yorkshire pole),bill liversedge

we had some characters over the years remember alan wright the paper man. there was a bloke started at quarter to nine on nights no one saw him until two oclock the following morning and then it was benny abbott who found him fast asleep on a toilet, he said he hadn't worked on nights before and was too tired,another used to wash his clothes in the sinks and dry them over the water boiler,another worked for three days on nights not one of the staff had any record of him down to start until he said this is guylees isn't it. he had started at the wrong firm.

Edited October 14, 2010 by willybite

[grinder]

Blimey willybite, you've menioned some names there, was this when the Clutch dept was across the yard or had they moved into the machine shop by then...

Looking back I see a lot of faces who's names escape me or I can only remember their first names, you've put a name to and brought back a lot of faces there.....

Cheers

[willybite]

willybite here

hi grinder some more names from the old clutch m/s bottom of the drive turn left

john styring,jim carlton.chris hutton,ron naylor, edgar wetherington,ivan cooper,derek townsend,ken hewitt,john hunter,ben bennet,horace theaker,fred theaker,les goddard(bream) across yard. there were charlie marsden, (sams brother) bob padley(toms brother) bill perry joe grist (vin's brother) george?? (rocky) in c/ass peter chambers, jud whitehead,jack thompson,brian kelly,jim bryson,harry lincoln,albert needham,don pilkington,bill cook, ron hextall, john wilkes,ken carr,johnnie nell.albert raffo,ray gillot,ted cameron,ernest marsden,alan norris,dennis williams,these last two were setters at the time.

Edited May 19, 2009 by willybite

[grinder]

Overload...Knew the Clutch lads better when they moved into the big machine shop setters John Styring, snooker at sports club. Jim, fishing mad. and Fred Theaker. Harry Lincoln knew his son John better..Don Pilkington as Convener, Alan Norris ,Foreman ?

What about Sam Marsden, Charlie Brookfield Tommy Blackwell the guy of whom a manager once said," If we made fishing tackle Tommy would be off in a corner making Overdrives"...

So many names, so many great memories

[willybite]

dee-cee asked about bert crookes well i remember bert very well i once asked him where i could have known him from as i'm good at remembering faces,he told me he cut hair at tom's barbers in charles st i used to have my hair cut there the odd time, idont think it was there,it might have been but i thought it was the st philips rd district any how he said he lived down there when he was a boy he said he went to st stephens or crookesmoor schools as did my dad,i asked bert if he knew him and he said yes dads nickname was "fats" which he knew.so i must have remembered him from "tom's".i remember harold broadhurst i have known him from when we were in short trousers early 1940s he lived two streets away from where i lived when we were growing up,

Edited December 31, 2010 by willybite

[Michael_W]

Overload...Knew the Clutch lads better when they moved into the big machine shop setters John Styring, snooker at sports club. Jim, fishing mad. and Fred Theaker. Harry Lincoln knew his son John better..Don Pilkington as Convener, Alan Norris ,Foreman ?

What about Sam Marsden, Charlie Brookfield Tommy Blackwell the guy of whom a manager once said," If we made fishing tackle Tommy would be off in a corner making Overdrives"...

So many names, so many great memories

 

I worked with Tommy on the gear section around 1978/79, when I was an apprentice, what a character he was, but there was a few characters back then, seems more so than workforces of today !