Sheffield Wood Turning Co

[Parrschool]

Anyone remember the Sheffield Wood Turning Co in Henry St?

 

It was run by Arthur Marvin, his brothers, and Vincent Philbedge. It occupied two blocks (apart from Victor Parr's car showroom) and the Pub on the corner was "The Wellington Inn" run by the Oldroyd family.

 

I think it closed down in the 1970's. It had what we might call today a truly "multi-ethnic" workforce.

[George]

yes i remember the sheffield wood turning co,in fact my wife worked there from 1962-1967,and she remembers the brothers who owned it .

[Parrschool]

It's marvellous to find the old Wood Turners Co not forgotten.

 

If I remember right, one of the senior partners, Arthur Marvin, died ( he must have been getting on as he was born in 1894 ) and the firm was taken over by a "consortium" who appeared to want to run it, but in fact asset stripped it, made a mess of running things, and left it to go into recievership. People lost jobs overnight, and some are still owed wages (!).

 

The two brothers who acted as foremen were Horace and John Marvin. The Beech Works was essential to complementing the steel tool trade (making wooden handles) but plastic must have had an effect on business.

 

Personally I still prefer the old wooden handled tool kit.

[GJ2004]

Originally posted by Parrschool

Anyone remember the Sheffield Wood Turning Co in Henry St?

 

It was run by Arthur Marvin, his brothers, and Vincent Philbedge. It occupied two blocks (apart from Victor Parr's car showroom) and the Pub on the corner was "The Wellington Inn" run by the Oldroyd family.

 

I think it closed down in the 1970's. It had what we might call today a truly "multi-ethnic" workforce.

 

My mother worked at the woodturning factory in the late fifties and early sixties I remember standing outside waiting for her to finish work when I came out of school

[Parrschool]

The Beech Works gave off LOT OF DUST when the circular saws and machines were working. They had one of the few old fashioned wood drying kilns, which were an art to load up and required round the clock heat from a boiler which had to be kept in round the clock.

 

Very few safety measures compared to today. The canteen was run by Vera I think, but again was very basic.

 

Many of the men wore bits of their old army uniforms.... some were Polish. You could tell the sawyers..... they had fingers missing.

[Joto]

Found this in the archives while Googling, I wonder how many of you are still posting on here 10 years later. I worked there from around 1960 to 1964, I worked in the ferruling dept, John Marvin was our boss. He was very nice, although a bit strange looking he was very smart. I worked with Ada Isles, Lily ? Freda Noble, Nellie ?, Mrs Clark, Mable, Hilda. I'm sure the names will come to me later, it's a long time ago. Most will have passed away as they were around my Mum's age.

 

OP May I add that Horace died before Arthur of stomach cancer.