L.SHELLEY,TYN LLIDIART,CORWEN. It was the first factory in the advance factory-scheme when the Council announced a new industrial estate for Corwen to bring employment to the area-and came from Halesowen in Birmingham. I wonder how many of you older members remember working there and have stories to tell? It was the first of the later several built factories, opposite Clawddponcen Estate which hadnt yet been built!-i was out of work so applied for work there when it opened,i was one of the first of about ten of us to start there- I was a power-press setter initially, having done it elsewhere in Corwen and some time after was a trainee-factory floor supervisor there in 1967/8 but left as i wanted to work outdoors not liking being shut in, and the noise there was getting on my nerves,despite my interest in machinery,and working with a great bunch of people!I believe the post was given to Vaughan Thomas-we had previously worked together on light-presswork around 1960 in Davies Bros Engineering,the old workhouse where the Corwen Manor is now. Mostly girls worked the presses similar to the ones in this video,they were on a form of piecework so if one broke down i along with another toolsetter had to fix them!... the girl operator might yell hurry,Gareth-im losing money!!The men there worked on the heavier jobs or very large presses handling heavy steelwork.The manager was Mr Roy Nunn who lived in the house nearby,opposite the school which wasnt there then!He still lives locally.The floor manager or supervisor whose job i was training to do for when he was promoted was a nice chap called Ray Bates,and each time a press was tooled and running for an operator he would come over and sayhere,(offering a cigarette) you earned a Park-Drive,cock! Things were a little more advancd there in later years when i returned there to do some work for a local builder-i never thoght id enter the noisy place again!Our dad Meirion worked there on one of the presses,as did cousin George and my twin sisters Jen and Gilly( Gillian Evans)!And whereas in my time there we found our own transport,(cycle or walk if one didnt drive)later a safari type white works Landrover was a familiar sight picking up workers from several places as well as Corwen to take them there,driven if i recall by Kenny Williams of Maesafallen. The exact time the factory and George Taylor nearby,also a light engineering works closed i dont know,or know why as they employed a large number of local people-were YOU in either Shelleys or Taylors? Also note the difference today in that last few minutes of the video,wheras girls operated the presses at Shelleys,the blanking press there set on repeat-blow programme is operated deftly by a robot,so no risk of lost fingers! ......and it doesnt need paying either!Another reason why there may be less employment in such places today!Possibly robots can operate such machinery today in some factories 24/7 without complaint,no breaks-and no pay demands?
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 16:23:41 +0000
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