The Work Furnace - our first month
12 November 2022One month ago today we began looking for your stories of working in Ipswich for our new community heritage project The Work Furnace - and what a response we've had!
From Ransomes and Cranes, to Tooks and Betabake, we've heard a wide range of industries and have loved hearing people's different memories.
Project Officer Hannah has been busy sharing the word far and wide to try and reach as many people as possible. We've set up a reminiscence Facebook group, "The Work Furnace - Memories of Ipswich's Industires", where the conversations have been buzzing away - and at the time of writing it has nearly 200 members! Click here to join the group. We've also had many people send in emails or ring us up directly with their stories.
Here's a look at some of their memories:
"Reavells was a happy place, draughtsmen and typists, capstan setters and machinists, men with hand tools and slide rules, proud of their skills, proud of their place in Britain’s engineering heritage, men proud of Ipswich who called a hammer, “a Stowmarket Spanner.” Few remember them now."
Stephen, whose father worked at Reavells from 1936-60
"...by 1987 I could afford a car, and somehow managed to negotiate a way through the fallen trees to get to work, after the great storm. Also the seventies so lots of heavy snow fall, great fun cycling or walking the 5 miles to get to work as often the buses couldn't run. One guy I know walked from Bramford to the Nacton works and back 3 nights running through the snow. "Not 'alf as bad as the snow in 1947 boy" he said."
Rob - Ransomes, Sims & Jeffries 1971-95 and 2005-10
"I worked there from 1979 to 1983, it was hot, dirty, noisy dusty and poorly paid, but I didn’t come across a single person on the shop floor who I wouldn’t consider a friend. Great people to work with."
Keith - Manganese Bronze, 1979-83
"There were very few women in the factory, just one or 2 brave ladies in a predominantly male environment, none on nightshift...I mean brave in sense that they had to put up with male banter, industrial type language and football chat. But with us men, there was a great deal of respect for their ability to put up with all that and to be fair, when the occasion arose, to give it back in spades. I guess that's when the family feel came in."
Rob - Ransomes, Sims & Jeffries, 1971-95
"Most, if not all, workers cycled to work each day and the neighbouring factories set up an arrangement where the factories all clocked on and off at different times, otherwise it would have been bedlam with the number of bikes trying to get into or out of work. Each of the engineering companies used to have an annual “open day” and these were a must - whether this was to spy on what the other companies were up to / how they did things / to try and encourage his boys into the industry we were never too sure."
Peter Jay, whose father Gordon worked at Cocksedge & Co
But it isn't just online that we've been reminiscing - earlier this week Hannah met with former Ransomes, Sims & Jeffries employees at one of their monthly meet ups. From apprentices to foreman and union reps, this group has a wide range of work in its history and many of the men were at the company for all their working lives. As gruelling as the work was it's also obvious how much they all loved working there. As they still called each other by work nicknames like "Metal Micky" and "Twiggy" and wind each other up like brothers, it's clear that these men were, and still are, a family.
This week we've also started setting up clock-in boxes around Ipswich - if you find a box, you can "clock-in" with us by writing your story on one of our clock-in memory forms and dropping it in the box for us to collect and read later. Our friends at Ipswich Institute have put up two boxes across their site, and we've got plans to go into local libraries very soon!
It's been such a busy first month working on this project but the stories and connections have definitely been worth all the hard work! Later this month we're planning to light up Ipswich town centre with an illuminating night-time parade and will continue with some more in-person reminiscence sessions - stay tuned to hear more soon.