My Years at Marshalls by Fred Darwin

On being engaged by Mr G Bee late in March 1939, I was picked up at Marshall’s No 2 entrance and taken to the S.A. shop, where I was to work for about a year.

The name S.A. shope came from a large order for South America being produced in the shop.

We went there via a dark tunnel, full of various shapes and lengths of steel bars. The S.A. shop was a large three bayed shop situated near Southolme on Trinity Street.

Two-pounder anti-tanks funs were being constructed at this time. There were found to be very ineffective and alter seventeen-pounders were produced.

I was shown how to clock-in for work, every hourly paid worker had to do this on entering and leaving work. My job was as an office boy, running errands and looking after clock-cards and so on. Later my father worked there, after many years on the dole.

One of my first jobs was to fetch an new set of 3/8” B.S.F. hand taps. At first I thought it was a joke, what did he want some water taps for?? But I was proved wrong. Three taps were obtained from the West Gallery in the Engineers, situated North of No 1 Yard to nearby Spring Gardens.

I knew it was OK from the S.A. shop, I found my way through the dark and smoky Blacksmith’s Shop into the Case Hardening Department, and then into the connecting tunnel under Pingle Hill, and into the top of No 1 Yard.

The Machine Shop was reached by passing through a three-bay Fitting Shop with East and West galleries. It was a mass of belts and old pulleys, with each set of pulleys having a separate motor. Many old belts ended their days on someone’s footwear with things being in such short supply during the war.

Near S.A. shop was the new Brass Foundry. When they cast it was as if you had walked into a baker’s shop, with the smell of newly baked bread. A lot different to the smell in the Iron Foundry, which nearly choked you.

Being an office boy took you all over the works, one such duty too you through the Pattern Shop, a dark and dusty place, but with a nice smell of wood.

Another part passed through was the top of the Main Office staircase. This was restored after a visit from a Thomas W Ward, Managing Director, who commented that it looked like Pentonville Prison. No-one dared ask how he knew!

Smoking was forbidden, except for thirty-minutes in the morning and afternoon. At other times, a blue haze could be seen over the main toilet,  a large rectangular tank about twelve yards long with a wooden edge to sit on. A habit in those days was to chew thin twists of tobacco, hence pubs having spittoons on the floor. At one meeting, one Works Manager commenting on the state of something, said all he missed was the spittoons. Someone commented - that he always did!

I served about a year in the S.A. shop and then one Saturday morning I was to report to Mr J Anderson on the Gear Cutting section. This led to my career as a gear cutter. The section had six people at the time but when I left there were about twenty. The section grew somewhat in various gear cutting machines.

The Second World War expanded production of various types of guns, shell hoists, road rollers and Rolls Royce engine details.

After the war we thought, what are we going to make?

Tractors was the answer and great thought was applied to the Machine Shop for this purpose. Lines were laid down, in many cases using existing machines, making it as much as possible, a mass production shop. One tractor an hour was the aim.

There was a great cheer from the assembled crowd when Teddy Burgess started up the first ‘Field Marshall’ tractor. This tractor was built and improved during the following years, until the demand diminished and we produced another type of tractor.

By this time J Fowler Ltd of Leeds had ceased production.

The Boiler Shop, now made packaged type boilers under licence in many different sizes. The largest boiler ever made resulted in the corner of No 30 at the top of Coleville Terrace, being taken off to enable the load to reach the main road, Trinity Street, on its way to the docks.

The product was a huge step forward for the riveted vessel to the welded one, resulting in some old trades disappearing.

Eventually the old established trading grounds, such as India and Africa, disappeared. Some, like India, had been producing such produces as diesel rollers for some time. Maybe this was the finishing scenario for engineering as we knew it, many thousands throughout our world have now gone, but are not forgotten.

Marshalls had a great number of management whose surnames began with a ‘B’. Managing Directors - Burgess and Burton; Middle Management names like - Bell, Briggs, Bingham, Bowness, Bletcher, Burrell and Bateman; Foreman I call to mind - Biddle, Button, Barnes, Brown, Brader, Baker, Bonnington, Brumby, Bull and Bycroft.

However, nicknames ruled the day once - like - Rubber Gob, Snowflake, Soapy, Mother Goose, Black Minorca to name but a few.

Many very good tradesmen worked at Marshalls, from their skills with tools and hands to buttons and brains. It has been said that a man trained at Marshalls could get a job anywhere in the world.

Most people, irrespective of position of name they were known by, are very proud of the fact they had worked at Marshalls and were:

Marshall Men and Women - I certainly am!!

The Gainsborough and District Heritage Association - helping preserve Gainsborough’s heritage and history for today and tomorrow.