Peoples Stories - Bevendean History Project
John Funnell remembers Bevendean part 2
The Brighton Sheet Metal Company
I worked for the Brighton Sheet Metal Company for 43 years; really it's a history in its own right. I actually started work at 16 at a company called Hatchards, a toolmaking company along old Shoreham Road opposite what used to be Hanningtons which is where PC World is now. It was a little factory and it was still there on the other side of the road. I think the father of the Hatchard family had made his money during the war when they were working for the war efforts. I had an uncle who worked at CVA Kearney & Trekker then, he was in engineering and he said you have got to be a toolmaker, they will always need toolmakers. I thought it was somebody who made tools but it's nothing at all like that. I had no idea when I came out of school what I was going to do but it seemed like a good idea so I got a job with Hatchards at one and tuppence an hour that's old money of course and I was there for about 6 weeks. I had to cycle from Lower Bevendean all the way to Hove Cemetery and I cycled back in all weathers. I think I got £2 a week.
Our neighbour's son had got a job at Brighton Sheet Metal and he said they are looking for a youngster to do toolmaking a trainee toolmaker, he said “why don't you go and have an interview”. I thought why not, I went up there and was interviewed by Mr Harwood, who was the manager, and the tool designer a chap called Charlie Brown and I got the job for one and 10p an hour and it was only a 10 minute walk from home. So it made quite a bit of a difference. Also I know when I was a Hatchards I said I'd like to attend day college which was something that was coming in then and they said I would have to lose a day's pay. Brighton Sheet Metal said they would think about it and would probably let me.
Mr Oura, Waggy was the owner along with John Layfield so there were 2 people running the company, or owned the company and I think the Oura's were the main owners. I think John Layfield’s father had been a bookmaker and he bought in to the company. They had started quite a small concern in a little house off Dorset Gardens and they actually moved up to Lower Bevendean in the early 50s and I think I must have joined about 1962 and by that time it was well-developed. Not only did they have Brighton Sheet Metal but they also had Ranalah Gates which was at Newhaven, it was a massive great complex where they made garden gates, and Ranalah Moulds. I think they also had another company called Engineers Suppliers at Portslade which had metal stores and cut metal for a lot of local companies.
I went there as a trainee toolmaker, my foreman was a chap called Bill Bailey, his actual name was Bernard, a great character and there were about 10 toolmakers and me. I remember one was a Latvian, Leo Sayer who had a fascinating life during the war, he was once in the German Army and then with the Russians but he managed to get captured by the British and ended up in this country. There was Fred and Bill Elliott he lives at Coldean so he's still about, he was one of the best toolmakers that they had. Again I was just training there it was quite a big place, it did change quite dramatically over the years but when I first arrived the tool room was right at the front of the factory in a little annex with offices behind.
Then you had the big welding bays, and spot welding. There were presses, all sorts of presses for punching out steel and I think the biggest press at that time was a 100 ton double action, so it was a deep drawing press which was able to push out steel into all sorts of shapes. They had 3 or 4 guillotines, they had a sheet metal shop, a paint shop, drills and of course metal stores and a big tool store which was massive and very dark and gloomy which we had to go into get the tools out.
The back of the factory then was open aired and they had big cutting machines, 2 or 3 of those and some shapers, shaping machines for heavy duty metal. These were big heavy things and they would be cutting great big slabs of iron and suddenly it would shoot off the end. You had to make sure you weren't in the way, health and safety was not an issue then; but it did develop over the years. They got quite a few large presses and press work became the main focus of the activities. They also had a small, what we called, a “Weedon Punch Press” then and I think they bought another one which is another way of piercing metal.
Then in 1966 when I was getting married, just after the World Cup, I was asked if I'd like to go into the drawing office, which was upstairs so I moved into the drawing office in 1966. I moved upstairs with my old boss, my main boss Charlie Brown, and another one called Malcolm Holman whose career really flew off at Brighton Sheet Metal. And again you see various phases, I do remember at the back we used to make a lot of sleeper moulds which is for railway sleepers, the concrete bits that the steel bits go on. They used to make a lot of moulds all shapes and sizes, they were making hundreds and they were out the back and I remember in the bitter winter, I can't remember exactly the year, they used to hang these huge tarpaulins over the back and have these braziers burning just to try and keep warm when it was snowing and the snow was coming in the welders were still there. You wouldn't get away with it today, but eventually they filled the sides in and put new doors on the back, so it's always been in a constant state of change.
In about 1972 or 74 the drawing office and the tool room move out to Moulsecoomb Way. Later they bought the adjacent factory and that became another major welding section and then they actually increased that building with an extension at the back and that became another big assembly shop. Then they built a big paint shop at the back so you had Bevendean and Moulsecoomb and we were there for 17 years. By that time Malcolm Holman had been away with one of the directors to some sort of exhibition and when he came back he was made a director. So he flew off and I took on more of a managing role and I moved from drawing into designing and tool designing. That was the way things were going I was managing unofficially, although I was never actually credited with a title, 10 or 12 toolmakers, I was designing the tools and they were making them. Then all of a sudden things changed.
After 17 years there were further changes. A large part of our work was with two major companies one was Petter's at Southampton who made the refrigeration boxes that you see on the front of Lorries, We used to make hundreds of these in all shapes and sizes and bits and pieces. But our biggest customer was IBM and we made a lot of big frame computer bodies. Then quite dramatically it seemed they brought in the PC, these big frames were no longer wanted because they had little digital chips, so the work contracted and within 2 or 3 years the whole firm consolidated and moved out of the Moulsecoomb area and back to Lower Bevendean.
Roughly at the same time we got a new director a man called Philip Clark and he put a change in direction so instead of doing work with presses, we actually developed the punching machine, and there was less tool work. The presses actually went and were replaced by these more sophisticated punch presses which produced allsorts. They then developed more brake presses which is a forming machines and these were all computer operated. What I actually remember is, when I started with Brighton Sheet Metal, the calculator let alone a computer hadn't been invented, so we were using logarithms to do our calculations. I remember the first calculator we got which added up and took away and it was a huge great thing.
When we moved back to Bevendean was when that I changed jobs and became a production engineer, so I was more in the office and going out sorting out problems. Phil Clarke also took on Harrimonde’s which by that time had packed up. They used to make clothes for Marks & Spencer's they were a major manufacturer of women's clothing. But they had packed up a few years earlier, the factory had become derelict and Phil Clarke took it on and we annexed and linked up. So they had lifts and accesses through to that factory and it all changed again.
When I left I think they had one area for the punching machines, they had the welding area and the spot welders. The paint shop which had been downstairs moved upstairs so they had a big paint shop there into what had been Harrimonde's and also big assembly areas. Sadly as things changed my job became less and less and we had new blood coming in, new younger blood, and one sensed that one was out on a limb. When they stopped sending you to training courses you sort of knew what was happening. And then after 43 years, and 18 months before I was due to retire, I was made redundant, that was a bit of a blow.
I worked for the Brighton Sheet Metal Company for 43 years; really it's a history in its own right. I actually started work at 16 at a company called Hatchards, a toolmaking company along old Shoreham Road opposite what used to be Hanningtons which is where PC World is now. It was a little factory and it was still there on the other side of the road. I think the father of the Hatchard family had made his money during the war when they were working for the war efforts. I had an uncle who worked at CVA Kearney & Trekker then, he was in engineering and he said you have got to be a toolmaker, they will always need toolmakers. I thought it was somebody who made tools but it's nothing at all like that. I had no idea when I came out of school what I was going to do but it seemed like a good idea so I got a job with Hatchards at one and tuppence an hour that's old money of course and I was there for about 6 weeks. I had to cycle from Lower Bevendean all the way to Hove Cemetery and I cycled back in all weathers. I think I got £2 a week.
Our neighbour's son had got a job at Brighton Sheet Metal and he said they are looking for a youngster to do toolmaking a trainee toolmaker, he said “why don't you go and have an interview”. I thought why not, I went up there and was interviewed by Mr Harwood, who was the manager, and the tool designer a chap called Charlie Brown and I got the job for one and 10p an hour and it was only a 10 minute walk from home. So it made quite a bit of a difference. Also I know when I was a Hatchards I said I'd like to attend day college which was something that was coming in then and they said I would have to lose a day's pay. Brighton Sheet Metal said they would think about it and would probably let me.
Mr Oura, Waggy was the owner along with John Layfield so there were 2 people running the company, or owned the company and I think the Oura's were the main owners. I think John Layfield’s father had been a bookmaker and he bought in to the company. They had started quite a small concern in a little house off Dorset Gardens and they actually moved up to Lower Bevendean in the early 50s and I think I must have joined about 1962 and by that time it was well-developed. Not only did they have Brighton Sheet Metal but they also had Ranalah Gates which was at Newhaven, it was a massive great complex where they made garden gates, and Ranalah Moulds. I think they also had another company called Engineers Suppliers at Portslade which had metal stores and cut metal for a lot of local companies.
I went there as a trainee toolmaker, my foreman was a chap called Bill Bailey, his actual name was Bernard, a great character and there were about 10 toolmakers and me. I remember one was a Latvian, Leo Sayer who had a fascinating life during the war, he was once in the German Army and then with the Russians but he managed to get captured by the British and ended up in this country. There was Fred and Bill Elliott he lives at Coldean so he's still about, he was one of the best toolmakers that they had. Again I was just training there it was quite a big place, it did change quite dramatically over the years but when I first arrived the tool room was right at the front of the factory in a little annex with offices behind.
Then you had the big welding bays, and spot welding. There were presses, all sorts of presses for punching out steel and I think the biggest press at that time was a 100 ton double action, so it was a deep drawing press which was able to push out steel into all sorts of shapes. They had 3 or 4 guillotines, they had a sheet metal shop, a paint shop, drills and of course metal stores and a big tool store which was massive and very dark and gloomy which we had to go into get the tools out.
The back of the factory then was open aired and they had big cutting machines, 2 or 3 of those and some shapers, shaping machines for heavy duty metal. These were big heavy things and they would be cutting great big slabs of iron and suddenly it would shoot off the end. You had to make sure you weren't in the way, health and safety was not an issue then; but it did develop over the years. They got quite a few large presses and press work became the main focus of the activities. They also had a small, what we called, a “Weedon Punch Press” then and I think they bought another one which is another way of piercing metal.
Then in 1966 when I was getting married, just after the World Cup, I was asked if I'd like to go into the drawing office, which was upstairs so I moved into the drawing office in 1966. I moved upstairs with my old boss, my main boss Charlie Brown, and another one called Malcolm Holman whose career really flew off at Brighton Sheet Metal. And again you see various phases, I do remember at the back we used to make a lot of sleeper moulds which is for railway sleepers, the concrete bits that the steel bits go on. They used to make a lot of moulds all shapes and sizes, they were making hundreds and they were out the back and I remember in the bitter winter, I can't remember exactly the year, they used to hang these huge tarpaulins over the back and have these braziers burning just to try and keep warm when it was snowing and the snow was coming in the welders were still there. You wouldn't get away with it today, but eventually they filled the sides in and put new doors on the back, so it's always been in a constant state of change.
In about 1972 or 74 the drawing office and the tool room move out to Moulsecoomb Way. Later they bought the adjacent factory and that became another major welding section and then they actually increased that building with an extension at the back and that became another big assembly shop. Then they built a big paint shop at the back so you had Bevendean and Moulsecoomb and we were there for 17 years. By that time Malcolm Holman had been away with one of the directors to some sort of exhibition and when he came back he was made a director. So he flew off and I took on more of a managing role and I moved from drawing into designing and tool designing. That was the way things were going I was managing unofficially, although I was never actually credited with a title, 10 or 12 toolmakers, I was designing the tools and they were making them. Then all of a sudden things changed.
After 17 years there were further changes. A large part of our work was with two major companies one was Petter's at Southampton who made the refrigeration boxes that you see on the front of Lorries, We used to make hundreds of these in all shapes and sizes and bits and pieces. But our biggest customer was IBM and we made a lot of big frame computer bodies. Then quite dramatically it seemed they brought in the PC, these big frames were no longer wanted because they had little digital chips, so the work contracted and within 2 or 3 years the whole firm consolidated and moved out of the Moulsecoomb area and back to Lower Bevendean.
Roughly at the same time we got a new director a man called Philip Clark and he put a change in direction so instead of doing work with presses, we actually developed the punching machine, and there was less tool work. The presses actually went and were replaced by these more sophisticated punch presses which produced allsorts. They then developed more brake presses which is a forming machines and these were all computer operated. What I actually remember is, when I started with Brighton Sheet Metal, the calculator let alone a computer hadn't been invented, so we were using logarithms to do our calculations. I remember the first calculator we got which added up and took away and it was a huge great thing.
When we moved back to Bevendean was when that I changed jobs and became a production engineer, so I was more in the office and going out sorting out problems. Phil Clarke also took on Harrimonde’s which by that time had packed up. They used to make clothes for Marks & Spencer's they were a major manufacturer of women's clothing. But they had packed up a few years earlier, the factory had become derelict and Phil Clarke took it on and we annexed and linked up. So they had lifts and accesses through to that factory and it all changed again.
When I left I think they had one area for the punching machines, they had the welding area and the spot welders. The paint shop which had been downstairs moved upstairs so they had a big paint shop there into what had been Harrimonde's and also big assembly areas. Sadly as things changed my job became less and less and we had new blood coming in, new younger blood, and one sensed that one was out on a limb. When they stopped sending you to training courses you sort of knew what was happening. And then after 43 years, and 18 months before I was due to retire, I was made redundant, that was a bit of a blow.
9 July 2015
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