www.redditchhistorysociety.org.uk

Heritage MattersHeritage Matters is the Newsletter of the Redditch Local History Society Volume 7-10

Society ObjectivesThe Redditch LocalHistory Society wasformed at the end of2009 to meet aperceived need in theRedditch community.

Redditch’s history issteeped in industry butit’s seen a dramaticincrease in newcomerssince being designatedas a new town. And withan ageing populationwho have first handexperience of the oldtown we believe there isa need to promoteRedditch heritage.So simply put, our aimis to investigate,document and promoteRedditch heritage.

Do you have a contribution to include in Redditch? If so please send it to the Editor.

The views expressed in this document are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the RLHS.

The copyright of any material submitted for publication remains that of the contributor.

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Topics Covered inthis edition......

January2017

Next MeetingPlease note that our next RLHS meeting will be on

13th February 2017 at 2:00 pm at the Oasis ChristianCentre on the corner of Bromsgrove and Plymouth Roads.

At the meeting, there will be a talk on “The Postal History of Worcestershire 1840-2017” given by

Chris Jackson.

New in the archives…….

New In The ArchivesHard TimesHDA Badge

Memories of Old RedditchHymatic Engineering

Aspects Of Church Green2017 Meetings and Events

Feckenham ForresterRedditch Local History

Society Activities

In December, Boris Cross, a former employee of HymaticEngineering, contacted me asking if the RLHS was interested indocuments in his possession about Hymatic Engineering.

I met Boris just before Christmas and he left with me eight boxfiles of brochures, reports, photos and other documents whichtrace the history of the company since its formation in 1937.

More details inside this edition of Redditch Heritage Matters.

Derek CoombesThe management Committee of the RLHS would

like to wish all its members and followers aHappy and Successful 2017

A blankCompressor

nameplate, partof the Hymatic

material donatedto the society.

www.redditchhistorysociety.org.uk

22Last month Sue Tatlow told of about the winter of 1947. She continues thatstory with the effect the cold spell had on local industry.

So you still think life ishard today?

By mid February 1947, the fuel crises haddeepened and the Ministry of Fuel rationedenergy to factories. In Redditch energy to runindustry was supplied by electricity, coal, oil,gas and coke from the gas works. In 1946 thecountry’s industry had started an export driveto generate foreign currency to help with theCounties recovery after the war. However thewinters of 1946 and 1947 disrupted output.Factories across the country were forced to goon a three day week, but as the month wenton, even this was reduced. The country was inthe grip of the worst winter for 200 years.

In Redditch many local companies, with theagreement of the unions, paid their workers a34 hour week in the hope that either theweather or the fuel situation would improve.Few manufacturers wanted to give theirworkforce notice. A Redditch Indicator reportertried to find how many people wereunemployed in the town, but found theMinistry of Labour was unforthcoming with thenumbers. A survey of local firms showedpower could only be provided by electricity somost of the workforce was idle. The paper’srough count was at least 3,000 workers werenot employed but were still on the pay roll forthe short term.

High Duty Alloys produced airplane blades andcasting for aluminium prefabs to help with thehousing crisis but only 200 of the 1,200 workforce were employed cleaning and painting.Birmingham Small Arms Co. had to suspendthe production of their export model, theSunbeam motorbike.. Britannia Batteries Ltd.had their coke allotment cut to just onepercent, just enough to keep the boiler alight.Charles Spencer were informed they could

“Switch on”, as production of surgical needlesswas a priority.

The handwork sections of needlemanufacturers Abell Morrall and the NeedleIndustries continued with Moralls using a fixedengine to run the machine shop and at theNeedle Industries a farm tractor ran theMachine shop. Terry’s Novelty works used twotractors loaned by Mesrs Gittings and Stanley,as well as an engine from a cultivator. Thetractors belt pulley was used to connect thefactory’s belts and pulleys that ran themachinery. A hole was cut in the ceiling of theheavy machine shop to relay the power to themachine shop on the first floor. The sewingmachines in the saddle shop were connectedto the cultivator, which had its handles andwheels removed. Although these “HeathRobinson” improvisations kept productiongoing, Ministry of Labour rules meant thecompany could not use electricity to light theshops. The Anglepoise lamps on the bencheswere replaced by candles, and the factoryclosed at 4.30. The allowance for heating fuelwas cut from 39 to 19 tons a week. A ballotwas taken and it was agreed to work a fiveday week on minimum heating. Terry’s boughtin 300 oil stoves to keep its work force warm.The factory’s canteen used its two solid fuelAgars to feed the workers and supplied themwith tea.

Neither the weather nor the fuel supplyimproved in the short term and it was onlywhen the thaw set in, in March, thatemployment and production returned to asemblance of normality.

Sue Tatlow

HDA BadgeDon Vincent was recently shown this badge. He sent it to us with therequest……

It would be appreciated if you could feature this in our newsletter.I think it is a badge related to the HDA bowling club, a section ofthe sports and social club. However, I have never seen one before.Kind regards Don

Have any readers got any information for Don about this badge?Derek Coombes

www.redditchhistorysociety.org.uk

3Memories of Old

Redditch

I grew up in Redditch from the age of 8. I went to Crabbs Cross Junior School, (later I think itwas called the Harry Taylor First School). The Headteacher when I was there was called MrMcEwan, a mathematician who had worked with Sir Frank Whittle on developing the jet engine.He was a lovely, jovial man who I remember well. Other teachers included Mrs Hemming (neeTilsley), Mrs Williams, Mrs Bradbury who lived near the post office in Crabbs Cross and MrHarley. All of them were lovely, as were my school days there, even though we had outsidetoilets in those days.

In 1969, I passed the eleven plus and moved to Redditch County High School. The head of lowerschool, Miss Orr, was a near neighbour of mine in Headless Cross.In those days, some staff still wore black gowns and mortar boards, and I remember Mrs Vannthe Deputy Head, also Mr Ratcliffe, Miss Tredgitt, Eric Jones, who taught PE and had beensomething in the war I think. He spoke fluent German and was known as "Erich". Miss BrucePayne, who taught art and on whom many of the lads had a crush, Mr Agate who taught Latin,Mr French who taught history, Mrs Symes who tried in vain to teach me French, Mrs Jackson,"Bud" Foster who taught maths and PE and was an accomplished Rugby player. There was also atiny white haired German chap called Dr. Deutsckrone. Alf Hart, a maths teacher, cycled toschool from Crabbs Cross every day. Some lads in the 6th form dismantled Alf's bike oneafternoon and Alf, understandably, went bananas! If I gave it some thought, I could bring tomind many, many more names and many more memories - some sad. A friend of mine gotkilled on a motorbike in Red Lane. That was in 1969.

I have so many memories of Redditch from 1962, until 1989 when I moved to Cheltenham. Thenew town being built, the old High Street with Spencers record shop, the Gaytime Cafe, andCurly Rogers the motorcycle dealers, run by Curly and Herbie Strain. The fights outside thecinema on Unicorn Hill. Buying bags of chips from the Fishermans Catch across the road andsitting on the bandstand on Church Green eating them. The more I think about it, the more it allcomes back even though it was over 50 years ago!

After we printed the article on Crabbs Cross School last month, Mike sent anotheremail and added….

When in my teens, I played in a group, as many of my friends did. I was never going to make amusician, but we used to practice in an upstairs room at the Warwick arms, where they had asmall semi circular stage. We also used to practice in a small room in Pumphouse Lane near theChurch at Webheath. It was owned by the Church and the Reverend Fred Coley, a Lovely manwho smoked a pipe and collected traction engines, used to rent it out to us, ‘till he discoveredwe played the "devils music"!

Fairests! Do I remember that superb model shop! John Fairest lived down the road from me inHeadless Cross. I spent many hours in his shop, drooling at the massive selection of models onoffer, which were literally stacked to the ceiling. John had an old stepladder to enable him toretrieve a model requested by school kids such as me from the very top of the pile! Even in oldage, he never fell off. He was a true gent, and his knowledge of the model market wasencyclopedic!

Thank you Mike for these memories. If Mike’s memories stir memories in you why notdo as Mike did and submit them to the society.

Derek Coombes

Last month we printed a snippet about Regent Motorways of Alcester Street. MikeButler who edits the website on Regent subsequently sent in some of his memories ofold Redditch.

www.redditchhistorysociety.org.uk

Formed in October 1937 with a Staff of one, the HymaticCompany had done little more than consider commercialpossibilities before the German occupation of Austria in theSpring of 1938 had begun to make the idea of a normalpeace time development seem unreal. It became natural tothink in terms of aoolications for aircraft and tanks.

So the Heywood Compressor, which formed part of theHeywood Air Starter, was seen to have possibilities foraircraft application and it was, hoped by the company, thateven in an raw state of development, it could supply thatdemand even though it had never yet manufactured anyproducts.

The total Staff at this stage comprised five people, includingthe office boy. The company had no manufacturing ortechnical facilities other than those made available to bysubcontractors M.C.L. and Repetition Limited, from whichthe company also rented two rooms to house the Staff.

The Air Ministry contacted the company and invited them tosend a representative down to London to discuss their products. All the company’s staff,including the tea boy, went but it is not clear if the Air Ministry realised this when the companystaff visited them in London as requested.

On September 3rd, 1939, the Air Ministry telephoned to the effect that the Hymatic air systemhad been officially approved and adopted for operational aircraft and that 4000 sets ofequipment the company offered were urgently needed. They also required full working drawingsand the plans for production but again it is unclear if the Air Ministry realised that Hymatic hadno manufacturing facilities and production would have to be subcontracted.

In 1948, after successfully supporting the war effort, the company, like many in the aircraftindustry, was faced with an uncertain future. It considered its options and undertook a strategywhich has subsequently helped it become a leader in its field. Rather that being “Product” leadit realised its strengths lay in its staff and their technical expertise in problem solving. Thisexpertise matched the fast growing demands of the aerospace industry and so the companygrew by the expertise and skills to analyse requirements and develop products, many in areaswhere they had no previous product offerings.

Success and expansion attracted both “Buy-ins” and “Buy-outs” with other companies, somesuccessful, some not so. The Flight Refuelling/Cobham Group being one where a business matchon paper was less successful in practice. Today the Hymatic name is part of the GlobalHoneywell corporation but it still has a presence in Redditch.

Hymatic is perhaps less well known than the Terry’s, Royal Enfield or Needle Makersnames but is none the less a Redditch success story and fondly remembered byformer employees.The acquisition for our archives of documents about the company has prompted yetanother project to document its history. Here are some of the documents we haveacquired and the story of its interesting start in the business world.

4Hymatic Engineering

www.redditchhistorysociety.org.uk

5Hymatic Engineering

As we start to piece together the Hymatic story we are sure there are many Redditchresidents with memories of the company and knowledge to help us.If you worked at Hymatic and have such memories, please get in touch and help usremember this Redditch success story.

Derek Coombes

Here is a very small sample of the document obtained for our archives.

www.redditchhistorysociety.org.uk

6Aspects of

Church GreenGraham Smith continues his tour of Church Green looking at some of the town’siconic landmarks. This month he looks at the story of the bandstand.Together with the fountain, the bandstand on Church Green is often used as a symbol of thehistory of the town. The bandstand was erected in 1898 and was the final stage of theimprovements to the gardens on the Green that had started in the early 1880s. The bandstandwe see today looks very different from the original one which had a thatched roof and woodensides. The vertical supports are the main feature that remains the same.

This picture from the early 1900s shows thewell developed gardens and the railings thatsurrounded St. Stephens Church and thegardens. The bandstand was to be the focalpoint of many events on the Green for wellover a century.

During the early part of the twentiethcentury the bandstand was used as part ofthe celebrations for the kings’ coronations.For example, a rare picture shows thebandstand decorated in union jacks for thecoronation of George V in June 1911. Somereports suggest that Keir Hardy, founder ofthe Labour Party, spoke from the bandstand

in about 1904 but I have never found proof of this (although we know he spoke elsewhere inthe town).

The need for a bandstand on the Green became very apparent during the late nineteenthcentury. Many Redditch people played a musical instrument and were members of the localbands. With little in the way of home entertainment, people were much more prepared to getout to events in the town. There were church bands, regimental bands, temperance bands and,of course, there was the town band. One famous band was the Band of Hope, formed inRedditch in 1854 by Isaac Rollins. This was largely a Methodist Band and members wereexpected to ‘sign the pledge’ to forsake all alcohol. This movement in Redditch had become verypopular by the 1920s. As well as performing in the bandstand the various bands would oftenparade on a Sunday around the Green.

By the 1940s and 1950s the local silver bandswere performing regularly in the bandstand.One such band was the Alcester Silver Bandwhich is still in existence and, in fact,performed recently as part of the programmeof bandstand events held each summer. Forthe past five years the Borough Council hasworked with local community groups (includingour History Society) to organise monthlyevents at the bandstand. The aim has been toopen up the northern part of the Green and tobring the bandstand back to life. This haslargely been successful. With the support ofRedditch people the bandstand as a venue forfree entertainment can hopefully continue foranother hundred years. Graham Smith

The Kiosk, as the Bandstand was first known(Picture courtesy of Redditch Library).

The bandstand and fountain in 2013(picture courtesy of Tony Green)

www.redditchhistorysociety.org.uk

Meetings & Events2017

7

February 13th The Postal History of Worcestershire (1840-2017) Chris JacksonMarch 13th Entertaining Redditch Part II The Palace Theatre. Derek CoombesApril 10th AGM Followed by Members Memories including - The Bates Hill Ghost Pete Harris - The Church in Redditch Gil Barlow - Fly Dressing Val RussellMay 8th Redditch Talking Newspaper Margaret MountfordJune 12th Publishing Your Own Material Alistair BrewinJuly 10th The Averys - a Victorian Dynasty Graham SmithAugust 14th Memories of Redditch Shared Colin WheelerSeptember 11th The History of The Gables Nursing Home and of The Dorothy Terry Home Sue TatlowOctober 9th A Virtual Walk Around Historic Redditch Tony GreenNovember 13th Life as a Hack and the Story of the Original Redditch Advertiser Alison ParkinsonDecember 11th Christmas Social Members only

Monthly meetings are held on the 2nd Monday of the month.Meetings begin at 2.00 pm and last for approximately 2 hours, the presentation lasts about onehour and this is followed by refreshments and society business, event news and project reports.

Non-members welcome for whom there will be a £3 entrance charge.(Refundable against membership fee if subsequently joining the society the same day.)

The venue for the meetings is theOasis Christian Centre, 4 Plymouth Road, Redditch, B97 4QB

(Limited parking for disabled only, please use Station or Kingfisher Car parks.)

For details of how to join the Redditch Local History Society or to contact us:

email: contact@redditchhistorysociety.org.ukvisit: www.redditchhistorysociety.org.uk

telephone: 01527 404365 or 01527 61434

Whilst we make every effort to adhere to this programme we reserve the right to change thespeaker and date due to circumstances beyond our control.

Please check our web site and monthly Newsletter for meeting details if planning to attend aspecific event.

Comments, feedback and contributions...If you have any feedback or comments on the topics reported on this newsletter, or wish tocontribute material, please contact us. The deadline for contributions is the date of the monthlymeeting.

www.redditchhistorysociety.org.uk

8

Redditch Local History Society Activities

And finally……

The 2017 Feckenham Forester magazinehas just been published.

Articles in this edition include: EntertainingRedditch; The Beoley Skull Revisited; Themaking of sailor's palms in the GreaterRedditch Needle Area; Draconianpunishment for placing stones on therailway line; 'I received your present of anutmeg': letters between Robert Josephand John Freckle; A rose by any othername?, the use of aliases in local parishes;The Windsor family of Hewell Grange andRoman roads through Hanbury.

We will have a limited number of copiesavailable to buy at the February meeting,alternatively to obtain your copy, or forinformation about the magazine or any ofthe contributors, please contact the editorDr Richard Churchley 01527 892361 oremail: rachurchley@totalise.co.uk

Derek Coombes

Monthly Meetings We have eleven meetings throughout the year beginning in February andfinishing in December. The ten meetings until November all have the sameformat. We have a speaker for the first hour, a refreshment interval fortea/coffee and biscuits and this is followed by updates on our activities. Nonmembers are encouraged to attend these meetings. Our end of yearmeeting in December is for members only.

Exhibitions Since we formed the Society in 2009, we have had an exhibition related tothe history of Redditch at Forge Mill Needle Museum which we have reprisedat Redditch Library and events where we have been present. In theseexhibitions we have encompassed the history of our town, Redditch inWW2, Redditch industry and Redditch people.

Events As a local community group, the Redditch Local History Society iscommitted to supporting community activities. We are therefore present atevents such as the Redditch Bandstand Festivals, the Heritage Day at ForgeMill needle Museum, the events organised by the Headless CrossCommunity Orchard and St. Leonard's Beoley Summer Fete.

Archives Although we have no storage facilities we have a strictly controlled archivesystem where we identify material which has been donated to the Society.These archives are stored by members of the Society but are available foruse by individuals for research purposes. We also have a library of out ofprint local history books available for loan by members.

Outside Talks There are a number of members of the Society who are happy to give talksto local groups. In some cases members are willing to give presentations tolocal community groups at no charge. Please contact us for moreinformation.