• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Working Memories
MENUMENU
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Links
  • Memories
    • Location Map
    • Memories Index
    • Domestic and Housing
    • Education and Schools
    • Food and Farming
    • Industrial
    • Public Services
    • Shops and Shopping
    • Social Life
    • Wartime
  • More Memories
  • Walking Memories

Home ยป INDUSTRIAL MEMORIES

In this section you will find a collection of memories gathered from the men and women who worked in Frome’s industries. These industries include firms such as Beswicks, Benchairs, Butler and Tanner, and Singer’s.

INDUSTRIAL MEMORIES

  • Working Memories location map of main industries

    If you are interested in finding out where some of the main industries of Frome were located in the town, please see our map

  • Sylvia Austin looks back at her time at Wallington Weston

    Sylvia Austin talks about her time at the Wallington Weston factory and describes working in the company's busy tile department

  • Trevor Biggs remembers his work at the Wallington Weston plant

    Trevor Biggs talks about his time at Wallington Weston and how he became active in the social club and in the trade union

  • Russell Milne talks about working as a printer at Butler and Tanner

    Russell Milne discusses working life and practices in the printing firm of Butler and Tanner, and remembers his boss, Joe Tanner

  • Stuart North remembers the sale of the Butler and Tanner printing works

    Stuart North discusses the sale of the Frome-based printing firm, Butler and Tanner, and recalls how mass redundancies resulted in a march through Frome

  • Ron Stone

    Ron Stone talks about Butler and Tanner and the Tanner Family

    Ron Stone discusses life at the Butler and Tanner print works in Frome. He talks about his work there, and the Tanner family

  • Ron and Pete Stone

    Ron and Pete Stone talk about their time at Butler and Tanner

    Father and son, Ron and Pete Stone talk about their working time at Butler and Tanner, where it was common for several generations to work together

  • Stuart North remembers Butler and Tanner, and Butler, Tanner and Dennis

    Stuart North talks about his work at the printing firm, Butler and Tanner, and how the company later became Butler, Tanner and Dennis

  • Muriel Chapman talks about her time at the Butler and Tanner Print Works

    Muriel Chapman looks back at her time at Butler and Tanner where she started work in 1929 and was employed in the bindery departement

  • John Stocker discusses working life at Cockey's Iron Works

    John Stocker looks back to his working time at Cockey's Iron Works and tells how his father drove the crane that poured red hot metal into the casts

  • Georgina Phillips talks about working for Cuprinol in Frome

    Georgina Phillips started working for Roads Reconstruction but then had a family. When her son was ten she went to work for Cuprinol

  • Allan Fairhurst tells us about the years he spent working at Ellenbray Press

    Allan Fairhurst tells us of his work at Bray's Press which later became Ellenbray Press and is now a well-known shop in the centre of Frome

  • Cliff Ellis talks about the early days of the printing firm D.R. Hillman and Co

    Cliff Ellis describes his mother's work for Hillman's and tells how Donald Hillman expanded the business over time

  • Ian Spearing recalls his work with Hodder and Sons in Frome

    Ian Spearing talks about his carpentry and joinery training with Hodder and Sons where he learnt skills which included coffin making and coach building

  • Daisy Bane talks about her employment at Houston's on Houston Way

    Daisy Bane remembers how she enjoyed her work as a young employee at Houston's cloth mill, where her job was to set up the looms

  • Jim Wykes looks back at his working life with Nott's Industries

    Jim Wykes remembers Nott's Industries at Merchants Barton in Frome, where he started as an toolmaker. Nott's manufactured Carley floats

  • Ray Trowbridge discusses his work in the local building trade

    Ray Trowbridge tells us about his apprenticeship at Parsons in Trowbridge and working at Wallington Weston, before starting out on his own

  • Jim Garrett looks back over his working life at Singer's

    Jim Garrett recalls his apprenticeship and career with Singer's in Frome and the improvements in pay and working conditions over that time

  • Richard Withey recalls his time at the Singer's foundry in Waterloo, Frome

    Richard Withey worked at Singer's like the two generations of his family before him. He describes how he started as a toolroom apprentice

  • Rodney Clarke and Robert Latchem talk about Singer's in Frome

    Both Rodney Clarke and Robert Latchem started at Singer's in the 1950's as trainee draughtsmen. Here, they tell us about their working lives

  • Simon Giles discusses his career with Singer's and Tyco

    Simon Giles recalls how he started work at Singer's in Frome and then moved to the Marston Trading Estate with the successor company, Tyco

  • Steve Francis talks about his working life at Singer's in Frome

    Steve Francis started work as an apprentice in the toolroom, then trained in the drawing office before becoming a senior design engineer

  • Rodney Clarke recalls driving lorries for Express Dairies

    Rodney Clarke talks to us about his time driving lorries, firstly for Express Dairies and then later for English China Clays

  • Ron White talks about the taxi service he began in Frome

    Ron White talks to us about how he set up and ran a taxi service from the Lamb and Fountain public house in Castle Street, Frome

  • Freda Henly remembers working for Wallington Weston

    Freda Henly was born in Milk Street in Frome. In this video, she discusses her working life at Wallington Weston when the firm was at Adderwell

  • Bill Ellis discusses his time at Wessex Engineering in Frome

    Bill Ellis talks about his working life at Wessex Engineering in Frome and tells how he later went on to run a hardware store

  • Gerald Franks talks about being an apprentice with Butler and Tanner

    Gerald Franks talks about his work at the Butler and Tanner printing works and describes how he completed his apprenticeship

  • Gerald Franks explains the printing process at Butler and Tanner

    Gerald Franks talks about his working life at the Butler and Tanner print works and recalls the stages involved in getting a book to print

  • Gerald Franks discusses the unions at Butler and Tanner

    Gerald Franks talks about unions and describes some of the working practices at Butler and Tanner during his time with the firm

  • Dorothy Hawker

    Dorothy Hawker remembers her time at Butler and Tanner

    Dorothy Hawker left school at 15 and went to work at the Butler and Tanner print works. She worked there until she was 20, when she left to bring up her son

  • Val Humphries remembers her career at Benchairs

    Val Humphries talks about Benchairs, the sites it used in Frome, and the jobs she did over the 29 years she worked for the firm

  • Gerald Franks

    Robert Hawker looks back at his working life as a Frome carpenter

    Robert Hawker tells us about his varied career, from being an apprentice carpenter at Hodder's, to his national service and later jobs

  • Paul Truscott

    Paul Truscott talks about his working life in the carpentry business

    Paul Truscott remembers learning the carpentry trade while working for his uncle and recalls his later employment with DJ Kelly Ltd

  • John Stocker discusses his working life at Benchairs

    John Stocker describes how he used to load and unload chairs at the various Benchairs depots around Frome, including the Cheese and Grain

  • Joan Smith looks back at her work with Beswick's Fuses

    Joan Smith remembers being part of the mostly female workforce at Beswick's Fuses and describes how she soldered, wired and capped the fuses

  • Ian Spearing

    Ian Spearing remembers his time working at Beswick's Fuses

    Ian Spearing discusses the relationship between management and workers at Beswick's Fuses and talks about the layout of the factory and security

  • Gloria Wingrove

    Gloria Wingrove discusses her experience of working for Beswick's

    Gloria Wingrove talks about Beswick's Fuses and the changes that took place when the U.S. firm, Bussmann, took the company over

  • Dawn Chapman talks about her working life at Beswick's

    Dawn Chapman talks about her long career at Beswick's and recalls how she started on the shop floor and progressed to a supervisory role

Footer

Working Memories logo
  • Contact Working Memories
  • About Working Memories

Memories

  • Social Life
  • Food and Farming
  • Wartime
  • Public Services
  • Education
  • Shops Shopping
  • Housing Domestic
  • Industrial

Seach our Site

© Working Memories Frome 2021 All Rights Reserved