Does the Team think?

[Chris Garner]

I've seen this image before and am sure it is Longbridge.
Registration number WD 4994 is now on a grey Honda!
Note the arrangement on the left upper deck for holding the bonnets whilst the engines are being worked on.

[Andy Bennett]

I think looking at the early decades of the last century there were relatively few jobs that didn't come with an expectation that men would wear a suit or at least a formal shirt/wastecoat/jacket, even if it was last year's Sunday best.
It wasn't that long ago that police and ambulance drivers (as appose to today's paramedics) wore a shirt and tie, albeit quick release ones in case someone tried to grab them.
I think it was the early 90s when we (as an engineering firm) 'went casual' with the staff no longer having to wear full suits unless expecting visitors and the hourly paid were more formally told that they didn't need to wear ties.

With all that not really surprising that these workers are sporting ties.

[Bob Culver]

Hi Coli

I am not saying all were casual. But there is a well known archive photo of the staff of 5 or so outside some Auckland garage and it is a classic study in casualness.

[Archivist]

Another photo from the same source - details unknown but also suggested to be Longbridge. Collar and ties well in evidence, a dress style that has always seemed common to me in period from the other photos I have seen...

   

[Ian Williams]

When I first went to work in a toolroom in the UK nearly all of the older men at the factory wore shirt and ties, it was only the under 40's who wore anything different and not all of them either. NZ did not apparently have the class system that existed in the UK so perhaps that explains Bob's comment that Kiwis always looked so rough and ready in period photographs. Although that said I have not noticed such in pictures I have seen unless we are talking about some individuals in pretty small rural workshops, large companies in city's and such like would no doubt have had workmen men dressed much the same manner as in the UK.

[Tony Betts]

that last picture reminds me of attending the fort dunlop auctions probably 20 or more years ago.

the main building with dunlop on the front was already finished, but the large workshops beside it were all being emptied for re-generation.

the lines of seriously heavy lathes of all types, 10 or more of the same model in situ next to each other.

the rows of 100 2 ton pullies sold fine at £10 each. easy for people to move, easy to resell. but the large 20 tone lathes etc. also being sold to the scrap man for £10 each. nobody wanting them or being able to move or store them.

exciting at the time, but it all seems a bit sad now.

tony.

[Tony Griffiths]

When I started work in the printing industry in the late 1960s everyone wore a shirt and tie regardless of how dirty their job was.

that last picture reminds me of attending the fort dunlop auctions probably 20 or more years ago.

the main building with dunlop on the front was already finished, but the large workshops beside it were all being emptied for re-generation.

the lines of seriously heavy lathes of all types, 10 or more of the same model in situ next to each other.

the rows of 100 2 ton pullies sold fine at £10 each. easy for people to move, easy to resell. but the large 20 tone lathes etc. also being sold to the scrap man for £10 each. nobody wanting them or being able to move or store them.

exciting at the time, but it all seems a bit sad now.

tony.

Many of those big lathes and many other machine tools ended up in India and Pakistan. Some serious money was being made that way by enterprising people. One dealer friend had a dummy "testing" machine on his desk. When buyers handed over the wads of cash he took some and placed it on the glowing screen and closed the lid. "What's that for?" the buyer would enquire. "Well, as all the notes are absolutely filthy - and clearly you have not drawn them from a bank - this machine checks it for the presence of various illegal drugs. If it finds any the price of what you've bought is doubled - or I report you to the police as a drug dealer." He was only joking of course, but he said that the expressions on their faces as he tricked them was a real treat.

[Chris Garner]

My father owned an engineering company and I remember in the '50s and '60s all our employees wore a collar and tie, apart from a Ukrainian who ran the press shop. He always had a big flowery open neck shirt on, with masses of chest hair tumbling out, a big " walrus " moustache and wore immaculately turned out bib and brace overalls. A lovely man, brilliant engineer and who had obviously come to GB after escaping communism in WW11. He spoke very little English but would have highly animated conversations with a Polish fitter we employed - who incidentally was an ex WW11 fighter pilot and drove his car in a similar manner! Both would be horrified by today's events.
Turning to machine tools; we often used to attend auctions of these in Lancashire when the textile industry was closing. We picked up quite a few bargains, but as Tony remarks, we saw items like 40' + bed lathes going for a song.

[Biddlecombe]

My dad Eric Trill was a fully skilled fitter and turner at Wellworthy in Ringwood for 48 years and although not a maker of piston rings himself was always immaculately "turned out", especially on presentation nights.
       

[David.H]

I remember Rallying up to International level in the 1960's in shirt & tie (and a Sports Jacket!). At the start of the London Sydney Marathon in 1968 the Ford Competition Manager (Henry Taylor) sent us off to Paddy Hopkirk's stand (even if Paddy was driving a BMC1800!) to get a set of "flameproof" overalls as we were in Sports Jackets and flannels! (We were Army Officers after all...standards, dear boy!) The other five works Cortina Lotus crews had overalls sponsored by the Wool Federation (or some such!). I have a photo of Roger Clark & Jim Porter at the end of the Monte in 1965 where they won their class in a Rover 2000, both in smart suit & Ties! No Crash Helmets nor Roll Cages either!
O tempora, O mores....