| If you can
help any research, please forward information to
Marcel. He can be contacted by e-mail via marcelboschi at
aol.com June 2010
Neil
Mitchell writes:
Park Works - A
Walk Through The Past
Shortly after Park Works
closed down, I was working for a motor and pump
repair company and I was lucky enough to secure a
meeting with the Weir Pumps repair team who were
occupying part of the old works offices, at the
bottom of 2 Bay, to discuss a repair to two small
pumps they wanted carrying out.
Whilst proceeding along the
driveway to the main gates, memories flooded back
to the hundreds of times I had made the same
journey, especially passing the point where my
late father had parked his car.
On reporting to the Security
Lodge, a familiar face greeted me. Ian (I never
knew his surname) was on duty for his last week
before moving to Wormalds offices on Grimshaw
Lane. I walked into the covered yard to be met by
rubbish and leaves strewn everywhere instead of a
pristine area that had met so many visitors.
On the left were the remains
of the Canteen, a vast area filled with tables
and benches, and the all-important pay booths
where, every Friday night at clocking off time,
you queued with your brass pay disc, stamped with
your payroll number, to collect your weeks wage
from a tin can with the corresponding number.
The Boiler House, facing the
Canteen, had been a temple to the steam age with
its windowed frontage, terracotta-tiled floor and
tiled walls. Gone were the shiny water gauges and
assorted pipework and valves; all just left to
tarnish.
The once immaculate War
Memorial, commemorating the employees who had
answered the call to arms and not returned, was
covered with dust and grime and was a shadow of
its former glory.
I stood and mused awhile and
the noises of personnel going about their
business flooded back. (That thoroughfare could
be as busy as Deansgate on a Saturday afternoon).
I visualised the rows of lorries parked against
the wall of the Wages Department and Post Room;
the Gents' toilets where, after morning break,
rows of men, with their daily newspaper rolled up
and neatly placed into the rule pocket of their
overalls, waited to be allocated their ration of
toilet paper by Billy the *** (I won't reveal his
full nickname) - the ration being six sheets,
delivered in engineering parlance, two for
roughing out, two for cleaning and two for
polishing.
I moved on through the
rubber swing doors to the bottom of 2 Bay, which
was being used for storage. From here you could
see along the Bays to the remnants of idle
machinery which had once supplied the world with
first class equipment; but, more poignantly,
which fed and clothed the family of Mathers - and
their households.
I must admit to having a
moist eye that day.
Neil Mitchell
November,
2007
Dear Sir, please
read the attach from my brother Phil Boardman who
lives in Perth, W. Australia. Both of us worked
for M&P. Phil was sent to Aussie on a job and
never came back. Is there an ex-Employees
Association or similiar? How do we leave any
information on the Guest Book or get in touch
with past workmates etc.
Thank you,
Sincerely, Alan Boardman.
Dear Alan,
Thanks a lot for the Mather and Platt's site.
We've had trouble accessing the New Guestbook and
hence contact any of the people there, and it
seems you've had more luck. And
also, we can't open the attachment in the last
email regarding your letter to Paul. We don't
even know what an .ODT file is!
If you can get into the guestbook or indeed
anywhere to leave a message for M&P
employees, can you leave this message?
My name is Phil Boardman, (phil_boardman11 at
hotmail.com) I served my apprenticeship from 1966
in the Practical Training Workshop, where I chose
General Machinery as my future. I think it was
initially in Bay 14 with a foreman named Vinnie
Haddock. Vinnie retired, then we moved down to
Bay 2 I believe, where Peter Dorer became
foreman. I finished my apprenticeship in 1970
where my main duties were the installation of
Textile Machinery, and in 1975 I was fortunate to
be selected to install a large job in Adelaide,
Australia. Two of us went over, the job took 8
months to isntall and commission, fell in love
with Australia, went back to M&P and made my
mind up to immigrate to Australia. 8 months later
I immigrated. I now reside in Perth, Australia,
in Guildford, and have been here for 31 years.
Some of the names I remember from my time with
M&P include Johnny Carter, Peter Beazly, Alan
Brackenridge, Phil Bowdler, Tony Farrell, Ken
Swaney, etc. I'd love to get in touch with any of
these people or indeed anyone who served in
M&P in that time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks,
Phil and Matt
October 2006
Greetings to my former associates at M&P
India.
I ran into this web site and was touched by the
words of Kris Mennon. I had the pleasure of
working with him at Chinchwad, Pune, for about 6
months, when I was training at the factory. I
also had the pleasure of working with Percy
Isherwood, Bodas, and Rassum, at that time. I
worked for M&P at their Bombay office as a
Sales/Contracts Engineer from 1969 - 1974 under
Kishen Mubayi.
I recall the good times I had selling and
servicing the high quality pumps of M&P. I
enjoyed working with each of my colleagues and
superiors, including Sunil Shah Singh, Shetty,
Oscar Saldhana, etc. If any of my former
associates happen to read this note, it would be
great if they would like to keep in touch with me
via email. My email address is vaswani77at
yahoo.com
Though I live in the U.S. now, I visit India,
primarily Bombay and Delhi, almost every two
years. I would love to meet some of my old
associates during my next trip, especially Sunil,
Shetty, and Oscar. My next trip should be some
time soon.
With best wishes,
Mithoo Vaswani
June 2006:
- From Maxine
Fairlee by Guest Book Entry
(Guest Book currently inoperative) Email
read:
Great site. I joined
M&P in 1974 as an office junior in pump
department and left 13 years later. I learnt a
lot in those years, met many friends too. What
memories I have of a great company. Good luck to
all.
Dear
Marcel - Can you help please? My
grandfather, Herbert Barton Chantrey
worked for Mather Platt at the beginning of if
the 20th century. He was in Abyssinia
installing hydro-electricity to Addis
Ababa about which he wrote a fascinating
account in the Mather & Platt house journal
of the time (unfortunately I don't have the
copy). He then went to India,
presumably still with Mather & Platt where he
was involved in the installation of a
hydro-electric station at Nainital.
He died in Nainital sometime around 1926 of
bronchitis and was buried there. My husband
and I are going to Nainital in May this year
(2006) and I would love to find his grave.
However I am finding it very difficult to get any
information about him or his death as my
grandmother died many years ago and she destroyed
all her records before she died. I do know
that he was a Mason and that they were at least
present at his funeral if not actually
instrumental in arranging it - my grandmother
being back in the UK at the time. Any
information would be very welcome.
Liz Atkins
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- A.E.L.
March 2008 - john
at netspace.net.au wrote ...
Hi Marcel, Just found Mather & Platt pages
on the internet, and was delighted to know that you had
compiled a history of the firm. I hope you don't
mind me giving a few of my memories to add to your
collection.
Memory being fickle, I can't guarantee all this is
true, but I believe it is. My father (John H
Whitelock, although he was always known as Jack at work)
started as a Premium Apprentice at Mather's, Newton
Heath, in 1922, and became a Research Engineer with
them. In the 1930's he was sent from the Research
Dept on trips to South America, India, and Canada,
possibly because they wanted a technical representive to
assist the local sales staff. This would have been
1933, 1935, and 1937, and as all the travel was by ocean
liner he was away for some time.
I am trying to remember the name of the person in
charge of the Research Dept whom my father headed up to -
I think it was Dr Barclay. At the beginning of the
war Loris Mather was made Director of Aircraft Production
for the North West of England (Avro and Fairey were in
the area) and my father was seconded from M&P as his
Technical Assistant for the duration of the war.
After the war, having overseen the work of a large
selection of North West ngland engineering companies
during the war, my father decided that he could improve
himself and left M&P and he joined Locker's Engineers
in Warrington. Later he went to South Africa as
Manager for ACEC, a Belgian heavy industrial company more
like Metrovicks than M&P During University
long holidays I worked at M&P in 1949, 1950, and
1951, as a Special Apprentice, (as Premium Apprentices
were then called). I was paid two pounds ten
shillings a week of which six shillings and ninepence was
taken off for National Health; I was promised Five Pounds
a week after graduation.
Frank Hill was in charge of the apprentices.
Mather's had relaxed some of their rules since the end of
the war, but when I was there nobody was allowed to stop
work to have tea - the labourers had to make the tea and
bring it to you as you worked. Smoking on the job
had only recently been permitted. If you arrived
five minutes late in the morning you were docked 10
minutes pay, ten minutes late, 20 minutes pay, fifteen
minutes late, 30 minutes pay and later than that you were
sent home. The cloakroom attendant clocked you in
if you went to the loo, and if you stayed too long or
turned up more than once a day, you had to see the
medical dept and get a note.
The five day week had been introduced, but after a
couple of weeks everyone clamoured to come to work on
Saturdays - firstly it was time and a half, and secondly
they wanted to get away from the household chores and
shopping their wives made them do. On graduation
from University of Manchester Faculty of Technology
(later UMIST, now I see it is back to University of
Manchester!) in 1952, I emigrated to South Africa to work
as an engineer for Anglo-American Gold Mines.
In Johannesburg I met John Martin the MD of the South
African Branch of M&P. He had started as a
premium apprentice at the same time as my father in
1922. I also met Maurice Gow who was in charge of
sales - he was in my class at school in Sale and at
Manchester Grammar School. I see that he died last
year.
Although my father died in 1980 I still remember
little comments he made about various people at Mather's
- such as the first John Taylor who refused to have
anything to do with a motor car which he could not enter
with his top hat on. Loris Mather had a 1936
Daimler and a 1937 Lanchester, and he lent one or the
other at times to my father to take our family on
holiday, usually to the Wirral.
When I was at M&P, I was often told by the
artisans I worked with that the firm paid less than rival
firms, but because during the Depression they had never
laid anyone off, (although everyone, both labour and
staff, took a cut in pay), they would not consider
leaving. The experience I gained in pump fitting,
electrical fitting, and foundry work, were of great
benefit to me for my rest of my career in engineering.
Kindest regards John F Whitelock
and
from John Pinkstone ...
Dear Mr Boschi
- I am
researching my Grandfather's experiences in WWI and
believe a Capt Mather was in charge of
his unit. I believe he was Killed In Action but
have not been able to find any reference to a "Capt
Mather" of the Manchester Regiment. I would be very appreciative
if you could confirm a Mather from Mather & Platt did
serve in the Manchester Regiment. I would be
interested in his rank and confirmation if he was KIA.
My Grandfather
died several years ago but often spoke of a Capt
Mather. Estimated time around 1916.
From Charmaine
Wooldridge (Rothwell) ...
My Grandfather Colin
William Rothwell, born 25.12.1849,
Goor, Holland was named after Colin and William
Mather.
His father Ephraim
Thomason ROTHWELL (b.1816) worked for the
company. Between 1839-1856 he was in Holland (as
eight of his children were born there). In the1861
Census, he and his sons were at the Salford Works. Do you
have any records around that time? Also did any of their
employees go to Germany, Holland or France (Ephraim's
father was a bleacher in Saint Quentin,France in
1840) to work in similar industries for the company
as my grandfather and his siblings were born in Goor
Holland, their mother being from Cuchenheim (Rhine and
Moselle)? I would be very interested in any information
you may be able to supply, or any suggestions you may
have.
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