| |
|
A nostalgic look by Dave
Sutton at a wrought iron work company that used traditional methods
of manufacturing and that was highly successful in the 1960's
Home page
Hyder's
Drawings |
| My
name is John Cross and I worked at Hyders from 1962 for 6 years.
One of the teachers at school got me an interview at Hyders to
be a welder, not only had I not heard of Hyders or Plaxtol I did
not know what a welder was.
I had to catch the van at Tonbridge Library at 7 in the morning.
This is were I met an old school friend Chris Brotherwood who
worked in the Blacksmiths shop. The van was driven by Joe (pictured
in your photo in the paint shop), on the drive there we picked
up more people, mostly builders. At that time Hyders still had
a thriving building company.
My first job in the welding shop was drilling holes in the sides
of brass tubes, at the end of 6 months I was very good at this
and sharpening drills.
The people in the welding shop were, Bob Barden (foreman), Dave
Parsons (lived in Bournevale) Pete Wise and his brother Barry
Trevor Burley and John (Paddy)..........?
I was next taught to weld using an oxy acetylene torch (this may
have something to do with the football story).
I do remember most of the people that you recall (I had a date
with Irene Fox).
|
|
Hyders
used to make there own acetylene gas and pipe it around the workshops
(before my time there), but in the welding shop there was a large
metal urn much like a milk churn, this contained carbide (You
my have heard of carbide lamps used on old cars)
If you add water it gives of the gas acetylene We would put it
in old thinners tins add a little water screw the top back on
and run, the gas expanded blowing the tin to bits with a large
explosion .We put some in Charlie Kings water trough, when he
put red hot metal in the water his trough caught light, he was
not very happy.
We did make a gun once more like a cannon really, we used a 2
inch diameter pipe placed in the vice by Charlie’s forge
pointing out the door and up into the air (we thought) .The barrel
was loaded with nuts, bolts gunpowder and any thing we could find
we lit the blue touch paper and left, The whole thing then exploded
splitting the tubes end sending the nuts, and bolts every where
but mostly through the packing departments roof which nobody found
out about till it rained.
One lunch time we decided to dam the small stream that ran through
the lawn we used a sheet of metal and hammered it in to the ground,
this worked a treat but we could not remove it so we went back
to work. Dave Hyder came back from lunch and found a lake he didn't
know he had. He clocked all the culprits out ( how did he know
who?) and marched us out to the lake we had to remove the dam
which took hours. A friend Paul Hill was standing down stream
when we finally removed the dam and he was swept away with the
rush of water, even Dave Hyder laughed. Dave Hyder asked Chris
“why had we done this” and Chris replied that we were
bored and could he (Dave Hyder) buy us a football .Not really
a good time to ask but the next day we had a football .A good
bloke that Dave, he even wanted us to join the Sunday league.
|
|
As
an apprentice I was not allowed to do overtime so one day I decided
to catch the bus home .The bus took a long and tedious route to
Tonbridge, and I arrived home a lot later than if I had gone on
the van, so in future I did the overtime.
Some how we got an old motorcycle, a Rudge with gear change on side
of the tank, not until a lot later in life did I find out how rare
and valuable these were. All the boys had a go riding around the
field behind Hyders. Having never ridden a motor bike I was reluctant
to have a go, but peer pressure being what it is I tried .Setting
off I managed to find one of the many holes in the field which made
me lose what little control I had. I ended up going through the
hedge that ran around the field and this gave me many cuts and bruises,
all that afternoon I looked like an extra in a horror movie, my
short love affair with motorcycles ended that day and has never
been rekindled.
Christmas time we would all go to The Kentish Rifleman in Dunks
Green mainly because Reeds paper mill was down the road and they
employed lots of young ladies. Pete Wise who owned a BSA Rocket
Gold Star was a little worse for drink and fell off a few times.
We thought that it might help to focus his mind on the ride home
if we tied his feet to the foot rests. How he got off at home is
still a mystery.
When Chris and I got our first cars we would take his one week and
then mine. One day, coming in to Dunks Green we met the bus which
needed to be avoided, Chris stood on the brakes and all was well
until what we thought was smoke filled the car. It wasn’t,
we had just broken our tea flasks which filled the car with steam.
Chris left about a month before me and he got a job at EJ Bakers
in Tonbridge, he told me about a job there and one rainy cold day
with no football and bored I made the phone call that ended my time
at Hyders.
The Rudge Motorcycle suffered a nasty end, taken apart by a Blacksmith
with a sledge hammer, but it did have one last song to sing as one
of the valve springs came out and cut the guy above his eye.
|
|
