British Lead Mills
Audio recording
By WGCHT
Name: Unnamed
Subject: British Lead Mills
Duration: 5:27
Interview Date: c2016
This recording is from a man, unnamed, who was an employee at the British Lead Mills in Welwyn Garden City. He first discusses going to the mills with his father as a child aged eight years old. He recalls one day on which his father taught him how to operate the crane. On occasions, when his father would be occupied with another job at the mill, he would be the one to drive the crane in his place. He then goes on to discuss other memories he has of the mills.
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This page was added on 05/04/2016.
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I started work at BLM at the age of 20 ( 1987) I was there for six years in total. My first assignment was to cut the rolls of lead from 5 feet long into pre ordered lengths for roofers etc etc, then I went onto operating the crane on the end of the new mill to stack the lead rolls in bays for the cutting operators to retrieve. I then went on to running the old mill (spitz mill, the oldest running lead rolling mill in the uk) it was a great job, I loved working at BLM and met some fantastic friends, I’ve seen some people come and go in that six years, all characters, I still have friends that are still employed there to this day. Mr Parcell, Mr Badell. In the old laboratory there are old photos of BLM from inside and from the air with the shredded wheat in the distance, there are no oner buildings around them just tracks through the long grass where the workers walked to and from home to work.
Worked for blm as a rep with terry armstrong, richard oakey, later robert hardy, under the biliton management all was ok, things changed when biliton sold the company shortly after several reps retired. Some of us given extra areas carried on. Not long after i was given gardening leave, the way in which it was done was a slap in the face, blm was a great firm ,enjoyed my time there.