Brett's Stamping Works

On my forum, we have recently been talking briefly about Brett's Stamping Works, that may already have been discussed on here, but it is certainly a memory of old "Cov", I remember the "thump thump" of the stamping works, you could hear it all over Hillfields. Great memories. Peter.

In the 1950's I remember visiting an elderly relation in that area. The factory was literally at the end of her garden. I don't know how on earth she put up with the noise. I suppose she just got used to it.

Was that the same factory as Smith's Stamping Works, or was that a different one?

According to a story in the Telegraph this morning, Smiths Stamping Works was in Ribble Road, Stoke.

My husband Gil Bourne worked at Smiths and the Albion drop AND Bretts he was a Stamper retired now and we live in the USA

I worked at Bretts stamping for a few months, the pay was [rubbish] the conditions rough.

I remember working at Bretts for 3 weeks as a stand in for my uncle who was off sick, in those days you had a job forever providing you turned upon time and never had any time off, like the co-op dairy most of the workforce were related or knew one another. I remember Bretts as being largely without a roof and cold , miserable and always damp and wet, I recieved 30 minutes training on one of the massive presses and then heating metal bars up, stamping them and cutting of the item which was in my case clutch parts - release bearing housings as I remember for heavy commercial vehicles, we were told to pick a few twigs off bushes on the way into work to flick oldengine oil onto the dies as the press was coming down . Various die casts were expected to be inserted into the respective mounts by the operator and after a few trial attempts at pressings and adjustments we eventually got it right. No health and saftey nonsense here. The dirt floor was a testament to that. The money was good though.

I'd never heard of it before, so was it where Bretts Close is now?

Have I got this wrong, but I always thought Bretts Steam Hammer Drop forgings was in Holbrooks? There was a Black Pad footpath that led from near Jubilee Crescent all across waste land to a footbridge over the railway, by W H Jones, plant yard, the path then joined a road which led through to Lockhurst Lane and you passed this terrific noise on your right hand side on the way, which I thought was Bretts.

The Bretts stamping I worked for was in Stony Stanton Rd, unless they had other premises I didn't know about. 65/66 was my little stint.

Albion Drop Forgings had a factory in Lockhurst Lane Roger, maybe that is what you could hear.

Thanks Normk, Yes you are dead right, I guess it was similar trade though

Roger, your computer would have given you Bretts addresses.

No Smiths, the Albion and Bretts all separate companies, my husband worked at the Albion then when he returned from America in 1970 he worked at Bretts till they closed

I worked at Dunlop for over 44 years from 1967-1978 and from 1980-2013. During Apprentice Induction week in 1967 we visited lots of local firms including Bretts Stampings in Harnall Lane. The two things I remember most is the deafening noise of the drop hammers and a beautiful wooden clocking-in machine near the entrance. Bretts supplied Dunlop with lots of small batch aluminium drop forgings until their closure forced us elsewhere. Fortunately most of the hammers & presses were bought by Light Metal Forgings (LMF) at Smethwick and High Duty Alloys (HDA) at Redditch. These two companies later amalgamated. Bretts had produced a small (5" diameter) aircraft wheel for a vertical take-off and landing aircraft (can't say which bird of prey this was) and when they closed it caused us lots of problems to avoid hundreds of thousands of pounds in re-qualification test costs. Eventually we convinced the MOD that the parts were still being manufactured by an identical method on the same drop hammers by the same operators as always although 30 miles along the M42. Happy Days