 |
|
|
 | |
Blundells paint works
© Local History Unit Hull College
|
| |  |
Hull's colourful history |
 |
Retirement from paint manufacture
By the middle years of the 20th Century, there are frequent reports in the pages of the works’ magazine, Blundell's Bulletin, which started in 1947, of long-serving employees who had retired:
Issue No.2, from February 1947, reports that Blundell's oldest pensioner, Mr Martin Foreman, aged 96, had worked for the firm for fifty years before retiring in 1929 after a record attendance, never being absent, and only being late twice. He joined the firm as a lorry-man in 1879 and was in charge of the horses, the largest number he recalled tending being thirteen. When motor transport made its appearance - challenging the usefulness of the horse - one of the directors, sensing his foreman’s anxiety, jokingly promised to have the last horse stuffed for him and kept in the stable.
A Putty-Mill at Hull Works
© Local History Unit Hull College |
Blundell's Bulletin, Vol.4 No.3, of May 1950, notes that Mr C Frank, had retired after 53 years service in the Export department, where he had “marked and packed thousands of kegs for export”. Mr C Towler, who retired after 41 years, was a “well-known figure at Bankside works using up the paint, not making it” as he was a painter in the maintenance department. John Rowson, who retired in August 1953, had joined Blundell’s as a cooper in 1911, however a war wound caused him to give up coopering and he transferred to the plumbers shop, and was also in charge of the Blundell's Bankside Fire brigade for ten years.
Interviewing Mr Albert Rollinson recently about his over forty years working life in the paint industry, for Blundell's, he revealed that he had never actually made paint! He had worked mostly in the Colour department, then in warehousing and distribution.
Blundell's paint may no longer exist, but its name and techniques live on. Hull is still home to a number of paint manufacturers, and many of its important properties are named after the industry. However, one puzzle remains about Blundell's paint – was their Brunswick Green colour named after Brunswick House, on Beverley Road, where Henry Blundell lived? And is Hull Red so named because it was made in Hull or because it was used to paint the hulls of ships?
Words: Christopher Ketchell
Your comments
| |
 Print this page |
|
Archive
Look back into the past using the Legacies' archives. Find nearly 200 tales from around the country in our collection.
Read more > |
| | |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of external Web sites. |
| | | |
| | |
| |
|
