Henry Brown, Son and Pickles. Engineers - Part 10

We'll start with a report from the Craven Herald dated the 3rd of October 1930.  Peter Heaton (65) the engineer at Moss Shed since it opened in 1903 retired.  His successor was Stanley Fisher, he left his employment at J A Pickles and Son and was engineer at Moss until it closed in 1958.  His son Walt however started at Pickles' and was there until the closure in 1981.  Johnny had lost one good man but gained another.

Those of you who have good memories will remember that from 1903 to 1906 John Pickles was an apprentice at the Earby works of Henry Brown and Sons.  The man he served his apprenticeship under was Willy Brown, son of Henry because old Henry died in 1903.  This is the same Willy Brown who lived at Horton and came into the office of J A Pickles and Son at Wellhouse in 1930 when Johnny started in business on his own account.

By the late 1930s Johnny's firm was well established and very busy.  They were maintaining all the mills in the area and doing many jobs further afield.  Despite all the pressure on him, Johnny was active in his workshop at home during the lunch hour and in the evenings and was turning out some wonderful examples of precision engineering.  In 1937 he completed another tower clock for the Riley Street Methodist Chapel in Earby but this one was rather special.  When the chapel was bought by George Preston in July 1960 the clock moved back to Barlick and for twenty years told the time to anybody passing the Wellhouse Machine works.  When the firm finished and was taken over by Gissing and Lonsdale's the clock was moved to their office on Wellhouse Road and can be seen in the foyer to this day.

The interesting thing to me is that there is an inscription on the clock which reads: 'IN MEMORIAM.  LAUS DEO.  To Henry Brown of this parish, master mechanic, 1848-1903 and Elizabeth his wife, 1847-1924.  This clock was installed by their family.  Made by his apprentice John Pickles and given to his memory in appreciation of a good master and an able craftsman.'  At the time when the clock was installed Johnny was in negotiation with the County Brook Mill and in 1938 started on his biggest job to date, the millwrighting of the new extension at the mill.

It's fairly clear that at this time Johnny was aware that some re-adjustments had to be made in the structure of his company as the rewards were high but so were the risks.   He had seen his old master's firm pay the price in 1929.  The fact that he made the clock in memory of Henry Brown the preceding year indicates that he had not forgotten how he started in business on his own account and was aware of how much he owed to the Brown family.  Bearing this in mind might help us to understand what happened next.

It would seem that, apart from new plant and machinery added by J A Pickles and Son, the Wellhouse Machine Shop was still being rented off the Calf Hall Shed Company on the terms that it had been taken over in October 1929.  In July 1938 the Calf Hall directors received a request from Johnny to buy the plant, machinery and stock that they had taken over in 1929.  The Calf Hall Company had paid the liquidators £425 for Henry Brown's machinery at the sale.  The Directors agreed to sell the machinery to J A Pickles and Son for £450 and stock at valuation.  Newton told me that the total was £940 and that included everything in the buildings.   This sale was finalised on the 18th August 1938.  At the same time Johnny floated a new company, Henry Brown Sons and Pickles Limited.  I have no evidence as to who were the partners in this new firm.  All I know for certain is that when they finished in 1981 Newton Pickles and Walt Fisher were partners.  Whatever the case, Johnny had made sure that the name of Henry Brown was commemorated in the new firm and I believe this was as much to do with sentiment as business considerations.

During 1939 Newton had what he described as his first big outside job where he was in charge.  There was a big smash on the 96ft borehole at Whitemoor waterworks.  There was a 300ft bore as well and both deep well pumps were driven by steam engines at that time, A Timkins on the 96ft and a Burnley Ironworks on the 300ft bore.  What happened was that the bucket in the 96ft pump jammed and the engine kept going, smashing the headgear and the seven foot diameter spur gear.  Wilfred Dixon the engineer sent for help and Newton and Bob Fort were despatched to put it right.  

The first job was to get the bits of the two ton spur gear out and down to the shop where they were measured up and Johnny ordered a new casting from Roberts at Nelson.  It took Newton and Bob five weeks to get the jammed bucket out of the pump and six months all told to get the job finished and the bore operating again.  Newton said that machining the spur gear was the biggest turning job he had ever doe up to then.  It was a big job for two young men but they accomplished it.  There was just one noteworthy event that happened whilst they were doing it, and Newton never forgot what happened.

The well they were working in was eight feet in diameter.  Newton was down there one day replacing the 4ft by 2ft cast iron lid on the pump after re-installing the new bucket.  The well was dry because they were running the 300ft bore 24 hours a day to keep the water table below the pumps in the 96ft well.  Newton had got out of his bosun's chair and was stood on the rocks in the bottom.  He needed a spanner and when he shouted up for it they stopped the other pump so they could hear him.  Newton's well started to fill immediately, water bubbling up through the rocks.  Up at the top they realised the danger, restarted the pump and hauled a very frightened Newton out.  He told me it was the worse moment of his life and he dreamed about it for years.

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© Stanley Challenger Graham 2003

Page updated: 13 OCT 2003