Bad news for factory workers
HIS name was FJ St Clair, and on January 18, 1975 he was a man with a mission he had hoped he would never have to carry out.
That day Mr St Clair arrived in Hull, to visit the Hedon Road factory where he had once worked as plant manager.
Now director of European Operations for the giant Imperial Typewriters business, he came back to tell 1,400 former colleagues the news they had been dreading: “Sorry, but we’re closing the factory. You are all out of work.”
In just a few minutes many saw their livelihoods wiped out. Husbands, wives, sons and daughters had worked side by side, and in just one afternoon were told they would now be joining each other on the weekly trip to the dole counter.
Mr St Clair came with a twopage letter telling them why the decision was taken and it was handed to each of the fulltime workers as they prepared to end their shift. Shortly after, at 5pm, 200 part-time staff were also told the news.
The letter said: “The combination of events both in the world’s markets and in the economic circumstances in the country today has forced this decision.”
The factory produced manual typewriters and parts for electronic models, mostly for American and Canadian mar
kets. The company was said to have lost £9m since 1965, £5m of it since 1973.
In Hull, the factory had seen production rise 60 per cent in 15 months, although worldwide markets had dwindled.
As stunned redundant workers met Mrs Clare Tate, the Transport and General Workers Union factory shop steward told the Mail: “Right now most of us feel this is just one big nightmare. There was no indication from the management it was coming.”
She said some workers looked dazed and others said they felt physically sick. All were united in their opposition
to the decision. But the news did not end there, for in February the sacked workers mounted an early morning takeover of the factory.
The Mail reported: “As food, bedding and heating supplies were ferried in a workers’ spokesman said they were preparing for a long stay.”
It was the start of a campaign that would drag on and on, but it was one the employees could not win and they remained resolute for 20 weeks and, despite legal attempts to remove them in July, still remained.
In the end, though, it was a losing battle. The factory was finally left empty and a onetime Hull business success story brought to a bitter end.
Fifty-eight years ago
The weather was appalling. On the Humber, ice floes were seen for the first time in many years and heavy snow covered a wide area.
January 12, 1963, saw Humber pilots battling against a blizzard to keep river traffic moving, but in the early hours their efforts came to a dramatic end with the loss of the cutter JH Fisher.
As she fought to keep on station the vessel, which had worked on the estuary for 33 years, was struck by the 10,720ton tanker Esso Glasgow, which was to pick up a pilot to guide her to Saltend.
The captain and crew fought a desperate battle to save her, using mattresses to try to plug a large hole in her hull, but without success. Forced to take to the lifeboats they were taken aboard the Glasgow. The JH Fisher, built at Earle’s Ship
yard and launched in December 1930, sank within two hours.
She was well equipped, with accommodation in 10 state rooms for 36 pilots, and was the last steam cutter built for the Humber, serving throughout World War Two during which, in March 1941, she faced a lowlevel bombing attack.
Sixty-one years ago
For 33 years the Londesborough Cinema had played an important role in the social life of thousands of residents in the Anlaby Road area.
But on January 10, 1959, it was announced that the place affectionately known as “the picture house where film fans are just one big family” was to show its final film. Ten staff were made redundant.
The Londesborough, in Wenlock Street, incorporated the old Dreadnaught Cinema, which was built in West Parade in 1926 and which had originally been known as the Kinematograph.