Open Writing

Many marriages took place after an initial meeting at work and some workers thought Reyrolle was like one big family. To some extent this was true, with several large, extended families employed throughout the Company.

The most well known were the Nicods and the Pawseys, both descended from pioneers who came North with Reyrolle in 1901. Several members of both families held influential positions and there was a rumour that a member of the Nicod or Pawsey family could never be sacked. Whether this caused resentment among other workers is unknown, but it is said that an occasional member of the two families left because of hostility to the name.

In 1951 Alfred Nicod's daughter Charlotte, (known as Lottie), who had worked as Reyrolle's Nanny during their son's early years, returned to Hebburn from the USA for a holiday. She said "I would dearly love to meet Fernand Reyrolle" who she had looked after as a child. Fifty-six years later Lotttie's daughter Joan, who lives in Arizona, USA confirmed that the desired meeting never took place.

Another well known family was the Clubbs. When Andrew Clubbs received his
gold watch for 40 years service in 1968, he was following in the footsteps of his five brothers. All told, the Clubbs family gave over 250 years service to the Company.

Not far behind was the Blanch family, where the total number of years served by a father and two sons came to 126.

Husband and wife team, Harry and June Willey, had a joint service of 97 years which must be some sort of record. There were numerous other extended families with long services, just too many to mention. It was almost a tradition for successive generations of Hebburn families to follow each other through the Company.

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