The Reyrolle Story: 32 - Jubilee
...In 1951 the Company was 50 years old and it was planning to produce a formal Jubilee History. It never happened but a Jubilee Dinner was held in the Old Assembly Rooms, Newcastle on the 10th October 1951 - the same week as Alphonse Reyrolle's birthday...
Robert Owen, now providing that history, continues his story of the huge Tyneside engineering firm, Reyrolle.
Whatever the employees' interests Reyrolle usually had an out-of-work group to cater for their need. Apart from football and cricket there were rugby, golf, motoring, swimming, tennis, table-tennis, bowls, netball, ten-pin bowling, gardening, philatelic, music, snooker, bridge, cycling, fishing and sea-angling clubs or associations. These were administered by an elected Sports Management Committee, which during the sixties, was ably led by popular Nicky White.
These groups were full of talented people as Jim McDowell recalls, "Looking back what struck me about my Reyrolle experiences was the number of talented people I would meet every working day. For instance, musicians abounded and they played every sort of music. Then there were fell walkers, cyclists and fishermen, all with stories to tell of their latest adventures, exploring the Cumbrian Hills, cycling two hundred miles over the weekend, midnight fishing off the rocks at Tynemouth - and then turning up for work the next day. How did they do it?"
Another talented and well known employee at the time was Fred Lawson. He was Reyrolle's commercial artist but, after work, Fred was a popular local entertainer and experienced broadcaster. Actively involved with Reyrolle's Choir, he helped to raise hundreds of pounds for charity, and once saved a swimmer's life on South Shields beach.
In 1951 the Company was 50 years old and it was planning to produce a formal Jubilee History. It never happened but a Jubilee Dinner was held in the Old Assembly Rooms, Newcastle on the 10th October 1951 - the same week as Alphonse Reyrolle's birthday. At the invitation of the Directors, 500 of the Company's employees with not less than 25 years service attended and Sir Claude Gibb, Chairman presented 38 employees, who had been with the Company for more than 40 years, with gold watches.
Communication was always a problem in Reyrolle. In an attempt to contribute to its solution, the Company held its first ever weekend conference at Otterburn Hall in April 1962. Eighty delegates attended and although claiming to be representative of the workforce, there were no women present. The annual conference continued until 1970, after which various other smaller conferences were held until 1976.
One idea that came out of the above was the need for a publication to keep everyone informed of what was happening in the Company. The existing Reyrolle Review, to some extent, already served this purpose but something less technical and more informal was required. So the quarterly Reyrolle Circuit was born. It cost a penny per copy and proceeds went to the Employees' Benevolent Association.
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To purchase a copy of Robert's book pleaase visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reyrolle-Story-History-Co-Ltd/dp/1905295073/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245678876&sr=1-1
