In memory of Ken Cann who died at Impington,  March 19, 2008.

People and their work at Maynards

Ken Cann started in the ‘engineering shop’ in 1935 on leaving school.  He worked on lathes, turning and drilling.  Soon after 1935 he asked to go into the foundry with his father’s sister Rose Cann.  A relative of Ken’s, Joseph Cann, was a wheelwright in 1881.  In 1901 John Cann was described as a machinist fitter.  His daughter Emily Rose was 8 years old.

Les Tofts worked at Maynards after leaving school at Christmas 1941 until 1944, and again after some years in the army.  A few months older than Les, George Rusted worked in the foundry as a moulder for the years 1941-3. 

Without their contributions this story of Maynards would be much less substantial.

Ken was not an apprentice, but he learnt on the job, helped by his aunt.  Rose and Ken were good at their work - he clearly liked his job very much; his craftsman’s pride is evident.  Rose only did bench work, including a three box casting for a gear wheel.

George remembers they were very busy casting parts for chaff cutters and, seasonally, for beet lifters.  UK agriculture boomed during the 1939-45 war as every effort was made to grow as much food as possible, not least sugar beet to replace imported sugar.  A local rival company, Innes of Hitchin, had a boom in sales of their chaff cutters in the early 1940s.

The knife and travelling wheels were cast on the floor of the foundry, in moulds which were in two halves.  The knife wheel, with six or mostly five knives, was very heavy. The pattern was prepared by brushing it with beeswax.  The upper box was then put on the bottom one. 

When the pattern was removed it was loosened by putting an iron bar into the pattern and hitting the bar with a sledge hammer.  This moved it very slightly.  Thus the sand stayed in place, even in the top part of the mould, when the top casting box was lifted off to remove the pattern.  It was then carefully re-lowered.  If the sand crumbled slightly it would be patched up; otherwise the moulding had to start again. 

By the late 1930s the patterns used were old ones, if new ones were required they were bought in.

An antiquated crane, with a wooden frame, operated by a handle, was used to lift and lower the patterns.  Lifting out the pattern was a very delicate process.  The crane hook had to be positioned dead centre to the mould.  The slightest sideways movement could damage or even ruin the mould.  Rose was good at slowly turning the crane handle to lift out the patterns.  The boxes and bigger castings were man-handled.

Cores of were made of special fresh red sand with a little sawdust and dried in an oven in the furnace building.  They were then placed in the mould where oblong holes in the casting were required.  The castings were left overnight to cool slowly.

When the floor and benches were covered with moulds they were ready for casting.  Iron was tapped from the furnace into a ladle which was lined with very dry red (more heat tolerant) sand about 1 inch thick.  Harry Douglas, the foreman, and other people would help with the casting.

The ladles had two long handles at one end and one on the other end.  The moulds would be filled from two opposite sides.  If the sand was damp it was dangerous as the molten iron would spit.  The mould had been pricked with a piece of metal like a bicycle wheel spoke to allow the air out.  On casting day long spindles to go into mould to pour iron around were warmed.  The air vents were sometimes lit to burn off some of the unpleasant gases which were produced in the mould.

After the castings were taken out of the moulds they were taken to the fettling shop which was in front of the furnace building (see plan and photograph) where they were cleaned by Rose and Ken with wire brushes ready for machining.  Circular holes were drilled through the knife wheel casting to attach the knife blades.

Preparing the sand for making castings was a lengthy job of chafing, compacting or consolidating the sand by working an implement like a rolling pin 10 to 12 times backwards and forwards across it, then at right angles – a job given to the boy.  George calls this ‘shuffling it up to make it stronger’.  Different sands were used: facing, red and black. 

Harry Douglas provided a list of the castings required.  It took three weeks to prepare the moulds.  Harry Douglas was the foreman before Ken started work and until the works closed.

Cyril Custerson worked in the foundry pre-War and after 1942.  He had done a foundry apprenticeship in the 1930s.  He traveled by train and bicycle from Kings Hedges, on the north edge of Cambridge. 

Fred Bly, from Great Chesterford, was the wheelwright/blacksmith who tyred the knife wheels on a circular platform set in concrete, in the same way as wooden wheels were tyred.  The knife wheels were tyred as they were subject to considerable stresses and strains.  In Whither Whittlesford? Number xx, xxxx, Mrs Ida Saddler describes the tyreing days at her father, Sidney Merry’s blacksmith’s shop.

During the war (1939-45) the furnace was started at dawn because of the blackout, so it was only on during day.  A furnace alight at night would have been like a beacon, guiding German aircraft to Duxford aerodrome.  Normally it was lit in the late afternoon of the day before casting.

The foundry worked all year round.  Ken recalls casting rakes, Notts rolls, plain and rib roller rings, knife, belt and travelling wheels, ‘discs’ (open wheels for the beet lifter), tines for the hay rakes – cast flat then heated and bent on a machine, shields with words and the royal coat of arms.  Whilst he was at Maynards his work changed little.

The knife blades were bought in, together with specialist items like ball bearings.

There was a small brass crucible or open furnace let into the ground with an underground air intake.  Nip or carrying tongs were used to lift the molten brass in the crucibles.  Ken said he: ‘Did a bit of brass, funny stuff, gave you a sore nose.’  He told RMIII to do something about the conditions or he would leave.

Ken’s requests for improvements in the working conditions were refused.  He asked for a crane on a gantry for lifting jobs in the foundry.  Ken left because of low pay. RM III said would have to close the foundry, i.e. put Rose out of work, but Cyril Custerson returned, so the foundry continued.

His aunt Rose gave up working in the paper mills to be nearer to her mother who was unwell.  Her mother, from Babraham, had worked in the mills, where his father worked.  The Cann families lived in The Hobble in wooden structures with corrugated iron roofs, built and owned by Maynards. 

Ken recalls that Bert Chapman did floor work, that Oscar Peters came back to Maynards, where he and Jim Wallis were blacksmiths; only two forges were being worked.

Maynards tradesmen included carpenters, who also did assembly work, machinists, mechanics, moulders, a wheelwright, blacksmiths and lathe operators. 

Maynard machines, especially the chaff cutters, used a lot of wood in their structure.  RMI argued that this was an advantage as cast iron was liable to crack or fracture as machines moved over uneven ground. 

The works had a saw pit, a hole in the ground over which the log to be cut into planks was placed.  Using a huge saw one man stood on top of the log whilst his unfortunate assistant stood in the pit, showered with dirt and saw dust.  Whilst the skilled sawyers were paid more than other workers they were notorious for slaking their thirsts with alcohol.  No itinerant sawyer was employed by 1934. The saw pit had been filled in. 

Timber was then bought in pre-cut planks.  There was a saw bench but no planer [machine] so the wood was hand planed.  

Insights into work around 1912 are provided by Bryan Howe’s uncle’s apprenticeship indenture.  ‘Indenture of Sidney Howe 5 year’s apprenticeship Feb 28 1914’  ‘between Robert Maynard … Engineer Sidney Howe and Leonard Howe, father …’  SH ‘doth hereby bind himself to truly serve … as an apprentice for the term of Five Years ….’

 ‘RM in receiving the said SH as an apprentice takes with him the clear understanding that his services shall be rendered in any occupation that the said RM may require of him. 

‘The said apprentice will never during his apprenticeship have liberty to choose his work but shall do cheerfully anything which the said RM may lawfully set him to do.  He will be required principally to attend the Lathe, but he shall have full liberty to acquire a knowledge of the work that is carried on in the fitting shops and smithy of the said RM finding for himself such tools as are ordinarily found by the workman in these shops.’ 

He ‘shall conduct himself during the term of his servitude with sobriety, be industrious and to the best of his ability endeavour to promote the interests of his master.’ 

LH ‘shall be answerable for any loss which may by the non-fulfilment of this contract by the said apprentice be caused to the said RM, his heirs, administrators or assigns.’ 

He pay was to be ‘Four shillings per week during the first twelvemonth of his term’, five in second year, six and seven in third and fourth, ten during fifth and last year.’   Signed RM, LH, SH, RM Jnr.

The tall furnace was filled with iron, including scrap, and coke from the top, reached by stairs.  The rear hole was blocked with sand, then by a metal plate and iron bars.  The furnace was lined.  After the furnace was emptied the bars and the plate were removed and the sand broken through so that the bottom of the furnace could be cleaned out.  New furnace plates 8 foot by 3.5 foot were cast in an open mould on the floor, with an overflow. 

The furnace was filled by Jack (John) Runham, who was also employed as a gardener by RMIII.  He lived in Reeds’ cottage.  At least once, when the mixture was not right, Job Nunn was called back from retirement to sort it out. 

The furnace engine drove the air blowers.  It used the cheapest grade of paraffin and was started by heating the cylinder head with a blow torch, then pumping paraffin into the hot end, opening a valve until vapour came out.  The flywheel was pushed back then forward to create compression and off it went slowly for half an hour before it was thoroughly heated and the power could be turned up.  

The single cylinder engine produced a characteristic ‘pop pop pop’ sound which irritated local residents as it ran night and day when the furnace was being fired up. 

A photograph of the works shows to the left of the entrance a building with six small chimneys which were for the blacksmith’s anvils and forges listed in the 1961 sale catalogue. The seventh pair of anvil and forge was perhaps in the small brass foundry.  The large chimney for the furnace is visible in the background. The works office is now in a private garden and the ornate gate has gone.  The six forge chimneys can clearly be seen in a 1946 aerial photograph.

Site layout: (see photograph with beet  lifter in the foreground) as you enter the yard on the left is a long row of buildings: stores;  blacksmith’s shop, with its row of six chimneys for the forges;  paint shop; timber shed with open front and sides slatted to allow a free flow of air through the timber stored for seasoning (George remembers the Pamplins engines were maintained in here and that it was not, in the 1940s as open as in the photograph) ; small castings; foundry – large castings; then a building which runs across the end of the yard with the furnace and its tall chimney (which cannot be seen in the photograph, but the gable end of the fettling shop can be seen); at the end of which is the ‘pop pop’ engine for its large fan – which created a continuous blast of air, is at the bottom of the yard; just in front of the engine is the fettling shop.  The oven to dry and harden the new red sand cores was between the furnace and the engine

On the right: The office, a two storey block, with a large well in front of it (to be seen in the beet lifter photograph), which has a large opening into the carpenter’s/assembly shop with big sliding doors which can be seen in the photograph with a chaff cutter standing in front of them – which hides a small door in large door( or is it the machine shop?); the fire engine in its own shed; toilet block; sawpit; behind these buildings is the open shed where Pamplin’s steam road rollers were stored.

In the power house a diesel engine drove belts to the lathes, power drills and borers.  It was replaced by a petrol engine at the end of the carpenters’ shop which generated electricity for light and electric motors.  An engine started by a cartridge was in the carpenters’ shop.

In the two storey building was a large metal bending machine which needed a part of the floor removed to enable it to be taken out of the building when the works closed.

A ‘Ticking clock’ stamped a card with the worker’s time in and out.  It could be ‘fiddled’ by blurring the impression with repeated stamping.  It was in the carpenter’s shop.  Les suggests that ‘Tick’ Arnold, who may have lived west of P G Arnold is said to have been so-nicknamed because he looked after this time clock.

The fire engine consisted of a simple cart, acting as a sump or water tank, into which water was poured from buckets and then forced out along a three inch diameter hose.  The pump was operated by two or more men pushing long wooden poles, 4 or 5 foot (1.5 metres) up and down on each side of the cart.  (Picture of similar fire engine).  There was no mains water in the village. 

In George Rusted’s memory it was only used once, to put out Seaby’s cottage thatch fire. The fire was started, accidentally, by Roger Arnold, Mike’s brother who waved a sparkler which he had just bought in the shop across the High Street – where Vera Smith bought the matches.  Another version of this story is that Ruben Chapman used a crowbar to remove burning thatch from Jack Frost’s cottage next to Seeby’s, so saving Seeby’s.

By the time the fire engine arrived, propelled at the double by Harry Douglas and other men from the factory, the fire had really taken hold.  More and more help was now arriving as word spread around the village.   The older boys and girls were manning the water pump at the back of the school, while others ran with full buckets down School Lane to the blazing cottage.  It was a losing battle.  As the children tried to run with a full bucket between them, most of it splashed out into their shoes and socks long before they got there.

By the 1940s the Maynards buildings and facilities were ramshackle and the pay low; George started on 10s [50p] a week, soon increased to 10s 11d.  This compares the 10s contracted to be paid to Sidney Howe in his last year as an apprentice in 1916.  (see extracts from his indenture above.)

Ken remembers Pamplins arriving from Cherry Hinton with two big steam ploughing engines, the remnants of Pamplin’s very large fleet.  Ken took one to a cement works, probably at Barrington. 

After the collapse of the stem ploughing business the Walter Pamplin had a fleet of steam rollers which traveled quite widely, e.g. a journey to Hopton on the Yarmouth-Lowestoft road took six days. Pamphlin’s Steam Rollers Ltd was listed at Whittlesford from 1937-1940.  The road rollers were maintained in the open shed which had been used to season wood.  The remaining machines were sold in Cambridge cattle market on July 5, 1948.  

Les remembers three people who worked for Pamphlins cycling from Cherry Hinton.  When it was wet they were glad to dry out in the foundry.

The Pamplins’ foreman was called Tabor.  Ken once acted as steersman on a big engine which they took to Huntingdon in two stages, with another man operated the controls.  Mr Pamplin picked Ken up in his car from the halfway point in the evening, then took him back to the engine in the morning.  Ken also went out to ‘flag the engine’, i.e. he walked in front of the roller in built up areas.

Although Ken was not at work when a Pamplins steam boiler blew up in 1940, he heard the noise.  Rose helped the injured men, who were stripped of most of their clothing by the blast.  A nearby hedge was burnt. 

During WWII Army units with tanks were stationed in Whittlesford.  An Army motor transport unit took over the two storey building where they maintained their vehicles and the tanks.  They were ‘pretty self-contained’.  Maynards did a lot of subcontracting.  Some buildings were used as WWII Emergency stores.

George Rusted took RM III’s seat on the Parish Council in 1959.  

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