Two employees are seen using a filigree machine at Head Wrightsons.
Photograph and details courtesy of Ken Pattison.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Two employees are seen using a filigree machine at Head Wrightsons.
Photograph and details courtesy of Ken Pattison.
Hello Helen. Thank you so much for that. Much needed by me as it is coming up to his 5th year anniversary. He was a fantastic dad. Thank you. Sandra Dover
I knew Jack Fenwick. He worked with my dad Tommy Dover. His parents lived across the road from me and my parents in Thornaby. Sandra Dover now in Rotherham
My husband Les Taggart also worked with your dad and spoke very highly of him.
The man on the right is Les Taggart. The other man is Jack Fenwick. They both went to Germany to learn the filigree machine and brought it back along with a German man named Fritz Gritsback who came to erect the machine and get it working.
The man on the right is Les Taggart. The other man is Jack Fenwick
They both went to Germany to learn the filigree machine and brought it back to Head Wrightson along with a German named Fritze Gritsback who stayed here a while to erect the machine and get it working.
Does anyone know my dad Thomas William Dover? He worked at Head Wrightsons
Yes he was a welding foreman, very well liked & a top man, he was also very good with car repairs & helped many of his colleagues.
The machine was still working in 1963 because I walked in there one day and was fascinated by it, watching the raw steel going in one end and the fabricated girder coming out of the other. As you say, I don’t think it was a commercial success.
The chap on the right – is it Billy Sharp?
No the man you mention is Les Taggart and the other man is Jack Fenwick. They both went to Germany to learn about this machine and run it when it was brought over here
Hi Helen. I knew Jack Fenwick. He worked with my dad Tommy Dover. His parents lived across the road from me and my parents. I am now in Rotherham. Sandra Dover
Jack Fenwick was a foreman along with your dad in the bridge yard. Fuligree was a different department.
Thank you Anon. My dad was a brilliant dad. Regards Sandra Dover
What is a filigree machine?
The Filigree machine was imported from Germany in the early 60’s. Coils of wire and strip steel were fed into it. The wire was bent into a zig zag shape and the strip ,if my memory serves me correct, into a U shape. As the performed shapes passed through the machine they were spot welded. The unit could then be cut to required lengths. These units could then be cast in concrete to form roof or flooring slabs when laid side by side.
I don’t think the enterprise was a success.
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Many thanks for that explanation of the term ‘Filigree’, one that I’d previously associated with the more ‘decorative’ elements of design in other fields, rather than set deep within re-enforced concrete slabs. However, I can now see the connection.