WE CAN all think of great names of Black Country industry which bit the dust last century, but some of those familiar companies lasted surprisingly late in the 1900s.
One such was Simplex, based at the Broadwell Works in Oldbury.
Often when a foundry closed, the sad day was marked by one last cast, complete with the date and the name of the firm, and here, thanks to an anonymous reader who collects such curios, is the last piece to leave Simplex — on 21st May 1982.
It seems an odd item, a nostalgic image of a woman who appears to be enjoying a drink at the fireside — was it, perhaps, cast from an item one of the workers had brought in and made a mould from? Simplex produced iron castings for cookers, electric switchboxes and conduits, but eventually fell foul of the move by other companies to produce many of those items from cheaper, lighter plastic and pressed steel.
