BACK in time, when heavy engineering concerns still employed countless thousands of people here in the Black Country, there was more to work than just turning up at the factory gate for a hard day’s graft.
The larger companies also had the social, sporting and cultural needs of their employees in mind, and provided them with facilities so that they could pursue their interests out of work.
In our pages we publish numerous photographs of sports teams, for example, which were well supported by local employers, but workers were encouraged in other pastimes too. Take for example this group of musicians, who made up the Stewarts and Lloyds Works Orchestra at Coombs Wood, back in pre-war days. This has been supplied by David Marlow of Cradley Heath , who comments; “I attach an old photograph of my maternal grandfather, William Edward Stockton, on the far right, sporting his double bass as part of the S & L Works Orchestra of those days. However, I have no idea of the identities of the other players”.
Can anyone help?
