A new exhibition celebrating Wednesbury’s former Patent Shaft Steel Works has opened in the town.
The display of photographs and nostalgia pieces finally opened to the public over the weekend, with more than 150 people walking through the doors of the Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery Saturday. Organiser and chairman of the Wednesbury History Society Peter Knowles said he was pleased with the response.
“It was quite a crush at one point, you couldn’t move,” he said.
“We were quite surprised about how many people came along. I’m glad people are so interested and it all looked very good.”
He added: “I suppose it’s a family thing isn’t it. So many people worked there, generation on generation and many of them for 40 years or so. People like to remember.”
Known locally as The Shaft, the steel factory has a 150-year history and provided jobs for generations of steel workers in the town before it closed in 1980.
From its 19th Century origins to its closure, the company employed thousands of people in the town and provided materials for countless projects as well as ocean liners and wartime tanks. Now all that remains of the firm are a huge set of gates near a traffic island on Halens Drive.
Mr Knowles is also organising a reunion for former workers at the Holyhead Road gallery on July 19 from 2 to 5pm. A separate ‘reminiscence event’ is also set to be organised to take place at some point over the next month. “We want to get people talking, their stories bring all the photographs to life,” added Mr Knowles.
The exhibition runs until August 16 at Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery. Call the history society on 07530865192 or visit www.wednesburyhistorysociety.co.uk
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2 Comments
A little disappointed with so few pictures and no captions- still a £4,000 grant does not buy very much these days.
My father, Harry Marston worked @ Patent Shaft for 40 years and was the Chief Chemist, also my brother worked in the lab until the closure in 1980. Those were the days when dedication and loyalty to the company and your colleagues really kept the heart in the community, so lacking today.
Local people must make sure that The Patent Shaft will not be forgotten.
It’s great to hear about the exhibition, the only real memorial left is the gates which are now badly neglected, damaged and overgrown with long grass and weeds. They have been erected completly out of the way and should be on the roundabout near to where they stood for over 100 years for us all to see.
I assume the local authority now own them and hopefully insure them, therefore the damage can be repaired.
The cost to repair and move would be approx £2000 according to my assumptions and I know of a sponsor that would meet half these costs so it is not a reason for the owners/council not to do the work ASAP, before they disappear for scap.
You can see the gates on http://www.patentshaft.com