Page 24 - High Duty Alloys

Redditch Heritage High Duty Alloys

Keeping Redditch Awake

‘The Big Hammer’, as it was known, could be heard to a considerable radius all over the
town when it was working, not surprising really when 29tons of steel was falling onto a
steel anvil weighing 90 tons. In fact (according to Ian Hayes who wrote to the Redditch
Standard about the hammer last month) the hammer was responsible for many more
sleepless nights in Redditch than was the Luftwaffe. The power of the Erie hammer
eventually wrecked its own foundations and it was moved in 1941 to the new factory at
Distington, bring replaced at Redditch by an 18 tonner mounted on the same spot which
was only retired in the early 1990s.

So Devereux, who was
always based at Slough, had
set High Duty Alloys on its
way, but he also proved to
be a great leader. Devereux
was an ebullient charismatic
type who had that ability to
get the best and maximum
effort form his staff. A big
help was that "Dev" thanks
to his engineering training,
was as good a furnace-
hand, moulder, caster and
press worker as anybody. I
was told that each time the
Allies won a major victory,
junior staff received an
extra five shillings, senior
staff more than that; actions
which certainly fit the
character. Extra payment
always came to those who
worked over when finishing
an urgent job and, should
the situation arise, a lift in
his Rolls-Royce car was
always available.

The 29 ton Hammer manufacturing jet engine impeller. Big deal you might say, but

in general few employees
possessed a car in the war
years. Travel would be by
bus, train, cycle or foot and, as noted already, a trip home on a cold winters night in the
blackout cannot have been much fun (both 1940 and 1941 had particularly severe
winters). There were plenty at the Redditch factory who lived miles out of town. For many
the bus was the main form of transport and forty years later the destination signs along

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