NextBackComing to work in Redditch in 1959 at the age of 20. The company I joined was The British Needles Co. in Peakman Street. And the corner of Queens Street. My job was to set up the machines that stick the finished needles into the special paper or cloth and these were then glued into the printed packets to go into the shops to be sold. In Peakman Street there was a small Fish & Chip shop, I think called “Tolley's”. There was also a small shop that sold Ladies Clothes, Knitting Wools and Pins etc.
Over the next eight years I moved into management and carried out training in almost all of the processes and jobs involved in the business. I remember that Princess Margaret visited Redditch and as part of that visit she toured through the British Needles Co. Ltd. I do not remember the exact year, but it was probably between 1965 and 1968.
I left the Needle Industry for a few years, but returned to “British Needle Co.” as works manager 191974. At this time the works were due to be demolished as part of the development of Redditch College, I think as an extension of the Car Park.
The company had been brought by Abel Morrall and we had to move all the works into a new building in Edward Street. This building is the large whitish brick building. The building that the main Abel Morrall business was in ran along side the railway line and was mostly destroyed by fire in January 1979.
The knitting Pin manufacturing was moved to a unit at Lakeside and the offices and warehousing being built at the bottom of Edward Street as is now. Various commercial decisions saw the British Needle Company move to a unit on the Enfield Estate and then being absorbed by Needle Industries in Studley.
