Old Leeds Firms

Bert · Post by **Bert** » Tue 27 Jul, 2010 9:32 pm

Does anyone remember the Whitbread brewery at Kirkstall? Is it still there or has it vanished? I worked there for two weeks after leaving school in 1962 to get enough cash to get to London to take up a job there. We started work so early that we had our first break for breakfast, with which we were allowed a free half pint. At lunchtime (sorry - dinnertime) we were allowed another free pint, and after knocking off in the evening we were allowed another two free pints before going home. My job was unloading the crates of empty Forest Brown bottles coming back from the pubs. You always found loads of full ones come back by mistake, and provided you showed them to the foreman so he could split the labels to check the production date on the back (ostensibly to make sure they were still fit to drink but I suspect really to make sure you hadn't nicked them from an outbound new crate) you could take them home - I seldom went home with less than half a dozen. They brewed Mackeson there, the men who worked on it amusing themselves (when not enjoying an illicit pint while playing cards in secret hides created inside crate mountains) by throwing the occasional bottle of it at walls where they exploded like bombs. If you were nice to the lads filling the bitter barrels with pressure hoses, they'd wind down the pressure and fill your glass for you if you 'forgot' that you'd left it on their windowsill. I think my long slide towards p***artistry must have started there, just days after leaving school. Its still accelerating.

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Wed 28 Jul, 2010 12:01 am

[quotenick="Bert"]Does anyone remember the Whitbread brewery at Kirkstall? Is it still there or has it vanished? Many round here wish it HAD vanished (or at rather not suffered the fate that it has) Bert - after ceasing production of beer and laying empty for a while it was converted into student accommodation. Now the area is swamped with irresponsible boozers and litter louts, and the standard of driving by many, but of course not all, of the Brewery occupants is deplorable.

Bert · Post by **Bert** » Wed 28 Jul, 2010 10:16 am

Sorry Blakey. Must say though that unless there was a pretty radical change in its management, organisation and work ethic in the years after I left, I'm not surprised it didn't survive. I suppose its quite fitting really though that the site is still producing (edited for content) artists by the sound of it.

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Wed 28 Jul, 2010 10:48 pm

Wonderful Bert LOL LOL - your description of the present use of the premises (planning permission for change of use presumably not needed) had me falling off the chair - and only a meagre glass of sherry has passed MY lips today - honest LOL LOL

grumpybloke · Post by **grumpybloke** » Sat 02 Oct, 2010 5:52 pm

There hasn't been much mention of the clothing manufacturing industry in Leeds, one of the main things it was built on. Burton's with 1000 machinists in their own little "town" in Harehills, Hepworth's, Hepton's, Price, Centaur, Chas.Barker, Berwin (ok still there, but they don't make anything in Leeds), Blackburn's, Roscoe, Coss & Morris, H.Brown, Louis Jacobs,the list goes on and on... What a shame there are only a handful of people in clothing manufacture these days. I remember when "nobbut a lad" seeing several columns of clothing operative jobs in the YEP every night. I bet they don't even have that category now.

Post by **chameleon** » Sat 02 Oct, 2010 8:02 pm

grumpybloke wrote: There hasn't been much mention of the clothing manufacturing industry in Leeds, one of the main things it was built on. Burton's with 1000 machinists in their own little "town" in Harehills, Hepworth's, Hepton's, Price, Centaur, Chas.Barker, Berwin (ok still there, but they don't make anything in Leeds), Blackburn's, Roscoe, Coss & Morris, H.Brown, Louis Jacobs,the list goes on and on... What a shame there are only a handful of people in clothing manufacture these days. I remember when "nobbut a lad" seeing several columns of clothing operative jobs in the YEP every night. I bet they don't even have that category now. There was this amongst many others -http://www.secretleeds.co.uk/forum/Mess ... ighLight=1

Bert · Post by **Bert** » Sat 02 Oct, 2010 8:08 pm

Dead right Grumpybloke. I remember in the 1950s and 60s riding to school on the tram from Crossgates down York Road every day passing one clothing factory after another once you got past the Shaftesbury - Sumries, Burtons, Hepworths etc. My Mam worked for more than one of them over the years as a seamstress, ditto her brother, my uncle, as a cutter. I expect not one of them is there today.

anthonydna · Post by **anthonydna** » Sat 02 Oct, 2010 10:13 pm

Talking of York Road, does anyone know anything about Rosser and Russel? my Grandad used to work there, 1930's to 80's, I visited him a couple of times after school and from memory would reckon it was somewhere behind where Great Clothes is now.

Post by **chameleon** » Sat 02 Oct, 2010 10:51 pm

Bert wrote: Dead right Grumpybloke. I remember in the 1950s and 60s riding to school on the tram from Crossgates down York Road every day passing one clothing factory after another once you got past the Shaftesbury - Sumries, Burtons, Hepworths etc. My Mam worked for more than one of them over the years as a seamstress, ditto her brother, my uncle, as a cutter. I expect not one of them is there today. Think it was Sumries which had a large circular window overlooking York Road, think it was the staff kitchens - always seemed to hvave happy faces of ladies in their whites looking out when it was open - probably the nearest they got to ventilation to keep cool!

liits · Post by **liits** » Sat 02 Oct, 2010 11:10 pm

Wasn’t the building with the round windows [one at either end] Heptons – made rain coats, I think. I seem to remember the building was pulled down, but, seemingly, so has most of the Leeds that I knew, judging by my last visit.