Cooksons Leadworks Part 2

A Memory of Newburn.

1965. During my time working here I carried out a number of different jobs, one was to make Zinc ingots, my shift would start with my furnace fired up and there next to it would be my "charge" this would be a pile of old Zinc ornaments the sort you will see on antiques road show now, there was every size of every subject, some damaged some not, we were allowed to buy stuff that came in at scrap value but these ornaments were not in favour. I remember buying brand new pans that came in straight from the factory as seconds with maybe a scratch or a small dent these were purchased for small change through the accounts office. Another job I did was working on the baler, this was a three man team on two 12 hour shifts night and day, I became the charge hand in our team. The baler was a huge press about 6 feet long 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep it had a huge solid thick steel lid and a ram inside, these were worked by hydraulics which I used to guide the actions, when sent the lid down by one lever I would move forward the ram with another, this would squeeze the aluminium into a one hundred weight bails that we would stack up in piles, and we were paid bonus by the amount we turned out. The scrap aluminium would come in from various scrap yards and tipped beside the baler, we would have things like a half size tin bath to collect up the scrap from the mountain behind us and pile into the baler back breaking work but the dosh was good. We often found silver items amongst this scrap, like cigarette cases and ornaments etc. In fact I still have a vester match case, a bit beat up and not worth much but a memory of those times. Little Tommy Addison was in my team and one night we found a pair of greyhound ornaments, we spun a coin as to who would keep the pair a cost of a tenner I think it was, anyway Tommy won he gave me the tenner and to this day I don't know what he did with them or how much if he sold them did he get, perhaps I don't want to know. We found Pewter ornaments in this stuff as well and Tommy and me melted some down into an ingot, Tommy took it to a dealer who wouldn't buy it cos we lost the identity number when we melted it!!! The biggest smelter in our side was the one that made large ingots, the scrap was loaded into the furnace with silicone, copper, and a stuff called Sodium. This was a chemical that was like grey plasticine it was in bars about 9" long and 1.5" x 1.5" square this in turn was encased in silver foil. I don't know who told me this stuff exploded if in contact with water but they were right. Me pal Bob was the foreman on the smelter and he used to turn a blind eye when I used to borrow a bit, it was great if it had been raining and we were coming off night shift and the day shift were coming in through the yards, they were all half asleep but us younguns soon woke them up as they passed a pool, a little bit of Sodium slipped in to the water would go of in a bang and sparks would explode in the air, I don't know why we were never reported as the sack would of been inevitable. There were security men in the gate house where we clocked in and out and we could be searched at random due to the precious metals in this place, white metal and Tin were heavily secured and the security men would patrol every hour and turn a key at certain points which registered they had been there. One night the shift had just began and the big smelter was about to start filling the huge circle of moulds which was automated and the foreman at this time was Alec Corbett from Kenton, he stood above the moulds which had all been oiled to stop the ingots sticking but had to be dry once the metal was poured in. He held the small reservoir and started his pour, an explosion went off and the moulting metal blew into his face, he was rushed to hospital but alas lost an eye and had some nasty scarring over his face, but Alec came back to work and had a job on light duties and I'm sure he was there till it closed. I used to see him now and again as he lived in the area I live and we pass the time of day but I've not seen him for a few years. Another job I had here was driving little trucks around the yards, these were called Shelvokes and were originally bin wagons from Bridlington, they were the old type that were rounded at the back with lids that were half round and these were pushed up to empty the dustbins in and pulled closed when on the move. well these had the top lids cut off and were like a pick up. They were petrol and had an accelerator and a brake, no cab, a seat in the centre and two brass handles each side of the seat, one you used to crash gears and the other was to steer. These were used to carry the bails up to a compound above the factory where they were stored then brought back when for the charge for the furnace, Bah could I throw these things around. Well I felt I needed to move on and it was back to the smoke, I took me mate Micky Mathews with me, that's another story.

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