This film was made by Alec Whitehead, who, along with his two brothers, run the family firm that had been previously been run by his father, Claude, and before that, his grandfather, Julius.   We don’t know exactly when this film was made, but Alec’s brother Harold also made a film a few years later in 1940, when the Home Guard was formed and in which Harold was a Sergeant.  This film, which can also be seen here, was made with other members of the Bradford Cine Circle, of which Harold was a...

This film was made by Alec Whitehead, who, along with his two brothers, run the family firm that had been previously been run by his father, Claude, and before that, his grandfather, Julius.   We don’t know exactly when this film was made, but Alec’s brother Harold also made a film a few years later in 1940, when the Home Guard was formed and in which Harold was a Sergeant.  This film, which can also be seen here, was made with other members of the Bradford Cine Circle, of which Harold was a member , and which was made in 16mm Kodachrome –  see Formation Of The Homeguard, Thornton, Bradford (1939-1945).  With the 100th anniversary of the Titanic with us (April 2012), it is worth noting that a relative of the Whiteheads, Claude’s brother-in-law Harold Lowe, was an unsung hero when the Titanic went down (when Claude was manager of the firm).  Working on the ship, Harold rescued a number of people by lifeboat  –his character makes an appearance in the 1997 movie Titanic (the fascinating story can be read online, see References).

Evidence of pottery making in the West Riding area goes back as far as the Neolithic age, as fragments of pottery have been found from that period at Elbolton Cave, just outside of Thorpe, a few miles from the Whitehead pottery.  Indeed potteries were common throughout Yorkshire, as evidenced in Oxley Grabham’s book, Yorkshire potteries, pots and potters, published in 1916 – although those producing household and decorative items tend to get all the limelight.

Perhaps what is most fascinating about the film is the degree of skill that went into the making of such  a prosaic object as a sewage pipe.  Of course, there is plenty of back breaking work as well, but the film shows how much skill was required in making these pipes by hand – although clearly other clay items are made as well, such as chimneys and bird baths.  In this the film is worth viewing alongside that of another craftsman working in pottery, Isaac Button Country Potter (1963-65).  The YFA has other examples of skilled workers crafting items for sale – and not just craft objects – especially in steel: see Made In Sheffield (1954). 

It could be argued that this film has a more authentic feel about it than those made by the British Documentary Movement in the 1930s on working class life, despite their purported realism.   A few years before this film was made Robert Flaherty and John Grierson had made Industrial Britain (1931/32), which also showed a potter, as well as other craftsmen at work.  Yet whilst Industrial Britain was made under the auspices of the Britain’s Empire Marketing Board for the promotion of British goods, Pipes doesn’t appear to have any obvious agenda other than Whitehead thinking that it was an interesting and worthwhile thing to do.   Indeed, Industrial Britain presents several examples of craftsmen at work in the 1930s.  Yet although this shows that this type of work was still prevalent at that time, it is somewhat misleading as to its extent.  It might be argued that in attempting to reveal the dignity of work, the British Documentary Movement sometimes romanticised it.

The 1930s perhaps represent the last decade when hand-made items represented more than a small minority for a wealthy market.  Increasingly after the Second World War industrialisation finally caught up with many of those crafts that had managed to escape its clutches.  As automation and scientific management continued apace, there was little room for the kind of skills in evidence in this film.  A process described, in a US context, by Harry Braverman in his book Labor and Monopoly Capital.

In the place of this deskilling came new ideas of what constituted ‘skills’.  With the erosion of the place of manufacturing has come the ‘knowledge economy’, a term that has been traced back to the management guru Peter Drucker in his book The Age of Discontinuity, first published in 1969 (although he developed the concept of the ‘knowledge worker’ some ten years earlier).  Yet despite the explosion of new ‘skills’ for the new economy, there are those who argue that these fail to be a substitute for older skills, even where they are meaningful. 

Matthew Crawford and Richard Sennett are two such (References).  Sennett refers back to those like John Ruskin and William Morris, who urged the fundamental importance of the joining of head and hand in work.  Sennett argues that what defines craftsmanship is the desire to do the job for its own sake, and this is not just a matter of skill.  This tradition has recently been given a more scientific basis by Iain McGilchrist, who argues that the division between the intellect and the body reflects a division between the two hemispheres of the brain that can be detrimental to both the individual and society.  It is the right hemisphere that relates outward to the world, whereas the left is more inward and intellectual.  Making objects by hand brings the two together, whilst the split between manual and intellectual work breaks them apart. 

The small family business in this film operated in what might be considered more of a workshop than a factory.  Sennett states workshops are characterised by more face-to-face relations, and where authority is earned through experience and skill.  Of course, the workers in the film were not free to make whatever they wanted, and we will perhaps never know how much satisfaction they gained from their work, but it is a fair bet that it was much more than those who today produce plastic waste pipes.

The company is sadly no more with us, and neither is the works, off Brow Lane just to the west of Clayton.  However, the works chimney, built by Claude Whitehead in 1890, still stands as a fitting reminder of the potters.  Now a Grade II listed building, it can be seen in a photograph of the Geograp website (see References).  The caption underneath the photo notes that it was decorated – with a representation of the trophy – to commemorate the 1911 victory of Bradford City in the FA Cup.

References

Harry Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital, Monthly Review Press, New York, 1974.
Matthew Crawford, The Case for Working with Your Hands, Viking, 2010.
Oxley Grabham, Yorkshire potteries, pots and potters, Yorkshire Philosophical Society, 1916.
Irena Grugulis, Chris Warhurst and Ewart Keep, ‘What’s Happening to ‘Skill’?’, in The Skills That Matter, Chris Warhurst et al Editors, Palgrave MacMillan, 2004.
Heather Lawrence, Yorkshire Pots and Potteries, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1974.
Iain McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, Yale University Press, 2009.
Richard Sennett, The Craftsman, Penguin, 2009.
 

The F. A. Chimney
Rob Brown’s Story, BBC Archives
Liz Bolshaw, The future of work is the knowledge economy
Harold Lowe