Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 4935 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| ARMSTRONG PATENTS EAST GATE BEVERLEY SHOCK ABSORBER PRODUCTION CIRCA 1954 | c.1954 | 1951-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 17 mins 17 secs Subject: Industry Fashions |
| Summary This film was taken at Armstrong Factory in Beverley capturing a typical day in the factory. Armstrong’s was one of the main employers in Beverley, mainly manufacturing shock absorbers for international distribution. The film documents machinery and processes involved in the manufacture as well as the men and women who worked in the factory. |
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Description
This film was taken at Armstrong Factory in Beverley capturing a typical day in the factory. Armstrong’s was one of the main employers in Beverley, mainly manufacturing shock absorbers for international distribution. The film documents machinery and processes involved in the manufacture as well as the men and women who worked in the factory.
The film opens with a woman standing at a machine, and other workers can be seen in the background. This is followed by exterior scenes of the...
This film was taken at Armstrong Factory in Beverley capturing a typical day in the factory. Armstrong’s was one of the main employers in Beverley, mainly manufacturing shock absorbers for international distribution. The film documents machinery and processes involved in the manufacture as well as the men and women who worked in the factory.
The film opens with a woman standing at a machine, and other workers can be seen in the background. This is followed by exterior scenes of the Armstrong Patents Co. Ltd building. Cyclists pass one way on the road while cars pass in the opposite direction. Two women walk past a line of cars parked in front of the factory. More cyclists, traffic, and pedestrians pass by.
Inside the office main reception, there is a map of Beverley on the wall. A man, dressed in an RAF uniform, speaks to the woman at the front desk. Following this is footage taken from inside the factory itself. There are stacks of boxes or crates full of products, and members of the workforce are working at many different machines at various stages of the production line. There is very little space between the machines and workers on the factory floor. Additionally, the majority of the workforce is made up of women, many of whom wear colourful aprons and headscarves.
There are shots of the overall factory taken from an elevated position, and then from the floor level, there filmmaker captures individual aspects of the production process.
Outside the factory, there is a brief shot of pallets of the product have been stacked up. Two men are inside, and one of the men mixes the liquid metal. Once set, a man uses large tongs to remove the moulded product, and there is a close-up of the product. This is followed by more footage of the factory and different workers at machines.
Women workers are now drilling holes into the shock absorbers. Pieces of the shock absorber are piled up waiting for the next stage of the production process. The metal pieces move down the conveyor belt where other workers check and stack the product. They are then hung on a belt and taken up to the second floor where there are more machines and operators. Some of the footage is filmed in slow motion, and at this point in the process, the cylinders are polished.
Two women are seated at a table where they put together nuts and bolts, placing the finished product in a box. There is further small product assembly which takes place, all of which is done by hand. Another woman uses a machine to test or assemble small parts, and this is followed by footage of the cylinders being polished.
Now at a different stage of production, the women workers are wearing heavy rubber gloves to handle the product. Hole size is also tested.
Back to the small parts, further assembly takes place, and the assembled product moves down the production line. Flat metal pieces are assembled, and holes are drilled in larger pieces of metal. There is also close-up footage of this process. Women workers, again many of whom are dressed in colourful outfits, assemble parts of the shock absorbers making sure the joins are coated with oil. Larger pieces are assembled and placed in baskets.
A man is smoking a cigarette while he works at a machine which tests the strength of the shock absorbers. Once checked, the shock absorbers are hung on a conveyor belt, sprayed, and sent to be packaged. Women place cardboard wrapping around the finished product and pack them in boxes. Many tables are set up for the packaging part of the operation, and there are shots of boxes and larger wooded crates which will be shipped all over the world.
A man operating a forklift moves the crates into a loading bay and then onto a pick-up truck. This is followed by more male workers in the loading bay and exterior footage of the factory. The boxes are to be shipped internationally, and some locations include Melbourne, Spain, Zurich, Auckland, Montreal, and Chicago. One of the boxes also has the following address: W.E. Jacketts, 1 Birklands Dive, Hull.
Context
Armstrong Patents East Gate Beverley Shock Absorber Production Circa 1954, is one of two films donated to the YFA that focuses on the Armstrong Factory in Beverley, the other being Armstrong Patents East Gate Beverley Heli-Coil Division and Production. Both films were made by local film maker, W.E Jackets, a retired police inspector and who filmed these in his spare time.
This film is presumably a promotional one, meant to promote the hard work of the company and celebrate its success, and...
Armstrong Patents East Gate Beverley Shock Absorber Production Circa 1954, is one of two films donated to the YFA that focuses on the Armstrong Factory in Beverley, the other being Armstrong Patents East Gate Beverley Heli-Coil Division and Production. Both films were made by local film maker, W.E Jackets, a retired police inspector and who filmed these in his spare time.
This film is presumably a promotional one, meant to promote the hard work of the company and celebrate its success, and to celebrate what many considered was a local institution. The Armstrong factory enjoyed substantial success throughout the 1950s and was one of the main employers in Beverley for decades, repeatedly working at full pressure and by 1964 employed almost 2,000 men. What is abundantly clear from the film is that the Armstrong factory employed a vast amount of women workers, easily standing out from the drab machines in colourful aprons and headscarves. This should be of little surprise considering around one in two women of working age had a job in the 1950s. The Armstrong factory is a perfect example of the manufacturing industry in the 1950s; firstly the large amount of female workers is in no small part due to the deep labour shortages effecting post-war Britain. Essentially this means that despite the so-called ‘demobilisation’ of women in industry (making room in employment for men returning from the war) women could still work to help the post-war reconstruction effort and help meet its demand for more labour. Furthermore the growth of women workers is somewhat due to the government’s own campaigns to fill the labour shortages. Yet it is important to remember that just because women worked in factories alongside men, they were not treated as equals, far from it in fact, the very government literature made to entice women into work, highlighted their ‘feminine differences’. Moreover, the literature urged women to balance work and home life, lest their children suffer. ‘Maternal Deprivation’ as they called it, was a very real post war concern. John Bowlby’s works, in particular ‘Maternal Care and Mental Health’ enflamed anxieties over ‘latch-key’ kids and generally the effects of women working on their family. Official Government literature however, tended to skirt around this controversial topic, preferring to depict the jobs women held as small and insignificant, both to the economy and to the women’s lives. Sociologists note this as a woman’s dual burden, a balance between home and work life. At the time many women worked to improve their family’s standard of living, but this had to fit around the demands of the family, meaning part time work was often the best choice. In addition to personal reasons for women working, there were sound economic benefits too. Several studies from the 1950s and onwards show that part-timers were often more productive and cost less in comparison to full timers. Since they were already working part-time they were less likely to miss work entirely, and they cost less in benefits and bonuses. Yet despite the benefits, there was nothing like equality, the Equal Pay Act would not come into force until 1970, and female workers were and are often discriminated against even after the introduction of Sex Discrimination legislation. The women workers who evidently worked hard in the factories did so during a period of deeply entrenched sexism, with women still viewed by the traditional gender norm of a mother and housekeeper. The Armstrong Patents Company which owned the factory in 1954 is these days known as Armstrong Lyon Hydraulics ltd, following the purchase of James Lyons & Sons in 1972. As mentioned before both the factory and the company had substantial success, particularly in 1954 and a boom in the 1970s when it also opened factories in Canada and reported record profits. Many attribute Armstrong’s wellbeing and longevity to its strong local connections, for instance the founder Gordon Armstrong lived in Beverley and had a respectable record of public service. However the company would eventually go on to greatly struggle in the 1980s, as the British car industry severely declined. Also the company is no longer based in Beverley, instead operating from an industrial park near Liverpool. The Armstrong Factory had a long history before the film too. The aforementioned Gordon Armstrong first opened the Eastgate factory (seen in the film) in 1917, to provide additional space to his garage and workshop business. Prior to 1917, Armstrong had designed and built a car, which he manufactured up until the outbreak of The First World War, upon which he switched to producing tractors and munitions. It was in 1919 however when he first started to produce the shock absorbers, which would be the factory’s mainstay. The factory went from strength to strength, producing 200 shock absorbers a week and even garnering orders from the automobile powerhouse Ford. This led to the Eastgate factory being improved in 1938 as business had increased almost tenfold. When the Second World War came around, Armstrong produced around 4,000 shock absorbers a day, with a workforce of 450. Armstrong Patents co or Armstrong Lyon Hydraulics is arguably a success story of British industry since it managed to survive the general decline of British manufacturing of the 1970s and 80s. During the post war period, British manufacturing was at its peak, in part due to its involvement in the automobile industry. Following the end of the Second World War, the automobile industry boomed thanks to a build-up of consumer spending power since during the war the consumer market was essentially non-existent, when the markets opened and consumer goods such as cars and appliances were available, people flocked to buy them, especially in the United States which was far more prosperous. Armstrong Patents evidently benefitted from this, its shock absorbers and the women who made them, invaluable to the cars of the period. References Baggs, A P, L M Brown et al, 'Modern Beverley: Beverley after 1945.' A History of the County of York East Riding: Volume 6, the Borough and Liberties of Beverley. Armstrong Lyon Hydraulics Ltd, Our History, Our Vision. ‘Grace’s Guide’, British Industrial History, Armstrong’s patents Co. Penny Summerfield, Women in Britain since 1945: Companionate Marriage and the Double Burden1991 Becky Barrow, Workers in the 1950s worked longer hours in tougher conditions and with less holiday - so why were they happier than we are now?2012 Gains and Losses for Women after WWII, Striking Women and Work, Striking Women. Org Robert Skidelsk, Meeting our makers: Britain’s long industrial decline:The Slow Death of British Industry: a 60-Year Suicide, 1952-2012 - review.2013 |
