Jack Nicolls
Jack talks about
working for Gillett and Johnston:
"After the war
it was amazing how the work came in,
because all the bells and clocks
were silenced through the war
and the only reason
they would have been allowed to be rung
was in the case of invasion,
and therefore
they deteriorated a lot."
"By the mid 50s
the work was just falling in,
we couldn't keep up with it.
You had to be a jack of all trades,
and master of all of them.
I've been through the foundry
and done casting, sandblasting,
machining, drilling, turning,
and hanging of the bells.
And we used to do our own brickwork,
bricking in the new bell frames
and clock frames."
"We were always outside,
erecting bells,
cleaning clock faces.
The bell work was very hard work,
rolling the bells up the church paths
and lifting the bells.
The women did what we called fettling,
cleaning up castings;
they were all on piece work there.
This might sound strange
from a clockman,
but we're too far advanced these days,
we're getting too technical now.
I think we should turn the clock back
just a little."
