Factory Closure Ends Era.
As the last lead balloon goes down the conveyor belt, at Low & Sons Ltd. owner Reginald Low looks visibly shaken. “I never thought I’d see the day.” He says ruefully. But that day has come for this family firm in Barnsley with over one hundred and fifty years of history. The factory is to close with the loss of at least 30 jobs, as the market in lead balloons, cast iron stomachs, and small packets containing the last straw has collapsed.
He shows us one of the cancelled orders for pictures each individually packed with a thousand words, a shelf containing chocolate teapots, black pots and black kettles, and then piles of dirty laundry to be aired in public. Surplus albatrosses hang from metal beams, ready for someone’s neck. He picks up a packet of all fingers and thumbs, dating from the nineteen twenties, “A very popular line then.” He says ruefully as he gives me a paper bag containing ants ready added to pants. Over at the fireplace he sadly stokes a few old flames which will have to be extinguished soon.
Competition from China and changing markets is blamed for the death of England’s last Idiom factory which in its heyday exported to every corner of the British Empire.
Local News.
Bungalow suicide bungler Bill Sparrow has finally accepted defeat after attempting yet another bid for oblivion from his living room window. “This place is just not suitable for me, I’ve asked the council to rehouse me in a tower block and they flatly refused. It takes an amazing amount of time and effort to psyche myself up for the bid and each time it ends in the marigold border no worse for wear.”
Friends and neighbours have kindly clubbed together to buy Bill a ticket to Beachey head, but he says he has mixed feelings about this. “When I heard they were fundraising for the ticket I was touched, I know how much coach travel costs these days. But then I decided I wanted to wait awhile and keep the money they presented to me, to see how things shaped up with other opportunities, and then everyone got a bit annoyed when I said I wasn’t going.”
A neighbour who wishes to stay anonymous told us, “We did a raffle and a half marathon around the village, there’s a collection jar in the pub too, to raise the funds for him, and we feel like Bill has cheated us, we raised the money in good faith and we believe he spent it not on the ticket but in the Rose and Crown.” But Bill denies this, “The money I spent in the pub was legitimate beer money, although I did supplement a round from the collection jar on the bar.”
So as it stands there will be no more leaps into the unknown for Bill Sparrow, until maybe Christmas 2010.
As the last lead balloon goes down the conveyor belt, at Low & Sons Ltd. owner Reginald Low looks visibly shaken. “I never thought I’d see the day.” He says ruefully. But that day has come for this family firm in Barnsley with over one hundred and fifty years of history. The factory is to close with the loss of at least 30 jobs, as the market in lead balloons, cast iron stomachs, and small packets containing the last straw has collapsed.
He shows us one of the cancelled orders for pictures each individually packed with a thousand words, a shelf containing chocolate teapots, black pots and black kettles, and then piles of dirty laundry to be aired in public. Surplus albatrosses hang from metal beams, ready for someone’s neck. He picks up a packet of all fingers and thumbs, dating from the nineteen twenties, “A very popular line then.” He says ruefully as he gives me a paper bag containing ants ready added to pants. Over at the fireplace he sadly stokes a few old flames which will have to be extinguished soon.
Competition from China and changing markets is blamed for the death of England’s last Idiom factory which in its heyday exported to every corner of the British Empire.
Local News.
Bungalow suicide bungler Bill Sparrow has finally accepted defeat after attempting yet another bid for oblivion from his living room window. “This place is just not suitable for me, I’ve asked the council to rehouse me in a tower block and they flatly refused. It takes an amazing amount of time and effort to psyche myself up for the bid and each time it ends in the marigold border no worse for wear.”
Friends and neighbours have kindly clubbed together to buy Bill a ticket to Beachey head, but he says he has mixed feelings about this. “When I heard they were fundraising for the ticket I was touched, I know how much coach travel costs these days. But then I decided I wanted to wait awhile and keep the money they presented to me, to see how things shaped up with other opportunities, and then everyone got a bit annoyed when I said I wasn’t going.”
A neighbour who wishes to stay anonymous told us, “We did a raffle and a half marathon around the village, there’s a collection jar in the pub too, to raise the funds for him, and we feel like Bill has cheated us, we raised the money in good faith and we believe he spent it not on the ticket but in the Rose and Crown.” But Bill denies this, “The money I spent in the pub was legitimate beer money, although I did supplement a round from the collection jar on the bar.”
So as it stands there will be no more leaps into the unknown for Bill Sparrow, until maybe Christmas 2010.
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