WEEKLY DIGEST

A master shirtmaker in Kent (S.E.H Kelly)

Tools for Everyday Life from Northumbria University (Sight Unseen)

Information on Birmingham Made Me, a showcase of products made in the West Midlands (Pashley News)

Scotch is big business - Diageo said to be investing £1bn (FT)

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Photo from S.E.H Kelly

INDUSTRIAL BRITAIN : A FILM BY JOHN GRIERSON & ROBERT FLAHERTY (1931)

Industrial Britain - John Grierson (1933)

We really enjoyed this 1931 documentary on the industrial revolution by John Grierson. It covers a range of craftsmen and their work - from the potter William Davenport Cotton to the steel workers of the shipyards.

If you desire a higher quality version of this film there is a DVD (which includes approximately 40 similar films from the era), entitled Land of Promise available from the BFI.

Footnote: Apologies for having to click on the link to get to the film, the embed code doesn't appear to work.

Image of Mr Grierson from here

FOCUS ON MIDDLESBROUGH: STEELY DETERMINATION?

This came from an unexpected source: The London Review of Books. A piece by Joanna Biggs, entitled 'On Teeside' gives an insight into the economic struggles of the area post-manufacturing boom.

In the article, Biggs meets Jane Atkinson, who runs the Wilton chemical plant. Atkinson, born in Middlesbrough, was the first woman in the UK to manage a blast furnace. She believes manufacturing in the UK is not dead, 'just deserted by young people who don't want to be engineers,' (according to Ms. Biggs.)

'Talking to people about the processes industry, people don't think we have one any more, because they're just ignorant of it,' says Tom Blenkinsop, Labour MP for Middlesbrough who Ms. Biggs spoke to in Westminster.

Photo from ralph&dot's Flickr

A GOOD QUOTE OR TWO FROM NIGEL CABOURN

'I've got a real integrity to what I do. I make everything in England, which isn't easy these days. It's a labour of love.'

'I'm not really interested in doing things that don't work in the long term. All of the fabrics I use are really wonderful, really practical. It's clothing for men, after all.'

Taken from a short piece featuring Mr. Nigel Cabourn in GQ Essentials / Autumn+Winter 2010.

Image from Journal de Nimes