Much to our absolute delight, today we met Stanley Brown’s son George and his wife Mavis when they came to visit Underfall Yard. George remembered that his father’s apprenticeship had been at Llewellin and James foundry, which is profiled on Grace’s Guide. He also recalled memories of Uncle Bill who worked in the casting shop at Sampson’s on Malago Road, which is where Underfall Yard patterns were sent for casting. George remembers Uncle Bill as having very burnt hands.
George said that Stanley thought Bert Smith, Stanley’s manager, was “a wonderful bloke and a good boss”. Which is a good thing because a family connection was discovered when George and Mavis were first a couple: Mavis is the great-niece of Bert Smith! George said his father was living just off North Street when he worked at Underfall Yard and would walk to work up Mount Pleasant Terrance to the Cut and across Vauxhall Bridge to get to work. When George left home for National Service, his gave his bike to his father so that he could cycle to work. The family later moved to Lawrence Hill and it was during this time that Stanley began working at Avonmouth, which meant he could get the train directly to work.
George remembers going to the Brown family home on Langton Street near Redcliffe Church. He says on Christmas night the extended family would gather there and have “a right knees up”. The following day they would go to visit George’s mother’s parents which was “much more sedate”. Like Leonard, George remembers the stories of his father disrupting his sisters’ piano lessons. The piano teacher would count 1, 2, 3, 4 to keep time and Stanley would call out 5, 6, 7, 8 to put them off!
George also recalls that the Brown siblings were a close-knit family and that “Uncle Len and dad” had a particularly close bond. When they were older and both married they would go on holidays together. He said that due to his profession as an Engineer, Stanley did not go into the army but that Uncle Len did. When Len came home on leave George and his siblings were allowed to stay up late to see him.
We were delighted to take George and Mavis into the Machinery Workshops to visit Stanley’s old workplace.