Firth Brown Photographic Unit

April 2, 2023

Firth Brown Photographic unit

It may come as a surprise to some that, at one time, large companies had their own photographic departments – pre digital of course - and the Sheffield steel industry was no exception. Both English Steel (now Sheffield Forgemasters) and Firth Brown Ltd had their own photographers and printers. That at English Steel was headed up by one Alan Faulkner-Taylor and Firth Brown's by Stan Thorpe, later, by the very likeable Mr. Jack Dalton. Initially this unit was concerned with producing photo prints from the negatives made within the research laboratories via microscopy &c and were always under the jurisdiction of the Brown Firth Research labs. As the company grew, and many satellites added, then the need for a more comprehensive facility, allied to their publicity department's requirements, became obvious and thus the department grew into a full-blown studio, film making and colour printing set up.

(see the Yorkshire film archive https://www.yfanefa.com/record/6573)

There was a small well-equipped cinema in the old research labs building on Princes Street before the then new laboratory was built on Attercliffe Road (and opened by the chairman of Rolls Royce). At the time of writing,this building, in a rather sorry state, remains to let.

Over the years a vast and priceless collection of photographs was built up which showed the steel making processes and their finished products. Moreover, the company produced it's own in-house magazine "Firth Brown News" which catered for the staff and also acted as a link with the company's customers. Many of the more important of these negatives and plates were, I believe, rescued by Kelham Island Industrial Museum but of the thousands available I guess they only retained a small proportion of the most historically important of these.

The department was located off Norroy Street (between Princes Street and Saville Street) and was underground, which prevented any problems with daylight! Unlike the Firth Brown Medical Centre, on Carlise Street, which has been the subject of many Urban explorer videos which reside on YouTube, (and which, incidentally, had the company's small bore .22 rifle range above it - wonderful!) the photographic department was once a casualty clearing centre in the war and was a rabbit warren of rooms, part of which housed the research lab's creep laboratory as a separate entity. There was an escape hatch, replete with iron ladder in the cine editing suit which emerged in what was the director’s garage above!

Access to the department was by a steeply sloping ramp, large enough to allow trucks to back down, so necessary when large items of lighting equipment had to be moved to filming and photography locations both in Sheffield and elsewhere.

The latter included Firth Brown Tools, Firth Vickers Stainless Steels, Firth Brown Castings (Scunthorpe), Firth Derihon Stampings (which had a factory on Dunlop Street and later, next to the old tram sheds on Attercliffe Road and also at Darley Dale, this being a "shadow factory" in the war and hence out in Derbyshire, and which produced forgings for Rolls Royce for Spitfires &c), and Shepcote Lane Rolling Mills. Darley Dale plant is still operational, albeit under foreign ownership – surprise!

When I joined the department in 1963, from Photofinishers at Nether Edge (see:https://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/topic/15196-photo-finishers-sheffield-ltd-50-years-ago/#comment-129921) there were eight or nine working here. The large studio was custom designed for the photography of stainless steel products and painted all white with recessed lighting in the ceiling, the better to shoot cutlery and associated kitchenware produced from Firth Vickers's steels.

The latter company also had a house magazine (curiously named "Enchiridion") which required our photographic content.

One of the more onerous jobs – albeit fairly rare – was photography of accident scenes, which is no surprise when one looks at the shop floor employees on film displaying not a trace of PPE gear we are so used to seeing these days. Usually, we were called out early in the mornings when breakfast had not been thoroughly digested! The odd fingertip in a machine was tolerable but there were some really nasty ones.

There were essentially four darkrooms, one for processing film and plates, one for making contact prints from the main research labs' microscopy and one for making enlargements: another for the colour processing. There was also a large room housing an impressive Barcro camera on rails, for copying material up to something like six by eight feet, which was backlit as well as having two trough lights.

All this with the requisite huge stainless wash sinks, glazing machine and trimming table.

As for equipment, this included some fine old Gandolfi plate cameras from half plate up to whole plate in size (8.5" x 6.5"), MPP 5" x 4" technical cameras, Rollieflex and Rolliecord film cameras. The cine department depended on Bolex 16mm cameras together with the necessary editing gear. The only out of house process was the professionally produced narration. The resultant films were a tribute to Reg Frost who specialized in this film making operation. A POW in the war he amusingly came up at work with the odd German exclamations learnt at the camp and which I can recall to this day. Sadly, he was, one day, found hanging half out of his VW Beetle, having suffered a fatal heart attack on the way to work.

The magnificent main entrance area to the Firth Brown offices on Savile Street displayed 60"x40" colour transparencies, suitable mounted within custom made back lit cabinets (from the joiners' shop) and which were printed in the department. Notable too, was the beautifully panelled entrance hall at Firth Vickers, on Weedon Street, whole whole area now a sad cleared area.

The centre of the works was bisected by the railway to the Wicker goods yard, but upon the latter’s demise, this was reinstated as a roadway. The modern Special Melted Products Ltd appears to remain the last survivor on site from those days of yesteryear.

I worked there for 17 years and in 1980 when I left, the company was more or less finished, mainly as the result of a takeover by a man - who will remain nameless- who was regarded as an asset stripper, the "Old guard" having slowly left by degrees. This was perhaps expedited by a very serious accident in a newly completed electric melting shop, which resulted in rivers of liquid steel escaping and the resultant fire which quickly followed.

It is probable that in some form this underground complex still exists because the old red sliding entrance doors have been replaced with a modern roller shutter type and what used to be the directors garage area round the corner both have a notice that the property belongs to Castle Brooke Tools (carbide). Moreover, around the corner on Saville Street is a blue doorway which used to be the entrance the handy Saville Street post office. Of the Lord Nelson pub on Norroy street, adjacent to the photo lab entrance, and watering hole for many a thirsty furnaceman, unsurprisingly not a trace remains!

April 2, 2023

I also worked for a company which was an earlier victim of the same “ nameless” man!…..although, to be fair, the writing on the wall was already there…for those who cared to look