L.B. Holliday and Co., Limited
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Raymond Malik.
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4 March 2021 at 1:29 pm #7044
This topic is for discussing the following page on Huddersfield Exposed:
L.B. Holliday and Co., Limited
URL: https://huddersfield.exposed/page/9261
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5 March 2021 at 8:33 am #7046I was an 11+ failure but shone later and only failed the Late Developer exam by half a point which would have sent me to Royds Hall Grammar School.
Despite this I had some wonderful teachers at Crow Lane Secondary who gave me an interest in science and maths.
I can still see the look of horror on the face of the careers bod who tried to guide me to work in t’mill when I said I wanted to work in science.
I did well in my YCFE (Yorkshire Council for Further Education) exams and got the chance to take GCE’s at the Tech in Huddersfield, I was only 15 just after the term started and was a little overwhelmed by the freedom after school.
I didn’t do well but did get my GCE’s in Chemistry and Maths which lead to a job at L. B. Holliday’s, not quite I.C. I. but at least in science.
I worked in Dr. Manheim’s anthraquinone lab for three years until as many of my compatriots who got reasonable certificates which meant we should have got a pay rise.
This wasn’t in the L.B.H. song book as it was cheaper to let us go and employ cheaper starters from school, I got a job with a Colne Valley dye house as a lab technician working out dyeing recipes for bulk production.
I eventually went on to run a successful department of a local commercial dying company of multiple raw fibres.
While L. B. Holliday’s did teach me some of the skills needed for my future career I do not look on them as anything other than a company that exploited its staff.
As a technical dyer until I retired 12 years ago the fact that a large majority of my former colleagues worked for L. B.’s is testament to how they trained people and them and discarded them when qualified so as to save money.11 December 2021 at 10:39 am #7518I also worked in the Anthraquinone plant converting Anthacene using Chromium Oxide dissolved in Sulphuric acid as I recall. The spent liquor was then converted back in a plant using electrolysis. Working in the lab doing sample tests involving endless titration under the direction of Mr Clarke. The Anthracene was ground to a fine powder in mills and the subsequent effect of this dust on workers was to cause a burning sensation on the skin when exposed to heat or sunlight.
In particular I remember the Works Manager, Alec Lodge who had a small office near the laundry on the site.
Mr Holliday kept racehorses which where transported in horseboxes painted dark green and parked on site. As I recall the treatment given to his horses was better than that received by his workers. Frankly, the environment we worked in during the late sixties and seventies would have shamed a Victorian sweatshop.
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