Looking through a 1951 Birkenhead official guide, I found this list of the town’s industries ...

Agricultural implements
Albumen
Animal slaughtering
Batteries
Belting for machinery
Boatbuilding
Boiler composition
Brassfounding
Brewing
Brickmaking
Building
Cabinetmaking
Cattle foods
Coachbuilding
Commercial vehicle bodies
Confectionery
Cooperage
Display figures
Electroplating
Enamel
Engineering (constructional, electrical, marine, mechanical, motor, refrigeration)
Fat refining
Flockmaking
Furniture
Garment making
Gelatine
Glue
Grease
Hosiery
Hoists
Instrument making
Ironfounding
Joinery
Lard
Leaded lights
Leather
Lubricating oil
Machinery
Meat packing
Meat extract
Metal containers
Milling
Mineral waters
Neon lights
Packaging
Packing cases
Paint
Panel beating
Precast concrete
Press tools
Printing and publishing
Pulley blocks
Quilts
Sailmaking
Saw milling
Sheet metal work
Shipbuilding
Ship furnishings
Ship repairing
Stationery
Stearine
Tallow refining
Tapestry
Ticket printing
Tiles
Tin box printing
Toys
Varnish
Ventilation systems
Yachtbuilding

... the publishers have been careful to include the type of firms who took out adverts in the guide, so it may not cover every industry.

However, it certainly illustrates how thriving and diverse the town’s industrial base was in its heyday - all that local skill and talent going into actually making things or providing useful services. And, of course, many other areas of Wirral had their own share of factories and manufacturers.

Does anyone have any memories of working in the industries that are listed? And how many of the industries are still going?

Both myself and zigzagwanderer worked in foundries,so that covers ironfounding and brassfounding. When I started my apprenticeship at the start of the 80's, there were 3 such companies in Birkenhead.
Est1892, MARSDEN, John, CHS, Birkenhead, (& Sons), brassfounders, 134 Bridge Street
SMM (Managanese Bronze)Dock Road, CH41 and one that I am sure Phil will answer for me as I have forgotten the name but were by the Dock pub and the building is still called the foundry.
By the mid 80's, only SMM Propellers survived which only did brassfounding and now this has gone as well. Photo's of which are on a separate link on the site

If this works, it is a link to a picture of Laird St in 1972 from another thread.

This is where the ticket priniting works was, they were called Auto Tickets Birkenhead.

They produced Bell Punch type tickets, so called as the machine punched a hole into the correct section and a bell rang to signify that it had been done.

They also produced Ultimate machine rolls.

https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums...656754/gonew/1/Laird_st_1972.html#UNREAD

and if this has also worked there should be two examples of the tickets they produced.

The one by the Dock (which , if memory serves had a licence to open at 4.30 , most other pubs opened at 5.00 or 5.30) was Gordon Allisons . I worked there as well as those mentioned by Cameraman & started my time in a small foundry called Turners next to the Angel .

This is an advert for Gordon Alison's from the 1951 official guide.

And an advert for Marsden's from a later guide, around 1958.

Knew you would remember Phil. Didn't the Whittle brothers work there as well. I still remember the story about the rat trapped in the bottom of either a load of moulding boxes or sand riddles that had a grizzly end !
Thanks for the posts as well Yoller

The rat incident happened in Marsdens , Tomo (a horrible old git) would bait an overturned riddle & trap a rat in it . What he did next isn't fit for discussion on a public forum .

Both Johnny & Tom worked in Gordon Alisons , as did their father-in-law , Frank .

Nice ads Yoller , thanks for sharing .

Mike , don't suppose you've managed to find a photo of me working have you - must be as rare as hens teeth !

Been renovating the house mate. I have got about 10,000 + negs and slides that I need to convert to digital from the past 30 years in no real order. I will come across them one day. My new years resolution was to sort it this year. I was in SMM just before Christmas as I was fitting a pcb onto their Bosch dishwasher as they all need a design mod. Only about 5 people work there now in the design department. Showed them the link on Flickr and met Don Quilliam. He's the MD now. So sad to see it run down so much

Precision Engineering is deffo going down the pan on the Wirral.

Might be wrong but think Auto Tickets used to be Victory Kidder, top engineering employer and lots of apprenticeships carried out there. All sad losses to the town.

Victory-Kidder advert, 1951.

We used to have similar tickets for staff at Laird street bus depot, they were called "E" tickets and the conductor was supposed to tear it in half, can't remember how many were in the booklet but was really glad when they introduced the free bus pass for all staff including garage staff.

PB

Hard to believe in this day and age that someone (Don Quilliam) would still be working in the same company that he served his apprenticeship in ....SMM ...it must be close to 45 yrs......surprised that one can still find companies that still value committment and loyalty
Thanks for the info on the fact that SMM has a link .....will have to check it out.

Perhaps they have shown him enough commitment and loyalty to keep him there that amount of time?

I can remember ribbing Zigzagwanderer at SMM that that all the founderies he worked at closed after he started.
I can remember one of the moulders from Marsdens [I think it was Barry] opening a small foundry in one of the units at SMM.
He used to come into the Pattern shop & get small jobs done.
I seem to remember that he made the castings for the spiral staircase in Leasowe lighthouse when it was refurbished.

I worked in Turners for a year before it closed , the Gordon Alisons for a year & then that closed , I worked at Marsdens for a year , that was still open when I left but closed a little while later . I then went to SMM for a few years , it was looking shakey when I left but it did survive a few years longer . Don't think there were any foundries left on Merseyside by the time I'd finished with them ......

BTW k , any sign of that SMM DVD yet ?