PATTERNMAKING AT IHGB

At International Harvester I became more used to crafting metals than wood and what I was immersed in there would ultimately set me off on a career in mechanical engineering. Some of my close friends at IH, however, followed a different path altogether and honed their skills in patternmakers’ workshops, creating precise and often intricate shapes out of wood.

Background noise

Whilst acclimatising in the apprentice training school we were regularly shown around the huge factory site, a seemingly endless assortment of buildings, large and small, strung out along Wheatley Hall Road, Doncaster, for almost a mile. No stone was left unturned, the entire plant and most of its production activities were seen and their functions explained. We toured the foundry, machining shops, tractor assembly, the snagging area and dispatch, all departments bustling and infested with forklift trucks constantly running around hooting at everyone. In contrast, drawing offices, tool rooms and patternmaking shops offered an oasis of relative calm in all this