Jim Duncan
Jim belongs to: The Doxford Engine Friends Association
Jim was born in Sunderland in 1943. He followed his father into Doxford's. He began his apprenticeship in December 1959.
Jim was interviewed by Kylea Little on 24 January 2006. The interview took place at the Interviewee's living room and lasted 1 hour, 16 minutes and 2 seconds.
Working in the Tool Room
"I completed my apprenticeship and the foreman Jack Madison offered me a job at the end of that"
I completed my apprenticeship and the foreman Jack Madison offered me a job at the end of that. He said, “I think you’ve done enough now to warrant a job. Would you like to work on the centre lathe?” he said, “because Charlie Haswell is retiring.” And I got his job, so he retired about three months after I’d finished my apprenticeship and for those three months I just worked with him, finding out how to do the job, the jobs that he was doing.
And for the next 11 years, I worked most of the machines doing basic stuff, you know, doing all the tool room stuff. We made every tool; drills, taps, we made them, we, we didn’t have to buy them in, we went and just made a special tool, special tool for a particular job. We made jigs, this is, a jig is just a piece of equipment that you can use over and over and over again, you want 12 holes in a round flange or whatever it is, you can make one jig and just put it over the top of the flange and drill the holes and they’ll come out exactly the same. So we did all that, we progressed the job. And I worked on most of the machinery. When somebody was absent or somebody was ill, I got the job of filling in.
Jim has 14 memories in the memorynet:
Jim's memories with a Relationships theme:
Jim's other memories:
Starting at Doxford's- The Doxford master plan
- Working in the Tool Room
- Training the apprentices and the closure of Doxford's
- Value of Doxford apprenticeship
- The apprentice strike
- Leaving Doxford's
The Doxford Ship Yard- Aerial view of the Doxford Works and the River Wear
- A ship being launched
- A Doxford engine
- Model of a Doxford engine
This memory has these themes:
Change | Roles and Routines | Skills | Training | Work
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