FEATURE
PART TWO
Robinson & Sons even had a ‘prep school’ in the Sixties! In the second of his studies of Robinson & Sons in the Sixties, Godfrey Holmes celebrates Robo’s Angels...
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IFTY-SEVEN years ago, pioneering packaging company Robinson of Goyt Side, Chesterfield, continued to prosper and continued to produce their popular magazine LINK, which fixed a spotlight on the people behind the machines producing bandages, cardboard boxes, antiseptic dressings, diapers, sanitary towels, cellulose wrapping – almost everything. And as you might expect of a proud family firm, there were lots of Robinsons to follow in
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the footsteps of founder John Bradbury Robinson and his enterprising father, the potter William Robinson in turn married to Ann Bradbury. These are just a few of the Robinsons featuring in LINK: Victor Robinson, D.C.Robinson, Robert B.Robinson, Charles Portland Robinson, Florence Robinson – and frequently, Managing Director Ernest B. Robinson. But this preponderance of Robinsons guiding every arm and limb of a highly successful Derbyshire company should not blind us to the creditworthy – and today very uncommon – paternalism of this major employer. The Robinsons pioneered many aspects of worker satisfaction, also protection: Left: 1) Peter Heath, Box Cutting Trainee, P.W. 2) Roger Walsh, Forme Setting Trainee. 3) Phillip Warmlsey, Forme Setting, P.W. 4) Raymond Houghton, Weaving Trainee, Griffin Mill.
first aid, leisure, exercise, hot meals, entertainment, sickness pay, sanitary pads, work-life balance, whatever. Not by accident did Robinson’s boast its own Chapter of the Oddfellows Friendly Society; dedicated Angling, Bowls, Swimming and Photographic Clubs; a Motor Club competing for everything from Navigational trophies to awards for all-night Trials; and a works’ Cricket Club with its own ground: exemplary Personnel Relations in the true tradition of Titus Salt in Saltaire, the Levers in Port Sunlight, the Cadburys in Bourneville and the Rowntrees in York. And in
Above: More than 30 girls in the Robinson & Sons Preparatory School in 1967, from local secondary modern or technical schools, learning skills which will help them become full-time employees after their training. common with all these Titans, Robinsons also arranged subsidised housing for their Lower Brampton employees. Capping it all, the Robinson & Sons’ Operatic Society put on extravagant productions of Oklahoma and South Pacific at Bradbury Hall, beautifully choreographed and video-taped for LINK and for posterity. LINK magazines, as you might expect, are full of presentations: gifting graduation, marriage, hula, productivity, retirement, long service, and so much more. On each of these important Left: Robinson & Sons Operatic Society staged South Pacific at Bradbury Hall on February 27-March 4, 1967.
56 Reflections March 2024
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