Diss Family History Group

While at school we went on outings and visits to companies and places. This was done to interest us in local areas and what was there in business.

One was the factory and stores of Albright Bros. who also made brooms, brushes and door mats. The brooms and brushes were made from alder wood. The wood came from local grown alder trees growing in woods, the bristle came from all over the world. The mats were made from coconut shell fibres and woven into mats to use as door mats, which are still used today. They also had a large store for carpets of which there was all sorts and rolls, some of the best in the country. They also did a carpet fitting service in the area.

The other large firm in Diss was Youngs Foundry and horse shoeing business. Here they made all sorts of things by moulding. They had a large furness to melt the iron and scrap metal, then pour it into moulds. When they were cold they were taken out and cleaned up. One item they made was fire grates for houses. They had several forges where horseshoes were made and horses were shod. Other ironwork was also made for farm machinery. The other job undertaken here was fitting iron rims to wood wheels. There was a special plate which this was done on, the wheel placed on the plate, then the hot iron trim fitted, then cooled by throwing buckets of cold water over to make it shrink and tighten all the joints in the wheel.

The other works manufactured farm machinery such as seed drills, threshing machines, binders to cut corn and assemble the Youngs ploughing machine parts made at the foundry. They also made wagons, tumbrels and carts. Later in life, I got to know one of the carpenters (Mr Base) who knew how to make a drill or threshing machine from his head and all the measures of materials. We visited both of these works as part of our education.

We also paid a visit to the fishing port at Great Yarmouth with Mr Mason, a teacher. We all assembled at Diss Station and went on a train to Norwich, then changed for train to Yarmouth, then walked down the quay to the ships.

There were many ships on the river. You could walk across the river from one side to the other on the ships. We saw them unloading the boats onto the quay and taken to women who cleaned and gutted fish very fast into barrels with salt to export. Other fish were opened and taken to the smokehouse to make kippers. Before we came home they filled a bag which we had each taken with us with a pair of kippers. You can imagine what the train smelt like on the way home. We ate our sandwiches with smelly hands. I have a photo of those on the trip including the teacher. It was a great day out and mother liked the fresh fish which we ate the next day.