South Wales Miners' Library

08.10.2016

In the early 1950s my grandfather came from the North East of England to South Wales to sell mining machinery, he worked for a Gateshead based company called Huwood. I came to South Wales from the North East for work in 2015, and I became interested in learning more about my grandfather’s time in Wales. As part of my research, I visited the South Wales Miners’ Library in Swansea and I uncovered some wonderful material relating to Huwood and my grandfather. The most exciting find was a catalogue advertising Huwood’s mining equipment, I’ve become more and more interested in the visual quality of these technical drawings.

© South Wales Miners’ Library

The catalogue containing information about Huwood’s mining equipment, from the South Wales Miners’ Library

Visiting the Site of the Former Huwood Factory

31.07.2016

I visited the site of the former Huwood factory in the Team Valley, Gateshead. There were only traces of the building left behind in wood, bricks and concrete, I traced the lines the had once marked out the walls that made up the rooms and the building exterior.

“The building was one of the first constructed when Team Valley was developed in the 1930s and for most of its life it was home to the Huwoods Mining Machinery Company.”

‘Flattening former Huwoods building will save £186,000’, The Journal, 2009

“The factory is constructed of 9in concrete walls built into a steel framework, the floor consists of reinforced concrete, 5in thick and overlaid with ½ in of granolithic surfacing. The roof, which is flat has a steel deck, tentest lining and a double layer of composition roof covering”

Colliery Managers’ visit to New “Huwood” Factory

July 1939

A brick from the former Huwood building in Cardiff, 2016