Ken Juggins and colleague

Pipe benders in the 1970s

This picture of Ken Juggins and a colleague was taken in the Pipe Shop in the early 1970s. They worked under Ray Chamberlain, the foreman.

The pipes of many wall thicknesses and diameters would be bent from a drawing using large and small hydraulic benders and a strenuous manual process which included a large slab, the packing of sand (to keep the pipe form), heating torches, and a skillful eye.

If you know who the other man in the photo was please leave a comment below.

Comments about this page

  • I remember Ken Juggins as a lovely man, quite quiet and with a dry sense of humour. I was a piping draughtsman in the piping section which was adjacent to the pipe shop. My wife Joan (Roger Beard’s sister) was secretary to our section and to the electrical drawing office, which was on the floor above. For several years, when Ken returned from holiday he gave my wife a handkerchief, one of which she still has. This was in about 1967.

    By Chris Farley (05/06/2020)
  • Hi Kay – I hope that someone will add more memories of Ken and Ian for you here too. In the meantime, please do share any memories or family stories about them here, and of course anything they may have said about Fielding’s!

    By Ollie Taylor (05/09/2013)
  • Hi guys, my name is Kay I’m Ken Juggins’ granddaughter and Ian Juggins’ daughter. It would be great to hear from you about my Dad and grandad.

    By Kay Walden (18/08/2013)
  • Thanks John, what a great story about Ken’s ingenuity! I expect others remember other tricky problems that had to be overcome by the Pipe Fitters too…? Were square section tubes the most unusually-shaped pipes they worked on I wonder…?!

    By Ollie Taylor (08/07/2013)
  • In the 1960s, Ken Juggins was the pipe fitter who was able to bend thin walled, SQUARE section brass tubes without distorting them. This he did by first filling them with dry fine sand and temporarily sealing the ends to contain the sand before commencing the bending operation. So the tubes retained the square shape throught their entire length. At one time Ken lived in Field End, Churchdown, next door to my late sister.

    By John Davis (03/07/2013)
  • Thanks Alan, although 200 needle bearings sounds a lot, I bet that Ward 2D Capstan Lathe could produce them quite quickly – how long would it take for it to complete a job like that? And what would you have been producing on the bigger lathe?

    By Ollie Taylor (07/06/2013)
  • Both men were good to work under and happy in their job. They were also informative.

    I started on the ward 2D capstan which was a collet lathe which could be set up to machine large numbers of parts for different stone plants and others. You might have to machine, say, 200 needle bearings made from 5/8 stainless steel, about 2 inch long radius ends, with a limit of .002 inches, or less on length. Then I was moved onto a bigger lathe, a four-jaw chuck again, a ward, but I forget the model.

    By alan jay (26/04/2013)
  • Thanks Alan, you might be interested to hear John Cook’s memories of Reg Court and his “chip cutter” in the 1950s.
    I wonder what memories of Reg that will bring back for you…?! No one’s mentioned Brian Chamberlane before so it would be good to know what they were both like and what you learnt from them in the Light Machine Shop? Cheers, Ollie

    By Ollie Taylor (26/04/2013)
  • As you say Ollie, Bruce Valender was foreman of the Pattern Making Shop. His brother was foreman of Number One Fitting Shop but I can’t remember his first name. His son, Olly Valender, who was in the same year as myself in the craft school came with me to the Light Machine Shop.

    By alan jay (24/04/2013)
  • Well Ollie, after 12 months as Office Junior from 19th August 1957 to 1st Sseptember 1958, I went into the Light Machine Shop (foreman Mr Reg Court chargehand Brian Chamberlane) then on to the Pipe Shop. After some time, I was sent away to Sheffield to install a twin column 1500 ton forging press with Len Gapp for 10 months but before that job finished I was transferred to the Number 2 Fitting Shop.

    By alan jay (23/04/2013)
  • Wow! There must’ve been quite a difference between the Filing Office and the Pipe Shop eh Alan?! Did you have to dress in shirt and tie for the Filing Office? Did Olly Valender move to the Pipe Shop with you? I seem to remember having heard that many of the Valenders worked in the Pattern Shop – but that might just be my memory!

    By Ollie Taylor (01/02/2013)
  • Yes Ollie, I did after I left the Craft School, I had time in the Pipe Shop before moving on the the Fitting Shop.  But my time started as an Office Junior in the Filing Office, along with Olly Valender and a senior lady (in rank not age!) whose name I do not remember…

    By Alan Jay (30/01/2013)
  • Thanks for adding this Alan. Did you work in the Pipe Shop at Fielding’s too? It’d be great to hear what the place was like and if you have any other memories of Fielding’s then we’d love for you to share them on the site. You can do this by adding comments to pages, messages to our message board, or clicking on “Add a Page” where you log-in and adding a page yourself! Look forward to hearing from you – and for any further memories of the Rigby brothers!

    By Ollie Taylor (28/01/2013)
  • Another pipe fitter was Arthur Rigby. He also had two brothers working at Fielding’s: the elder one was a pattern-maker called John Rigby and the youngest brother was James (“Jim”) Rigby who was a fitter and turner.

    By Alan Stuart Jay (27/01/2013)
  • Hi John, thanks for getting in touch. For Data Protection reasons I can’t give you Chippy’s email, but if you send your email address to me at oliver.taylor@gloucestershire.gov.uk I’ll pass it on to him. It’s lovely to see old colleagues reconnecting through the site! I hope that you and Chippy will continue to visit the site and share your memories, comments, and pages here too though!

    By Ollie Taylor (24/01/2013)
  • Ollie, is there any chance of getting hold of Chippy Aston’s e-mail. He was a good friend and I used to visit him when he lived in Churchdown behind my brother-in-law’s, John Davis.

    By John Lewis (23/01/2013)
  • Thanks Chippy, it’s always great to hear memories of Fielding folk. I look forward to reading more your comments on other pages as the site grows and of course feel free to add your own page of memories and photos about your time at Fielding’s whenever you like!

    By Ollie Taylor (10/01/2013)
  • Ken Juggins is the man on the left of the photo, ‘cig’ in hand. I recognise the other man,but I’m afraid I can’t recall his name. I’ve got a feeling he was an assistant to the pipe fitters in the ‘pipe shop’, but that’s all I can remember at the moment. A few other names I can remember from the ’pipe shop’ are: Sid Hatch, Len Gapp, Bill Niell, and Geoff (not sure now if he was a Geoff or a Jeff) Wood (and that’s terrible as he was a old friend of mine way back when!). He sadly passed away some ten years ago or more. If I think of any more I’ll let you know. Ken’s son Ian worked at Fielding’s, too, in what was called the ‘boiler yard’ doing sheet metal work.

    By Chippy Aston (09/01/2013)
  • Thanks for adding this page Ian! It’s fascinating to hear about how the pipes were bent as it’s not something anyone has mentioned before. If you’d be interested in speaking to me at greater length about this then please drop me an email at oliver.taylor@gloucestershire.gov.uk . It would also be good to know whether Ken was the man on the left or the right? Hopefully someone can help us identify his colleague!

    By Ollie Taylor (07/01/2013)

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