Crewe works coppersmith – les jenks: lms pre-war times

The decision of the Grand Junction Railway to establish a works alongside the junction of the GJR main line and the route to Chester dates back to 1840 and is at the heart of the creation of a railway town, with the works officially opened from 10 May 1843 and ultimately the railway and its community grew and prospered. This view dates from 21 April 1913, so in London & North Western Railway days, and shows the millwright shop of 1868 as part of the Crewe Deviation Works – it is the shop where Ben Jenks spent the latter days of his railway career. A millwright is sitting on a saddle attached to the housing of a massive grindstone and appears to be shaping the end of a boiler tube, the other end of which is resting on the saddle between his knees. Benjamin Jenks was born on 11 July 1894, so would have been 18-years-old when this view of one of the old hands was taken and, as was so often the case at the time for the men of Crewe, his son would look to the railway works for employment when he left school. Bull Austin & Co/LNWRS Collection

Back in June 2016 I was fortunate to spend an enjoyable afternoon in the company of Les Jenks, an employee at Crewe Works from 1936 through to 1987, and he offered an insight into works operations and how they had changed over the years – imagine starting your time as brand new Stanier ‘Jubilee’ class 4-6-0s were being outshopped and remaining at the same site until the class ‘89’ prototype AC electric was produced for British Rail. Most of the staff at the works found themselves in the same building day-in day-out but that was not the case for some coppersmiths as very often they were expected to ‘go to the job’ or had periods when in a coppersmith role but seconded to such places as the tube shop. The LMS ran a strict railway works operation behind closed doors, with few members of the public aware of the working environment, operations and conditions, and photography banned with few exceptions, and not even Les, the son of works’ employee Ben Jenks, really knew what to expect when he went for a job. Les recalled: ‘The reason why I became an apprentice coppersmith, at that time was if your father worked in the works you could go in as an apprentice; if there wasn’t