Karen Allerton arts
The patterns were sand casted. Some of the text on the casts describes this process.
The sand casting process involves the use of a furnace, molten metal, and a sand mould.
The pattern is pressed into compacted sand which forms the mould for the cast.
The pattern is the form and shape of the cast, a cast can be no better than the pattern from which it has been made.
Smelting heats the metal to over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, when the impurities
in the metal float to the surface and can be removed.
Crucibles move the molten metal through a series of gates and risers into the mould where it cools and solidifies.
FINISHED CASTS
The pattern is the form and the shape of the cast. A cast can be no better than the pattern from which it has been made.
All the sewer covers in peoples gardens and yards say Needhams Foundry Stockport 1946
I worked at Needhams when I was 17 for 3 and a half, then I went into the army for National Service.
Smelting heats the metal to over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit when the impurities in the metal float to the surface and can be removed.
I was in the machine shop a Radial Arm Driller, making holes and screws to go into big projects.
The sand casting process involves the use of a furnace, molten metal and a sand mould.
The pattern is pressed into the sand which forms the mould for the pattern.
They made grids and quite a few different moulds, did their own smelting and all that.
My dad works at Needhams, worked there for years. Sometimes when theres a coal fire and you get that warm feeling, it smells like it smelt down at Needhams.
We discovered a shortage of local
cast iron foundries. Fortunately Ted McAvoy, Leander Architectural, which now specialises in aluminium castings,
very kindly contacted colleagues who still
work in cast iron.
The majority of our patterns were cast at JT&E Castings Wigan,
www.jtecastings.co.uk and a couple at Barr & Grosvenor Limited, Wolverhampton, we received fantastic, friendly service from both firms and are delighted with the
end results.
The casts are being installed, very kindly by the Friends of Reddish Vale, along the Deadline in Reddish Vale
Country Park, close to the entrance
which starts close
to the Portwood Roundabout,
Stockport.