Shirley Swain

Well in the late 1940's and early 1950's, she was the Secretary/Assistant in the Buying Office of Holden & Hunt Limited, an Engineering company located in Old Hill, Staffs. My father was employed there as Chief Buyer, and since the firm had been founded by my late Grandfather, so were several other members of the family.

I always attended the Christmas Parties that the firm put on for the employees children, and the many Film shows, some for the children (Laurel and Hardy etc), and some for the adults (Mainly the British Transport Commission films). So I was a regular visitor to Holden & Hunt Limited, particularly the Buying Office. 

So one day I was sitting in my father's office, when Shirley, who would always make me welcome, and clearly knew about my interest in railways, came to talk to me.

What is coming next, ought by now, to be obvious to all readers of this page. The name SWAIN is a legend in railway circles. Jack Swain was the Southern driver who performed those prodigious feats with the Bulleid Pacifics in the 1948 Locomotive Exchanges.

And Shirley was his grand daughter!

And what she had brought for me to look through, and indeed to take away temporarily, provided I took great care, were the Photograph Albums presented to Driver Swain by the British Transport Commission for his "Great services to the Railway in the 1948 Locomotive Exchanges". A more splendid set of photographs I had never seen before, and have never seen since. 

Shirley subsequently married, and left the company. My father left Holden & Hunt Limited in 1968 to become a Salesman for another local Engineering company. He wanted to find out what it was like to be on the "Other side of the desk". And in 1973, Holden & Hunt Limited, which had been in decline for some years, was sold to new owners, who were not able to revive it's fortunes. So the business closed, and the company, which employed 400 people in the late 1940's, ceased. I understand, however, that a small part of the business survived, and is now run from Cornwall.

The factory site, in Cox's lane, Old Hill, is now a housing estate.

Top of Page