Profiles

Ron Hawkins at Walsall Leather Museum

When Ron Hawkins left school in 1939, the 14 year-old had no intention of following other members of his family into the leather trade.

The spirited teenager had no qualifications but wanted to do "something different" with his life and was delighted when a neighbour arranged his first job for him as an apprentice machinist in Walsall.

Ron with a hide that he has 'curried'

Seven-year apprenticeship

But fate and family have an uncanny way of determining your path in life – that, and the fact Ron’s hands had an allergic reaction to the slurry oil used to cool the tooling machines in his job.

Within weeks of starting, Ron bowed to pressure from his mum Maureen and started a seven-year apprenticeship as a leather ‘currier’, on a wage of eight shillings and six pence for a 48-hour week that included Saturday mornings.

His apprenticeship was interrupted by serving as an RAF ‘sparks’ – a wireless operator – during the war but on his return to work his boss ended up making him the most unpopular man in the Hawkins household.

Women's toilets

"The boss gave me the job of sacking her and her friend!” he cackles mischievously, running a hand through his slicked back hair.

Ron and his wife on their wedding day

"Of all the jobs I’ve been asked to do that was the worst!"

He added: "During the war my mother came to work at our factory, like a lot of the women at the time.

"When all the men were returning most of the women left their jobs to go back home.

"On my return there was only mother and her friend remaining but the firm wanted to use the space where they’d had to build women’s toilets and rest rooms to redevelop the factory.

"I suppose she was expecting it but I wasn’t thanked by her for doing it!"

Ron shows how he 'clocked in' for work

Gas and candlelight

Seventy years on, and approaching his 84th birthday, Ron is still working – carrying on the proud family tradition of four generations of workers connected to Walsall's leather trade.

The widower (his wife, Muriel, died in 2001) has even traced back this connection to 1856 on his mother’s side and his great, great grandfather Ralph Bullock, who supplied hides to the area’s factories.

"There could well have been more of my family working in the industry but people just didn’t keep records then," he comments.

E. T. Holden & Son – a firm established in 1819 after moving to the town from Scotland – is one of only two leather factories where Ron has worked, pointing to a fading  poster on the wall of Walsall’s Leather Museum, where he now plies his trade as a demonstrator.

Historical tangents

An image of a factory covered with large windows rests beneath the name of the firm which he worked for until 1970, when he joined J&E Sedgwick.

The Queen has carried handbags made in Walsall.

"The buildings were all similar," explains Ron, who joined the museum in 1988.

"There was only gas and candlelight in those days and they wanted to let in as much natural light as possible."

Standing in his workshop at the museum he is clearly in his element when describing the different leather processes that start with the slaughterhouse and end with the leather being turned into goods by a saddler or a cobbler.

Hair, blood and mud

Trying to stop Ron from veering off on historical tangents brings a slightly exasperated response. "Just hang on a minute" he implores, before resuming another of his stories.

In zealous detail he explains how the tanners do "all the dirty work" before he can work on the leather, including removing the hair, blood and mud from the hide.

Checking the grain

Then he shows me how he applies the skills he’s honed over a lifetime to a piece of stiff leather the size of a piece of flattened tan wallpaper.

"It’s what they give dogs to chew," demonstrating its brick-like toughness by whacking a smaller piece on his slate work surface.

Ron then grapples with an array of eight similar-looking tools called sleekers that resemble wallpaper brushes only each with various blades of different wood and metal rather than bristles.

Record breaking

Picking up one he works the tool over the hide using an ironing motion to demonstrate how he works out creases, growth marks and imperfections from the damp hide.

He takes great delight in practising the techniques of dressing, finishing and colouring that make the tanned hide strong, flexible and waterproof.

Horsepower fuelled a leather boom

“I decided I wanted to be a currier because they were the best paid people in the industry,” he laughs.

“They had to be the most skilled because the hides needed to all look the same.”

His skills were put to record-breaking use in 1992 when he helped make what was believed to be the largest wallet in the world.

Unfortunately when Ron finally calls time on his career there will be no-one to carry on the family’s involvement in the leather trade. Son Anthony, 61, and daughter Diane, 59, chose different careers and did not have children.

Princess Anne

"I’m too young to be a grandfather!" he jokes with a tinge of sadness.

Ron and Princess Anne in June 1988

You can tell he would enjoy being one and that he is great at entertaining children – something he has done since Princess Anne officially opened the museum in 1988.

"I shall carry on until I can no longer comfortably do it and as long as my services are wanted here," he adds, fingering the 'aged to perfection' badge which is pinned on his white work coat.

"What have I got at home? Sitting watching the bloody box 24-hours a day - I’d be in the box myself within five minutes!"