Mansfield Metal Box Factory Voices

Mansfield Museum's project to preserve the town's Metal Box heritage, generously funded by Renaissance East Midlands, reached a new stage, recently, with the digitisation of a wealth of material collected from current and ex-employees. The contributors' anecdotes, reminiscences and insider information, much of it garnered during the highly successful Memory Day held at Leeming Street last September (See Issue 10) have been edited by media production company Sound Delivery and are now freely available for you to view and/or hear. To watch a slide-show of images of the old factory, supported by fascinating commentary from knowledgeable staff past and present, simply type 'Metal Box Mansfield' into search on TH-cam (www.youtube.com) or visit www.ourmansfieldandarea.org.uk and follow the links. To hear the memories of the factory's ex-workers, podcasts are now
In August freely available on iTunes and may be accessed by searching under Mansfield Museum. There are more to follow. Leaving the virtual world, meanwhile, we are now applying ourselves in earnest to the preparation of the hundreds of examples of tin-ware acquired at the autumn auction, in readiness for a major Metal Box exhibition towards the end of 2011. We also plan to convert this into a more modest permanent display, though the exact nature of this has still to be decided. In the meantime, why not log on to a feast of facts online about one of the town's most important industries?

[@muckle8]

My late father used to deliver into Metal Box in the mid 50’s delivering chemicals for his company Sunbeam Anti - Corrosives based in Surrey , dad dies in 2004 and I ended up moving to Mansfield in 2021 from Leicester , it was only then that I discovered the site of the old factory and the single clock tower remaining - life is indeed like a box of chocolates or biscuits or whatever!

[@toucancreations4661]

When did the factory begin to produce the cylindrical, southern belle biscuit tins with handles on top?

[@keithharris3284]

The colour ohoto of the 5 girls in the bar drinking their afs of bitter, i'm sure the one in the middle is Irene and the one on the right Joan. we all worked on the top Talc floor. Can anyone put light on this?

[@mansfieldmuseum1]

Hi Keith the photograph was given to us by a lady called Joan.

[@sbkloss]

Is this the same company known as "The Metal Box Company" who made boxes with nursery rhymes on them? Or at least "Hey Diddle Diddle"? I have that box and am trying to find info about the company but not sure if this is the right one.

[@mansfieldmuseum1]

Hi Suzanne Yes it will be the same company, we have a set of the nursery rhyme tines at Mansfield Museum. Regards Jodie