The New Brunel

Further Info

This story was made at a weekly digital storytelling workshop with a Brunel theme for staff and volunteers at Bristol Industrial Museum, inspired by the life and work of Brunel. The stories were created both in formal sessions and in staff members’ spare time with support from Ruth Jacobs, Sarwat Siddiqui, Andy King, Chris Redford and Phil Walker, between Nov 2005 and Feb 2006. The project was supported by Bristol’s Museums, Galleries & Archives.

Transcript

Fred Lester was the Conservator at the Industrial Museum when I arrived here in 1981. He’d already worked for the museum since 1964 and he didn’t retire until 1991. One of the chippies called him “the new Brunel” because Fred could turn his hand to almost anything. He seemed to be able to go out with just a car jack and spanner or two, and come back with an enormous dismantled machine. I was amazed and impressed by his talents but I slowly came to realise that, unlike the real Brunel, Fred could never really stick at anything for very long; he’d worked in loads of trades and had countless jobs before he came to the museum.

On his very first day at work aged fourteen, he’d arrived at a furniture factory with his new little hammer but had been set to work carrying finished chairs from basement to attic. When his boss told him that he’d be doing exactly the same thing after lunch, Fred went home with his little hammer and never returned.

He went on to be a painter and decorator, a military policeman. He worked in a foundary, in an engineering shop, at a tyre factory, he drove lorries, he made patterns amongst many other jobs.

He loved new gadgets, and would be the first to go out and buy the latest technology, which he’d quickly tire of.

He was the same with tools. He once told me that he’d actually sat down and counted all of his seventy two screwdrivers.

The museum was the first place that allowed him an outlet for his liking for variety and for the many skills he’d learned. And when we look around Bristol’s museums today, Fred’s hand is in an awful lot of what we see.

Credits

All media not otherwise credited created by the story author, or permission obtained, used under copyright licence.