Light goes out for a Midland industry

Birmingham Post Dudley Staff.

Machinery which made hundreds of thousands of candles to light the way for miners in coal and clay pits all over the Black Country has been dismantled at a Lower Gornal factory and gone into store at Quarry Bank, Brierley Hill.
When Dudley Corporation eventually provides its proposed Industrial Museum, the machinery will be carefully reassembled to form part of the display.
The plant, of simple design and hand operated, served the candle making firm of Albert Glaze Ltd. in Cinder Road, Lower Gornal for at least 60 of the company's 90 years' existence.
At its peak the factory was producing more than 13.000 candles a day.
Mr. Edward Robert Marsh, aged 60. who lives in a cottage near the now empty factory remembers the peak days because he served the firm for over 30 years.

Body blow

"In the early years there were pits all over this district and we supplied them with nearly all the candles. The demand gradually declined however and our body blow was the National Coal Board's decision to ban naked flames in their pits." Mr. Marsh said.
He added: "There was a further slump in demand because the clay mine owners also turned to lamps instead of candles."
The removal of the machinery to a Corporation depot by Factory Plant Removals. of Blackheath, took three days. The work was supervised by Mr. R. Traves, Dudley's Assistant Curator of Museums and Art Galleries, and he took photographs and drew sketches of the plant to assist those who will eventually reassemble it.
After the last lorry load had gone, Mr. Marsh said he was glad the machinery was being preserved, but added:
"The trouble is I cannot get another job. I feel too old to operate powered machinery and I cannot drive.
The only trade I know is candle making. I am a victim of changing times."