Garretts Engineering

Born in 1907, Mr Dunn lived his whole life in Leiston. The transcript above is an excerpt from a recording he made about Garretts and their impact on the town.

When asked if the Garretts took part in any activities in the town, Mr Dunn responds:

“No. They sponsored different sports meetings and that type of thing. When the LWAA … Leiston Works Athletic Association… was built, which was through the Garretts, and they built the clubhouse … that’s in Digby Road, they had the sport field laid out. I remember being at school, our school-master came in, his name was Anthony Garnett. He came in and said, now is anybody here like to volunteer to go and pick stones off the sports field?

Everybody’s hand went up. We all went up. We started at one end and that was your job to pick as many stones as possible and they gave you nothing to put your stones in, so off come the boys’ hats and into the hats go the stones. Soon as you got your hat full you walked back and put it on the heap.

… I remember it, that was 1921. I think the sports field was opened May 16th, 1922. Garrett opened it. Mr Frank Garrett opened it. And that was the start of Leiston Works Athletics Association.

During WWI, women were taken on at the Works to produce munition shells. Whilst there, they took full advantage of the sporting opportunities on offer. How striking that their image (above) is clearly a studio shot whilst the Boiler Shop boys (below) are out on the field.

Most of the Works departments had its own football side. The image above features players from the Boiler Shop, 1917—1918.

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