Bygone Lone Star

logo

Bygone Lone Star

Click on small images to enlarge

The photographic images displayed on these web-pages are not the same as those reproduced in
"The Bumper Book of 'Lone Star' Diecast Models and Toys 1948-88"

Stuart Goss and Patricia Neaves, June 1988

J Anthony Worrell, the last MD of the Hatfield factory, June 1988

Wreath placed by P Simmonds, "Farewell, we will miss you", May 1988

Some of the Hatfield factory staff

Hatfield factory, Gatehouse clerk

Shop floor of the former Hatfield plant

Stuart Goss (3rd from left), Gina Widgery (3rd from right), Jonathan Thorpe (extreme right)

Hatfield Factory, Summer 1988, post-closure prior to demolition of the building.

DCMT Palmers Green's Eddie McDougall (Press Tool maker) and his fiancee Marion (right) a DCMT typist, Summer 1957

Left hand side, front to back:
John Hutson-Sales Director; (his wife);
unknown; (Mrs. Perrin); A. Stan Perrin-
M.D.; (Mrs. Rayner); John Rayner-
Financial Director

Right hand side, front to back:
John "Bunny" Brooman; Mrs. Lilly Brooman; (young) John Brooman;
(Mrs. Burks); Ernie A. Burks-Chairman;
unknown; unknown
Lone Star 1982 Dinner/Dance function.
Venue in Hatfield, Herts.

(7-8 o'clock) John Hutson & wife;
(9 o'clock) Allen Baxter, Lone Star customer ;
(11-12 o'clock) Mr. A "Stan" Perrin & wife;
(1-2 o'clock) Ernie Burks & wife;
(3-4 o'clock) John E. Rayner & wife;
(5-6 o'clock) John & Lilly Brooman
At a function organized by
"The British Toy Manufacturers
Association (BTMA)" held, annually, at the Hilton Hotel
in London. Date unknown.

(8-9 o'clock) John E. Rayner & wife;
(12-1 o'clock) Ernie Burks & wife;
(2-3 o'clock) Mr. Mercer (a Lone Star European agent) & wife;
(4 o'clock) John "Bunny" Brooman
(6 o'clock) Mrs. Lilly Brooman

John "Bunny" Brooman in his office

Toolroom staff (Palmers Green factory)
2nd from left, Arthur Webb
3rd from left, William "Bill" Buckman
2nd from right, John "Bunny" Brooman

Aubrey Robert "Bob" Mills
Chairman (Deceased 1973)

Vera Cody, Roy Green and clown,
Don Saunders c.1954

Roy Green (Steve Larrabee)
handing out gifts to children c. 1954

Ernie Burks (left) and A. Stanley
Perrin at Hatfield plant

Sidney Hutchinson, Nightwatchman
(Hatfield)

John Griffin - Foundry worker
(Hatfield)

Jonathan Thorpe, Works Manager
(Hatfield)

Lone Star delivery lorry c.1966

Rear of delivery lorry

Part of a pistol, as cast from a die

Casting of percussion hammers
for the 'Captain Cutlass' buccaneer pistol

Rear of Hatfield factory
(backing onto main railway line)

Betty Garman (left)
(Hatfield plant)

Emily Kiff, Joan Walpole and Maria O'Neill (left to right) -Hatfield factory

Finishing section (c.1965) - Hatfield plant

(Left to right) Phil West, Gwen Townhill and Dorothy 'Dot' Davidson (Hatfield)

"Lone Star Toys" lorry being unloaded, post - 1983 (Hatfield plant) during the "Wicke" era

Harry Brennan, Fork-lift truck driver (Hatfield)

Carol Carter, the unit operator (unloading) "Gleam" finished castings (Hatfield)

Barbara Nockall, Rosemary Basden and Kath Furlow (or Furlough) at London Exhibition c. mid-1980s
(left to right)

Finishing Dept. at Hatfield factory

A battery of Diecasting machines in Hatfield factory

'Dozer shovel' mould for
"Farmer's Boy" series model

D.C.M.T. Cricket Team c. 1947

Hatfield Factory, prior to occupation (37,000 sq. feet). Taken circa 1955.

Annual Staff Dinner circa late 1950's at Welwyn Department Store

2nd left - Eileen Long, 3rd left - Frank Poulton, 3rd right - Dennis Wright, 2nd right - Derek Mynott


Annual Staff Dinner circa late 1950's at Welwyn Department Store

(Back Row, left to right) John "Bunny" Brooman, Eileen Long, Harry Long, Mrs. Wright, Dennis Wright, Mrs. May Poulton, Frank Poulton, Lord Balniel,  Mrs. Hazel Mynott
(Foreground) Facing away from camera - Arthur Nash ( further identification would be appreciated)


DCMT's 25th Anniversary Management Presentations (probably 1965) at Hatfield Factory

(Left to right) Charlie Gilbert, Stuart Goss, Margaret Roberts, Betty Garman, A. "Stan" Perrin, n/k, Sidney Ambridge,
John "Bunny" Brooman, Tom Harrington, Aubrey R. "Bob" Mills, Roy Mace (with spectacles), Ernest "Ernie" Burks,
Arthur Nash, Bert Holmes

DO ANY OF D.C.M.T./LONE STAR's ORIGINAL PREMISES STILL SURVIVE TODAY?

                                       
Click on small images to enlarge.

YES!....The only buildings still standing, now in the early years of the 21st century, are those which,
from the early 1940's were known as the "Bridge Works", Green Lanes, Palmers Green, North London,
(U.K.) [See above] and, located only a short distance away, the former "River Works" at 152 Green
Lanes, Palmers Green, at one time the main production plant and Head Office of D.C.M.T., now used
by a wholesale supplier of chemist's sundries [See below].

The "Bridge Works", pictured above, was situated beneath the forecourt of what once was, until the
1980's, known as the "Bridge Garage" (petrol filling station) and is still very much the same in appearance
as I remember it from 1957, despite no longer selling petrol. However, looking in a westerly direction,
towards Green Lanes, from below street-level at the rear of the premises, the present permanent ramp
has, in the intervening years, evidently replaced what was originally a vehicular ramp of substantial timber
construction which had a tarmacadam road surface. On each side of the sturdy structure were solidly-made
wooden parapets over one metre in height. Then, the location had an all-pervading aroma of creosote. 
At the present time, it appears that the wide and spacious below street-level garaging facilities, that
sixty years ago housed die-casting machines and crucibles of molten zinc alloy, are now used by a
car cleaning and valeting business.

                                     
Click on the small images to enlarge

The former factories at Great North Road, Hatfield, Herts., and at Holloways Lane, Welham Green,
near Hatfield, were both eventually sold, demolished and redeveloped. The Hatfield site is now occupied
by a dealership and showroom for sales of German cars. At Welham Green, on the factory site which, in 1959,
stood on a surprisingly large, grassy plot of land beside the railway tracks, there now stands a residential
housing development known as Nash Close.