The Rushden Echo, 20th January 1928, transcribed by Kay Collins
Local Children Greatly Interested Today An Example from The West
When travelling in the West of England recently Mr W E Capon, managing director of Messrs John Cave and Sons Ltd., boot manufacturers, of Rushden, had occasion to change trains at Swindon and, incidentally, to await for some time. The railway station, although a quiet one usually, presented on this particular occasion a scene of great animation. Inquiries which were made by Mr Capon revealed the fact that the Great Western Railway Company are now running children’s excursion trains to Swindon, where the company’s works are situated, and that these special trains run, not only from the immediate neighbourhood of Swindon, but also from places a hundred miles distant, or even more. On this particular day the number of schoolchildren on the railway platform, waiting for the train in which they were to return home, totalled between 700 and 800. Mr Capon was informed that the Great Western Railway Company had brought these scholars, by special corridor train, from so great a distance as South Wales. The juvenile visitors had been officially shown round the railway works and were then about to make the return journey. Incidentally all this was done by the G.W.R. Company at an inclusive charge of 2s. 6d. per head.
At once Mr Capon’s thoughts naturally turned to the trade in which he is particularly interested
Rushden’s Staple Industry
Realising, as all good business men and employers of labour must, that there is a higher side to even trade than the mere routine and mechanical, he conceived the idea of the usefulness, even apart from the educational point of viewof the children in Rushden schools being offered similar opportunities of looking round the factories in their own town.
Mr Capon related his experience to Mr L Perkins, B.Sc., M.B.E., of the Rushden Intermediate School, who immediately evinced an interest in the project, and it has now been arranged that parties of about 15 scholars shall be shown round the factory of Messrs John Cave and Sons on Friday afternoons. A start is being made with the Intermediate School, and it is hoped to make arrangements eventually with the other day-schools in the town. It is proposed that the scholars should write an account of their visit to the works. Mr John Austin, the works manager at Messrs John Cave and Sons' factory, has kindly promised to mark the papers sent in, and Mr Capon will give one prize in each batch.
In these days of specialisation and “one employee for one job” it is assuredly a step in the right direction for the rising generation to get a grasp of the industry as a whole and of the numerous processes to which leather is subjected before it becomes the finished article, ready to wear.
This (Friday) afternoon the first of these factory tours took place at Messrs John Cave's factory.
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