In the exciting days of the 1960s, a young Alan McEwen was mastering his craft as an industrial steam boilermaker. The youngest member of Carrot Crampthorn’s squad of Boiler Makers, he travelled around the north of England repairing the great boilers that made the country work.
From those early days, through to the founding of his own business, H.A McEwen Boiler Repairs, Alan has seen it all. Now an acclaimed author, his book Rivet Lad: Lusty Tales of Boiler Making in the Lancashire Mill Towns of the 1960s, and the follow-up Rivet Lad: More Battles With Old Steam Boilers, chronicles those fascinating times, recalling the often strange and wonderful world of heavy industry in the north.
RIVET LAD: Lusty Tales of Boiler Making in the Lancashire Mill Towns of the 1960s
Alan takes us back to his early days as a boilermaker, coming to terms with life in the harsh environment of hard men and working in Lancashire cotton mills and factory boiler houses. Written in Alan’s unique, easy-going style, the book’s larger-than-life characters, the hard-as-nails, ale-supping, chain-smoking Boiler Makers, and not least Alan himself are, to a man, throwbacks to times gone by when British industry was the envy of the world.
RIVET LAD: More Battles With Old Steam Boilers
This follow-up to Rivet Lad chronicles Alan’s story from leaving Phoenix Boiler Makers and establishing his own firm: H.A. McEwen (Boiler Repairs) in 1968. In those early days, Alan battled with a great variety of old steam boilers in town and country, where he met some extremely interesting and rather bizarre characters. The book is further brought to life with numerous amazing photographs.
“These beautifully written and produced books are a fascinating insight into a bygone era of heavy engineering. The illustrations and photographs bring to life the glory days of British industry.”
