Neccessity being always the mother of invention, Cornwalls once mighty mining industry gave us our engineering traditions. The world renowned Camborne rock drill manufacturers Holman Brothers once employed 3500 men in the town. The company also produced compressors and a subsidiary Maxan Power was a leader in pneumatic control systems. The works included its own foundry and drop forge within a distinctive complex that once defined the town.

In its heyday Holmans was a paternalistic operation that offered jobs for life with sons following fathers into highly skilled trades via an indentured apprentiship scheme that is now so sadly lacking in this age of NVQ’s.

Regretably like most worthy institutions with long standing principals and traditions the firm became infiltrated by outside investors looking for a fast buck by streamlining and asset stripping. A spiral of decline that started in the 1970’s saw the slow decline of the company over a protracted period, wave after wave of redundancies eventually led to its demise. The main site is now a Tesco store (one of 3 in a  3 mile radius).

Sad as this tale of decline may be this former powerhouse of Cornish engineering has left a tenacious legacy which whilst little known outside its own community continues to thrive embracing world class technology tempered with traditional expertise. Phoenix like from the ashes has risen a cluster of small but  highly specialised engineering companies founded, run and largely staffed by ex Holman men.

This was highlighted by a function I was priveliged to attend last week put on by a customer on our neighbouring industrial estate to formally commission a brand new state of the art Flow water profiling machine. This incredible item will cut any material up to 500mm thick with an 87000 psi water jet absolutely precisley.

Lasermaster is part of a group run by John Gotts which supplies carpet cleaning machines and operates a laser profile cutter. ThIs expensive piece of kit originally came from a company that having had considerable RDA grant assistance because it moved into part of the old Holman works from outside Cornwall still managed to fail spectacularly.

 The success of this acquisition from the recievers at a knockdown price highlighted the need for the additional versatility the brand new machine would bring to the thriving operation.

Thus we duly assembled at Lasermaster to see Mark Prisk MP shadow minister for Cornwall formally start up the new machine. Mark Prisk is certainly putting in some time getting to know local businesses which is very encouraging given the scant attention Cornwall gets from national politicians latterly.

The really interesting thing was that most of the guests were ex Holman apprentices now running the cluster of engineering firms previously mentioned.

Another interesting diversion was an example of Cornwalls own sports car the JVAN R1 built by Jvan Smith in a workshop at Bochym on the Lizard. This very basic but stylish achetypal speedster sports a Renault derived engine and will do 0-60 in 3.4 seconds if you have the nerve. Many of its components are produced by John Gotts via Lasermaster reinforcing the nature of the local network.

How nice to see quiet sustainable success so apparent in our midst during difficult times when the Jeremiahs all around us only see doom and gloom unless an enterprise is tourism focussed. Even more so when few of these firms qualify for much in the way of grant aid when incoming firms that subsequently fail seem to have money chucked at them like confetti.