I HAVE recently embarked on my long held dream of providing an engineering-metal working community workshop.

It will be a place where people can learn and develop real world creative skills. I wanted to set the project in a truly industrial environment in Andover, my home town.

A primary function of this project is to inspire younger generations to get involved in this exciting activity, be it for a career or just for a sense of achievement.

On the first day I have collected no less than three complaints due to noise, dirt and smell. I stepped outside for a moment and then it hit me, Walworth Industrial Estate is silent! Where’s the welding, grinding, hammering, riveting?

Where’s the noise?!

Perhaps it’s not the lack of interest or capability that limits us. Maybe proper industry just isn’t welcome anymore?

A lot of the older machinery I work with has ‘Made in Britain’ stamped or cast into the metal work. Without a major shift in attitude towards real industry I fear this is a phrase that will soon be forgotten.

Dave Treadwell, via e-mail