Two days ago I decided to go to the James Upshall Factory as I was in the area. On the way there, I was feeling excited and a bit wierd as I have not been there for 28 years. I seemed to know every bend in the road as though it was yesterday. I arrived there and the first thing I felt was the absolute silence as I got out of my car. The air used to be filled with the whining noise of the saw, the extractor fan and the rumble of the turning lathe. Absolute silence and I thought of how grateful the neighbours may feel now that the noise was finally over. The factory was in need of painting but the James Upshall sign was still there up on the wall. I peered into one of the windows, and there was 'my saw bench', the same one I used all those years ago and on the window sill were the very same briar shape pattern cut-outs that Barry had made all those years ago for me and in the same cardboard box. some of the shapes still had my writing on them!!! The turning lathe next to the saw had not been used for some time and the flat-belt had been removed from the pully. Next to the lathe was a stack of possibly six bags of plateau briar (from Greece, about 600 blocks). I thought that was strange and, looking through another window I saw the racks (that Barry and I had built) with more plateau blocks laid out. I also saw the old Sasieni fitting lathe was still there with the same composite chuck jaws I had got made for it! That lathe must be now at least 80 years old. Why didn't I take any photos of my experience there? I don't know, it was like the twilight zone and I was so mesmerised by the experience. Then a thought came to me and a feeling of excitement rushed through my body. Why not buy the factory and start making Upshalls with hand-cut mouthpieces and in the stylised shapes that I would love to see today, or at least finish these few hundred blocks of plateau? This was just a pipe dream.
