Dereham - Industry and Employment

Industry and Employment

Dereham was the home to the "Jentique" furniture factory which made boxes for both instruments and bombs during the 2nd World War. The town was also the home to the Metamec clock factory. "Hobbies of Dereham" produced plans, kits and tools, including their famous treadle fretwork saws, for making wooden models and toys which were popular in the days before moulded plastic. At one point Hobbies owned 10 shops in prestige locations all over the UK. In the early 1960s the firm was taken over by Great Universal Stores, who sold the shops and closed the business. However, due to a shrewd management purchase of the "old traditional" parts of the firm, Hobbies rose again, limiting itself to a role as specialist model makers shop. After nearly 40 years of its new lease of life the firm closed in 2009. Cranes of Dereham and its successor the Fruehauf trailer company was a major employer in the town for many decades. Cranes built nearly all the giant trailers (100 tons plus) that carried equipment such as transformers at slow speeds across the UK, usually in the livery of Wynns or Pickfords. The launch of a new trailer was treated rather like that of a ship with lots of people coming out to see the leviathan move through the narrow streets of the town towards the A47. The town also had several large maltings. Almost all this large scale industry has drifted away since the 1980s.