07/10/2026
One of our heritage research volunteers, Ruth, has been reading the accounts from a local man named Frank Close, who was born in 1934. Frank worked as the Export Sales Rep at Gundry’s.
He began his career in 1956, when he was earning £375 per year working in Camouflage netting in South Street works - either at Tuckers or Folly Mill Lane.
By 1958 he had joined the Commercial Fishing division, designing nets and costing nets for export to Iceland and New Brunswick. He would fly out from Heathrow (when it was just a nissen hut) to do business there, also exporting to Ghana, where women were in charge of organising trade. Frank’s account describes the wonderful robes of the Ghanaians.
Trade took him to Accra and Lagos, visiting coastal fishing villages to negotiate net contracts whilst sitting under palm trees with his taxi driver to interpret. He traded tennis nets in Australia and New Zealand, and when Gundrys almagamated in 1966, he became Manager of Retail outlet selling to fishermen. In 1967, Frank emigrated to Canada but later returned and became head of music at Colfox School.
Is anyone related to Frank or do you have more information we can gather about his life and story? Please comment or get in touch with our heritage research coordinator, Jess: [email protected]
