Laurie worked at the Ford Southampton plant for nine years up until it closed in 2013. She has contributed to the Transition project as a guest speaker on two occasions, as an oral history interviewee giving a frank and colourful account of life on the line, and as a key member of the volunteer curation team.
After being made redundant when the factory closed, Laurie decided to use her artistic talent fulltime and launched a successful career in sign-writing. She has kindly donated her time and talent to produce a ‘Fordies on the Line’ sign written board for the Pop-up Museum.
I was especially pleased to be involved in the Transition Project from the planning stages and brainstorming to attending the fantastic exhibition and really seeing something so marvellous and well thought out to come to fruition. For each and every member of the team to all the visitors who saw it the exhibition really resonated with everybody for subtle and personal reasons and united the Ford Team which I was a part of for ten years once again. For me personally it also linked my Ford past with my sign-writing present, essentially making everything more real and relevant.
It was a real pleasure to be a part of and I look forward to future projects I may be a part of.
Laurie Gresty