This page of our website (last updated in November 2023), provides access to stories of ex-employees and others who have contacted us with their memories.
When this page is updated, any new stories will be added to the top of the list, and a link to each new story will be added in the following table. Click on the link shown to jump to a specific story, or simply scroll down below the table to access all these memories.
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[[from Peter Garratt. Peter’s second memory of his time working at Luffenham.]]
Hi again. Just been having a catch up with the website, noticed a few references to Sydney Player. I knew him quite well as my parents rented the cottage next door to his house in North Luffenham. I used to clean and polish the family’s cars at the weekend. By this time he did own a Rolls which he drove himself, his wife Phylis had a Capri 1.3auto which she let me drive around the grounds. Their daughter Libby had a Hillman Imp and got to drive around as well. The eldest daughter Penny was already married and moved away. As I was approaching 17 l bought an old Morris Minor which they allowed me to put in the barn. As dad said to me, if you want to drive, best learn how it works. So into a pile of bits it went, a week before my birthday. I lifted the engine back in, connected up. pulled the starter, away she went. Mr Players words (amazing) never thought that would happen.
Just thinking about all the guys from Luffenham. Shame not more of them have come forward. Noted the reference to Alec Rook. He was my mentor in the fitting shop. Great bloke to work with. Brian Rigby, the m/c commissioning guy. Roy & Joe the slide way scrappers and Ray the welder (strong as an ox that guy). And of course Geof Soyer – anybody know if he’s still about? Happy memories.
Remember that fuel crisis in the 70s with all strange working hours we had to do. How many would put up with it today, having to go to work at midnight or tea time – depends when the electricity was going to be on.
Keep up the good work.
[[Thank you Peter. Your comments reminded me of that fuel crisis time. At Newall Electronic, we certainly had to adjust our working hours, but I don’t recollect having to work beyond midnight!
It you can remember them, can you let us know the surnames of the people you mention? Namely Roy, Joe and Ray. I assume ‘Ray’ is not the Sid Ray given in David Dixon’s memory further down this Memories page. Can you also confirm that Geoff’s surname is Sawyer, rather than Soyer, and I assume he is the G S you mention in your earlier memory?
Mike.]]
[[A sharp eyed individual has contacted me to ask “do I think Roy & Joe really were slideway scrappers? I wouldn’t have thought there was much call for them in a precision engineering company!”.
Oops, sorry, apologies to Roy and Joe. I’m sure that that is an example of a ‘typo’. Obviously, we meant to say “Roy & Joe, the slide way scrapers!”
Mike.]]
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I was employed at the South Luffenham U.M.D by Mr Ken Collinson in April 1969 as a skilled fitter/turner having completed a five year apprenticeship with Mirrlees Blackstone of Stamford.
I was put with Mr Alec Rook who showed me the ropes or rather how to build the Hand Motion of the cylindrical grinder destined for Black and Decker, who were sticklers for precision. Next came scraping-in the Phosphor Bronze spindle bearings for an angle approach grinder. However my true destiny was the Machine Shop inside the original old mill building with Mr Chris Craddock, who was machine shop supervisor. Chris put me on an old centre lathe where I learnt all aspects of turning the vast quantities of different parts for the Newall range of machine tools. I turned Pulleys, Leadscrews, Leadscrew Nuts, the too numerous to remember the thousands and thousands of little fiddly parts that had to be replaced to fit the refurbished machine tools. Besides Chris there was Austin Bland, surface and cylinder grinder, Arthur Corby and Morris Bradley both centre lathe turners. In the stores Lou Tibbett, and on the powered hacksaw Syd Graham.
I left in 1976 to become a Tool Draughtsman in a career where I went on to work for Rolls Royce Filton, BAe Airbus and Moore’s (Wallisdown) all as senior tool designer. I finally was employed by Tarmac for Network Rail as a Track Design Engineer where I retired in 2011. I now live in Derby.
Nice to read about Newall but very little about the UMD is mentioned, hope this helps.
Regards David Dixon
[[The following memory was received from Rosemary Stork in August 2023.]]
I worked for Newall Engineering from either 1969 or 1970 to 1972. I was secretary to Jim Player and Ken Swayne and my colleague was secretary to Denis Player and Keith Temple. I have some very happy memories. Our office was between the Directors’ offices and the canteen and backed on to the railway line with a big frosted window.
One day I was asked to use Ken Swayne’s car to go to the bank. He loved his cars and a dealer had got him to drive a NSU R0 80. The Directors’ car parking was a little tight with buildings on both sides of it. All cars were driven forwards into their spaces and I had to back the car out. In my ignorance I assumed that if it was driven in all I had to do was back it out on the same line and just watch the wall at the back. As I drove out I drove the wing off the NSU Ro 80 into Keith Temple’s car (a Rover I think). Ken Swayne was watching me and making sure I didn’t hit the wall at the back. A lesser man would have jumped up and down and shouted at me. Not Ken. He simply apologised for not watching the wing, got into the car, straightened it up and told me to get back in and drive it to the bank otherwise I would be too afraid to drive it again. As it happened, I never did drive it again.
I was there when Keith Temple died. It was a shocking sad time. He used to do some amazing calculations in connection with the American machines and all before computer were there to do them.
The computer was an enormous machine (as all the early ones were). When it was first programmed to calculate build times for the machines, the actual time was always longer so delivery was always late. The production manager was asked why as it never happened when he did the calulation of build time by hand. He said because when he did the calculation he always included a bu*****tion factor and there had been nowwhere for this to be included on the computer.
Sadly, I have no memories for names, so have struggled with these.
[[I had never heard of the RO80, but having just ‘Googled’ it, I can see why you might have been worried about driving it, and why it would have been very special to Ken Swayne. If you do recall any other information or stories about Newall, we would be very pleased to hear from you again. Mike.]]
[[An update from Rosemary:]]
I do have other memories and I am sure when I go to your memories page they will be jogged again. I very much appreciated the trip down memory lane. I was really sorry to read that Ken Swayne had died so soon after retiring. He was very kind to me and I always imagined him enjoying his retirement. I will get back in touch with other memories. Thank you for the work you have put in on the web pages.
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I’m David Hobbs, and I started my Newall career in 1971 at Newall Electronics. Miriam David recently triggered some of my memories of her father, Curt David, who I worked alongside at Newall Electronics during the late 1970’s until his sudden death in January 1980. Curt was proud of his Jewish heritage, but that heritage made him a little susceptible to the old jokes which portray Jews as tending to have a mean streak. I can think of two events where this tendency was exhibited, and we had a good laugh together over both of them.
The first incident was when I asked if I could borrow his tape rule to mark out some panel or other that I was working on. When I had finished cutting it out I found that it was 10mm shorter and 10mm narrower than it should have been. It turned out that the end clip of Curt’s tape rule had broken off, and rather than splash out on a new tape refill, he had cut 10mm off the end and riveted the clip back on. Of course, he automatically compensated for that 10mm on whatever measurement he made, and it had become so second-nature to him that he forgot to warn me about it! His mind was so adept at measurements that it always astounded me how he could use his vernier measuring caliper that was marked in imperial units (thousandths of an inch) to produce metric results.
The other amusing event was when he and I were returning from a trip to commission a rotary table control system at the Eimeldingen factory in the Black Forest region of Germany. We boarded the plane, but when they started the engines, one of them caught fire and we were evacuated off the aircraft and back into the departure lounge, where we had a lengthy wait for another aircraft to be flown out for us from the UK. During this time, we consumed numerous cups of coffee, and Curt decided he would make use of the time by exchanging his German currency back into UK pounds. The conversation was all in German, which I don’t speak, but I got the impression that there might have been a bit of a discussion about exchange rates going on. Anyway, we got back to our seats with yet another coffee, and Curt started double-checking his currency deal. I remember him almost exploding to find that he had been short-changed, and he declared he “wasn’t bloody having that!” and went to remonstrate with the cashier, which he did – loudly and with much gesticulation, eventually returning with a corrected cash sum. He was still chuntering to himself about the injustice of it all, when I asked him how much he had been swindled out of. It was something like 5 pence!
Another of those Eimeldingen rotary tables found its way to the Rolls Royce aircraft engine factory in Filton, Bristol (long gone now, but the wonderful Aerospace Bristol museum now stands on the site), and I had to go and commission that equipment. It was just before Christmas and I knew I wouldn’t get finished in time to be back at work before the Christmas holiday, so I said goodbye to Curt, wished him a happy holiday and said I would see him in the new year. But he died, so I never did see him again. It was a great shock because he had seemed in fine fettle when I last saw him, and it was a great sadness to me.
I often think of him, especially when one of his favourite phrases pops into my head such as, “abso – bloody – lutely”, (when he strongly agreed with something), or “Don’t confuse me with the facts – my mind is made up” (when he realised he was losing an argument!).
David. (DCH).
I’ve recently been reminded of how “fruity” some of the language could be on the shop floor, especially at Newall Engineering, where I moved to in 1980. One of the masters of anglo-saxon language was George Ireland, a very friendly foreman, who would not just sprinkle his sentences with swear words, but when excited, would actually inject such language into the middle of a word. What I have in mind here is when George returned to work after lunch having been caught in a violent storm with such strong winds that it blew his umbrella inside out. As George came through the door into the factory, dripping wet from top to toe and sporting his ruined brolly, he expostulated, “Look, just look what’s happened to my um-f*ckin-brella!”
David. (DCH).
My father was Ken Swayne, Finance Director until he retired in 1973. Sadly he only enjoyed a few years of retirement in Seaford, Sussex before he died in 1979. He is pictured on your site proposing the toast to the Newall Associate companies at the 1961 dinner in the Angel Hotel. He features in every one of the quartet of shots, clearly enjoying the (typically) all male occasion! I was only 14 in 1961 and then followed Dad in a career in accountancy. Around 1968 I was given some work experience at Newall in the Cost Office at Fletton, working with Chief Accountant Hugh Breach and Cost Accountants Kevin (Clinch?) and Terry (?) on the massive data collection needed to cost out the machine tools, especially the numerically controlled crankshaft grinders for orders from Fiat leading to the production of the Russian Lada, and the Alfasud in Naples. I learnt much about the complications caused by buying in metric and production in thous. The data collected from the shop floor time records was collected by us manually using hand operated calculators until the Technical Director, Keith Temple, came across punched card machines. I was at the first demonstration of a Newall computer which filled an office under the Cost Office with punched card operators next door. We gazed in awe as we waited for the machine to give us the solution to an impossibly unlikely calculation which it did after some time and much whirring of magnetic tape. Keith Temple was, of course, the brains behind much of the innovation at Newall at the time and I became his “oppo” helping him to cost out his inventions. We used an early example of the electronic calculator the “ANITA” (A New Introduction To Arithmetic) which I had come across as part of the audit team of some investment managers in London, and much overtime was necessary to meet deadlines. I was proud to have worked with Keith; his tragic death was a shock which affected Dad and me very badly.
The large contracts of the late ’60s required expansion which could not be sustained into the ’70s and it was clear that I was no longer required. Dad’s successor as Finance Director (?Gummer) thought that I should concentrate on my studies to become a Chartered Accountant. He was right of course. Around the same time a banker called Rea took over as chair and the writing was on the wall.
I hope this stirs a few memories.
All best,
David
[[Hello David. Thanks for contacting us. It’s always good to hear those memories. I imagine many today will not know what you are talking about when you mention the punched card system, which was then followed by punched tape.
You must be an expert on Newall’s Brisch code system which was used to identify and cost every thing, from a miniature germanium diode used on electronic boards, to massive electric motors. It was a code system I struggled with, and frequently got me into trouble!
Also, you have possibly given us a few more names to add to our unofficial list of employees.
Mike.]]
Thanks Mike, I was wrong about my employment dates. They were from April 1970 until October 1972.
Ken Swayne is standing in the top left shot of the Angel Hotel dinner quartet. To his left is ?, Jim Player and Denis Player. Is Sidney P. to the left of Denis? Could be, as he also spoke. Keith Temple is to his left. I never met Sidney Player. He was in daily contact every morning from the Isle of Wight with Dad (who sorted the post), wanting to know the details of any orders received.
Of course I remember Brisch numbers very well, but my fevered 76 year old brain cannot recall the detail other than the fact that they were 10 digit numeric starting with two digits for the machine type I think. Purchase invoices and time records were punched in to give us the production costs we needed for sales. Fraught with hazard of course but we considered ourselves expert at the time. The Cost Accountant (Kevin ?) looked after actual cost and Terry ? was the Estimator.
After much to-ing and fro-ing with B.Elliott and Zurich Insurance I was given a “Revised Late Retirement Date” of 16th. March 2016 and received a cheque for £475.50 for my full pension entitlement. I considered that a victory as I wasn’t expecting anything.
Best Wishes,
David
My name is Stewart Allen, I started my electrical apprenticeship with Ed Coombs in 1966. We started out in the apprentice school at the Fletton factory and moved into the new facility in Shrewsbury Av. I think it was 1967.
I do remember we had an ‘open day’ on the sports field not long after Shrewsbury Av, opened. One of the sons of the player family lent his go cart for the day – great fun going round the circuit made up (with) straw bales.
I also played football for the Newalls team, alongside Fred Addy and Dick West.
Ed and I had a few adventures on the way. We are going to get together soon and try to remember as many as we can and of course share these memories with you.
Ed went on to work in the Electronics Division (Ivatt Way) after our apprenticeships, I was on the Commissioning team for a short time and then transferred to the Electronics Division. I was on the service team but mostly I repaired the boards that were used in the readouts. At that time (1970ish) they were all single plug in boards and eventually moving on to the Digipac system.
There was an electronic board assembly area and Alec Smith was in charge of the production, I can’t remember how many assembly benches there were but probably about 8.
I am still in contact with Ed and regularly meet up for a coffee.
At the time of joining the apprentice scheme we could choose between a wooden toolbox or a metal one, I chose the metal one, photo attached, still going strong but rarely used now.
I found my original booklet that was issued on starting our journey, also attached, if the quality isn’t too good let me know and I’ll scan them in properly.
[[Fantastic. Thank you Stewart. We are really pleased that you have contacted us. We were beginning to think that some of those colleagues of ours from many years ago were lost to us. We are really looking forward to hearing some of your stories, but with a certain amount of trepidation – it could that we would prefer not to be reminded of some of the embarrassing episodes of our early career! Be assured though that that would not stop us posting your memories, even if they contradicted our own. Keep them coming – while we still have the mental capacity to record them.
We would like to add your photos to our Photo Gallery pagee but would orefer to re-scan them first. I’ll contact you by email to see what would be possible.
Mike.]]
[[from Peter Garratt. Peter’s story is the first from a Luffenham factory member.]]
Hi to all ex Newall workers. I started working at the Re Newall plant Luffenham as an apprentice in 1971, and will always remember working with a great bunch of guys, although the foreman G S always seemed to give me a bit of a hard time! Two jobs I really enjoyed were rebuilding gearboxes & scraping wheelhead bearings. Don’t think any of the old boys are around anymore – Collin might be though. Thanks for the memories.
[[Thank you Peter. We were really pleased to get your feedback. You mentioned scraping wheelhead bearings. I remember when I started at Newall in the electronics division in 1969, I was amazed to see so many men spending their days scraping bearings/slides etc. It seemed to me that while it was a very skillful process, I would have thought very boring. Perhaps that is why the tannoy system was playing what I think was called ‘workers’ playtime’ on the ‘light programme’. (I must be showing my age there – according to Wikipedia, Workers’ Playtime stopped being broadcast in 1964!)
If you have any other stories about your time with Newall we’d love to hear them. Also, can you shed any light on the early days of the Used Machine Division (UMD), later to be re-named Re-Newall. Do you know when they moved into the Luffenham site, or when they left and where to? Any information would be very helpful.]]
[[Peter replied as follows:]]
I stated in my last correspondence that 71 was my start year. I did in fact become an employee in 70, but as it was full time at college, I didn’t see much of the works apart from college hols. I do remember my first pay packet pre decimal £7-1s- 1p. So that was the time I felt I was really at work.
I don’t know how much you know about Re Newall but our main line of work was re manufacturing of crankshaft grinders from the motor industry Ford, BL, and in later years Skoda (some of the M/Cs pre dated even the BMC Austin/Morris partnership). Having been in use 40 + years just shows the build quality of the Newall brand. Some of the Ford M/C’s had to be re designed as they were to produce the new V6 blocks, as opposed to the old in line 4s. The re manufacturing of machine tools, of course, had big tax advantages to the companies.
One of my later jobs was to build an auto loader for the V6 line. It would pick the crankshaft off a conveyor line and drop it into the jaws of the grinder – all powered pneumatically (bugger, they were heavy). Another job G S got me on was engraving legend plates for the Square D switches – that was FUN. I mentioned Skoda earlier and I had those legend plates to do as well, but from a basic English alphabet – even more FUN with squiggles, dots, and strange letters.
You mentioned scraping looked boring – far from it. When you start off with a spindle that would sit ½” inside a new bearing, and 2hrs later you blue the spindle for the last time, pop it in and then see the lovely feather marks on that bearing (proud or what). It’s something that has disappeared from the M/C tools of today. You also asked about the start & finish of the Luffenham works? I do know most of the workforce came from the Padholme Rd. works, so perhaps there may be somebody who can remember the start of it. As for closure I left in late 76 for a supervisory job (double the money whoopy) and I do believe it lasted another 4 years, but don’t quote me on that score.
Hope that gives a bit more of an insight into Luffenham. P.S. I read that memory about that crazy jig borer and the radar. I remember it. I did spend a little time on it with the guy – it was most weird, almost as if it was possessed by aliens.
[[Thank you Peter. Very interesting. I applogise for suggesting that the scraping job must have been boring. I understand better now. Consider it to be down to the ignorance of those brought up and working in electronics! Hopefully we’ll get more stories from those at the sharp end of machine tool manufacturing.
By the way, I was the guy that went over to Luffenham to investigate the readout problem, but I don’t know who it was that had the bright idea that this ‘every 9 second’ blip coincided with the radar system on the airfield.]]
[[Dorothy Hovell’s memory below reminded Ray Morris of this ‘blizzard’ event.]]
Mercury Arc Rectifiers that’s reminded me of something . . .
When I was in my last year of apprenticeship I worked on 2436 Jig Borers which used those things and one day Jack Wilkinson and Ted Sharman asked me to fit a capacitor in a rectifier cabinet. When I had finished, Jack and Ted stuck their heads in the cabinet to have a look, and Ted said “switch on Ray”.
Oh dear. I hadn’t realised it was a polarised capacitor and seconds after I switched on there was a bang. Jack and Ted withdrew their heads which were now covered in bits of capacitor. It looked like they had stood in heavy snow.
I was very embarrassed but later, John Cobbold and I had a good laugh about it.
Those were the days.
[[We’ll never know if Jack Wilkinson and Ted Sharman could see the funny side!]]
[[From Dorothy Hovell who worked for Newall on four occasions . . . ]]
I am researching scrap metals, etc., for use in a children’s story I am writing and remembered there was mercury in the old varionic rectifiers (which looked like glass octopuses) that Newalls used in their machine tools when the company was at Old Fletton in Peterborough.
When I worked at Newalls (from 1957 to 1967 with three gaps) I was a young working mother, known as Dorothy Hovell. My first boss was Jack Wilkinson (who ousted Harry Smith) as Chief Electrical Engineer. After Mr.Wilkinson, I worked for Cyril Stocks, the corpulent Chief Buyer, then Ralph Unwin, the Export Manager, and ended up back with Jack Wilkinson, then the Consultant Electrical Engineer. My memories of Newalls are fond and treasured. I really enjoyed working for them.
Attached is a copy of a comic poem which I wrote in my first year of employment at Newalls. It made my boss Jack, Ted Sharman, Don Thompson and Don Calvert (the ‘big four’ in our department) laugh. I am 84 now, so I shouldn’t think there are many former employees who would remember those days, but maybe Mr. Oldfield’s formidable reputation for handing out “pills” when things didn’t go his way will have survived the years. Anyway, please feel free to use it for colour on your web page if you would like to do so. [[Dorothy’s poem can be downloaded here.]]
Well, I didn’t find out the price of waste copper or mercury during my web surfing today but I did find a source of fond memories relating to the ‘good old days’ and I hope you will keep your Newall page going.
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[[The following memory was received from Chris Bennett – Newall Group Sales 1964 to 1969. An earlier memory from Chris can be seen further down this page.]]
It’s Chris Bennett again after a long absence. I neglected to mention in my previous email that I was also the projectionist when customers needed a film show of our machines. I stood in the very small projection room with my trusty Bell & Howell 16mm projector running films in the conference room for customers from all over the world. I was also responsible for refilling the conference room cocktail cabinet with spirits and cigarettes. If I needed to replenish anything I would get a signed chit off John Pudney, take it to the canteen and Maisie or Joan would give me a new bottle of spirits or 20 Embassy cigarettes. And that was my downfall. One day I picked up a cigarette and thought “I wonder what this tastes like” and lit it. The next thing I knew I was on 40 a day for the next 40 years.
Anyway my point in writing is that I have come across some Newall playing cards and a couple of Make a Note pads. I am also sure, somewhere in my loft, I have some of the company’s brochures. If I can find them I will let you have them as when I am no longer here I have no one to leave them to so they will likely be chucked in the skip along with all my other printed samples from other companies I worked for.
If you would like these things please let me know.
Chris.
[[Thanks Chris. We’d certainly be interested in having any Newall memorabilia you have available. Do you know of anyone that might have copies of those sales promotion films you referred to? They would certainly be of interest.]]
[[More memories from Chris.]]
I remember many of the customers we showed films to came from the eastern block and we used to give them a Parker pen set when they returned home. We often wondered if they were allowed to keep them.
I remember many happy times going with Colin Clarke to Keighley Grinders and OMT in Maidenhead making films and taking still photographs as well as the sites at Old Fletton and Padholme Road. My one regret is that I never made it to the Newall foundry.
I also remember going to one of the International Machine Tool exhibitions at Olympia and helping to set our stand up there. One of our exhibits was a very large OMT rotary table which looked as though it weighed a ton. However it was actually made of wood and we asked the stand fitters to move it for us. We had four big burly blokes at each corner of the machine and on the Foreman’s command of “one, two, three lift “ all four lifted the table up not realising it weighed next to nothing. It went flying up in the air but luckily wasn’t damaged and thankfully the standfitters saw the funny side of it. It was taboo to do anything yourself and the whole set up came to a halt one day when one of our guys tried to replace a faulty light tube himself.
Anyway that’s enough for the moment. At the time I was in my very early twenties (I am 74 now) and both Colin and myself were single. My parents lived at Whitton near Twickenham so we used to stay with them some weekends and we usually ended up familiarising ourselves with Soho. But that’s another story!!
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From Brian Strickson
Newall apprentice (No1 and No2 factories, Peterborough)
Hi
I’ve just found your wonderful website and had a nostalgic trip of 50 years past.
I started as an apprentice on 3rd September 1968 at the apprentice school at no2 factory.
Mr FJ Pasby was head. Bryn Handcock (shown in the apprentice school photo) a Mr Miller “optics” and Mr D Dexter.
Although my time there was brief (I only served my apprenticeship) I can fill a couple of names in your photo’s.
In the “Apprentices’ lucky day” photo as you say Lech Pilarski he used to give me a lift into work, middle is Greg Bedford, his father worked in the offices I think probably a work chaser? forth from left is Jeff Stafford, he was in the year above me at Stanground school.
The shop floor group photo at no2 factory :- fourth “face” from left rear is Francis Lyon apprentice of my year. The men in front are part of the slinger gang, crane drivers i think,
The last photo the “farewell”, I recognise some faces but no names but the two “white coats” next-to Ginger, was he a shop floor inspector? next to him is Mr H C Antony milling/boring foreman, my boss for a while,lovely chap, was he known as Tony?
I was a good friend of an apprentice Clement Porter. His father of the same name was chauffeur to Mr Player.
I left Newalls when they closed No1 factory. I [had been] put on cylindrical grinding in the old hydraulics shop no2, I had no experience of that as when I should have been on the grinding section I had broken my thumb so I missed a lot. So by the time I got the job parallel it was undersize,!! so that’s the time I left.
Before that I spent some time in the Jig Boring room No1 on the machine in the far right corner, 1” roller bed micro locator for X&Y. optical readouts were on some machines, was it called X&Y in those days??
For the next twenty eight years I worked in warehousing but my last eighteen years at work I spent as a vertical miller, heidenhain controls,cnc. machine program and setting at a small firm in St Ives so my apprenticeship stood me in good stead.
I still have my table of limits & fits issue 1-January 69. and the drill drift i made in the apprentice school, still in use at my last job as no one else had one.
I hope you find this of any use.
Yours Mr Brian Strickson
[[A bit extra from Brian.]]
The car Sydney Player had I think was only a Jaguar. I won’t swear to it but something in the back of my mind [tells me that] I don’t think he was pompous enough to have a Roller or Bentley.
I’ve found another face, in the picture of the last apprentices in front of the roll grinder at no2, third from the right front is Alec Bridges he was charge hand on grinding section at no1, I spent some time with him easy going and very helpful. The third from the right rear, not an apprentice, is a chap called John (surname escapes me) he was on horizon boring at no1 what he’s doing there I don’t know.
Some things you remember a lot is lost in time.
Brian
[[On the right is a copy of Brian’s Apprenticeship Certificate.]]
From Ron Wilkins
OMT Maidenhead
Browsing through a box of my old papers during the 2020 Covid lockdown, I came across my Deed of Apprenticeship which covered August 1962 to 1967, also a copy of the OMT Optical Inspection Equipment catalogue, with its 21 glossy pages reminding me of my time spent at OMT.
At the age of 16 coming to the end of my schooling, I recall my dad telling me of a work colleague of his who’s son was an apprentice at OMT, that apprentice was Bob Peacock and, having recommended the OMT apprenticeship scheme, I remember sitting with my dad in Mr K Passfield’s office, the apprentice supervisor at that time, nervously signing, with a shaky hand the, “signed sealed and delivered” box on my Deed of Apprenticeship, which I was not to see again for another five years.
For the first year I attended the Government Training Centre in Slough. This was hard work punctuated by welcome breaks for cocoa in the canteen, and day release at Slough college, and one evening night school.
The next four years were spent in the various departments. I remember working on a Russian-made milling machine which I think was part of an exchange deal with Newall machines. I recall the fitting shop, Arthur Sawkins the foreman and his second in command Ray Slade, where I helped on the assembly of small rotary tables, and the large WP100 projector. Time spent in optical assembly managed by Mick Pope I found especially interesting. I must mention the Gibbs brothers, Dave and Stan, who provided guidance during my time in the various departments.
I joined the Sports and Social Club which held regular dances at the Rays Social Club in Blackamoor Lane, it was here that I met my wife. Her sister worked in the front office, she married Brian Ansell who at the time worked in the jig borer department before managing inspection. Every Friday evening, during my year at the GTC, I would call in to the OMT front office to pick up my wages.
Ernie Gieler took over as apprentice supervisor. He was quite strict and to be feared. However, when travelling on holiday with Brian Ansell and our wives, Ernie invited us to visit him and his wife staying in Fulpmes, Austria. They were excellent hosts, showing us around including a traditional Austrian night. We communicated with his wife long after Ernie passed away.
Following C&G, ONC and HNC courses at Slough College, I was able to gain a place in the drawing office for my 5th year. I recall the valuable advice gained from, the Chief Draughtsman Gordon White, Chief Designer Ray Butler and Design Manager Harry Smith. I stayed on in the drawing office until leaving in 1969 to pursue a path in electronic control.
My reason for leaving, with the move to Helston on the horizon, and having set up home with a baby on the way, we wanted to stay in the Maidenhead area. In summary I am grateful for the OMT experience, the people I met, and knowledge gained which has helped me up to retirement and beyond.
From Brian Groves.
OMT Maidenhead.
I joined OMT as an indentured craft apprentice after leaving Maidenhead Grammar School in 1964, alongside David Field. Other apprentices were John Hughes, Norman Eatwell and Chris Birnie.
First year training was ‘off the job’ at the Government Training Centre on the Slough Trading Estate followed by a further 4 years in house training and day release for college. I was lucky enough to be encouraged to undertake 2 days / week plus evenings at colleges in Maidenhead, Windsor, High Wycombe and Reading for City & Guilds and National Certificate training.
I progressed through the machine and fitting shops at OMT and spent the last 2 years of my apprenticeship in the drawing office and finally in the planning department where I was heavily involved in process planning for the Maidenhead factory but also planning for the eventual move to Helston. In 1969 I completed my training as a Gauge and Instrument Maker and received my Certificate of Apprenticeship from the Scientific Instrument Manufacturing Association (SIMA).
The company move to Helston was needed because it was very difficult to recruit and retain labour in the Maidenhead area (there was tremendous competition from firms on the Slough Trading Estate which paid higher ‘London Rates’ of pay). Also the local authority in Maidenhead was threatening to compulsorily purchase the portion of the site adjoining Bridge Road (where Oldfield House stood) to accommodate a proposed large roundabout at the junction of Bridge Road and Oldfield Road. This major roundabout was never built, although a much smaller one was constructed there a few years ago.
In the final year of my apprenticeship the company was involved in changing from imperial to metric measurement in production and introducing more electronically biased control systems for its products. For the new factory we were also moving from piece work to day rate working and introducing numerically controlled machines as well as recruiting a substantially new workforce. All heady stuff for a 20 year old apprentice!
In Maidenhead Oldfield House housed the administrative, finance, management and sales offices with the planning office and photographic department behind it. Further back in a separate building was the drawing office and further back again was the machine shop and behind it the fitting shop.
Products manufactured were the whole range of OMT rotary and rotary lifting tables, Newall measuring machines, OMT Omtimeters, toolmakers microscopes, optical dividing heads, roundness measuring equipment, projection pantographs, air gauging equipment (Etamic) and Keighley universal grinders. A widely varied, low volume product range.
I particularly remember:
Ernie Gieler – the Teutonic and highly strung toolroom supervisor prone to throwing heavy objects at anyone who incurred his displeasure.
Les Bareham – the Works Manager – who would also cut your hair in his office at lunchtime.
Jack Hann – General Manager who kept a decrepit old 2 cylinder Jowett Bradford van parked in the rear car park. I never saw it move in my time at Maidenhead.
Jeremy Rowe – who always seemed to be being berated by his father (our joint MD) HJ Rowe.
Geordie – the flat capped fettler, who was always smothered in debris from grinding castings and who would disappear swiftly over the wall at lunchtime straight into the back entrance of the ‘Rats Ole’ (The Grenfell Arms in Oldfield Road) where several pints would be lined up on the bar waiting for him.
Mr Christmas –Company Secretary
Alan Dietrich – Accountant
Nessie, Beverley and Helen in the various offices.
Mr Ansell – Chief Inspector
Arthur Sawkins and the Gibbs brothers – fitting shop.
Ray Butler (Chief Designer) and Mr White (Chief Draughtsman) –Drawing Office.
The unearthly glow of the mercury arc rectifiers of the Newall Jig borers.
The very skilled ladies who operated the capstan and turret lathes in the machine shop.
The Newall / OMT sales demonstration vehicle in blue / grey livery (which looked like a formula 1 race car transporter of the era) – manned by Pete Tickner?
The delicious beef dripping rolls sold by the ladies operating the tea trolley.
The horribly sore throat you would get from inhaling the fumes from the neat cutting oil used, when operating the thread grinder.
The basement at OldField House was used for experimental Etamic air gauging equipment (Dr Butler). Pumps were installed in case of further flooding from the Thames.
OMT Helston.
After completion of my apprenticeship I was asked to relocate to the new Helston factory.
Initially the MD was Ron Kennedy, with Jeremy Rowe as General Manager but latterly Chris Bull took over as MD with RB Carpenter as Works Director.
Dougie Austin was the Chief Planning Engineer; Ray Butler the Chief Designer and Cecil Studley came in as the accountant.
Ralph Eddy was the buyer, and Kathy (the fastest 2 fingered typist in the west) was his assistant (they can both be seen in the photo accompanying the article on the new factory building in Industry Week (January 1970).
Bob Peacock was the production planner, whilst I was the process planner reporting to Dougie Austin. Later after Dougie suffered in a serious car accident and had to retire I was promoted to Chief Planning Engineer (and sometime project manager) looking after Trevor Wiliams and Ray Brown (who later worked for me at Autogard) in planning and n.c. programming , Ivor Bath and Vivian Burt in time study and John Hughes in tool design / heat treatment. Latterly I was involved in the move in manufacturing of the smaller range of Newall jig borers (1520) from Peterborough to Helston. This necessitated the installation of a large Butler planer in the machine shop – which was so tall that we had to cut holes in the roof to install the leadscrews!
A layout plan of the Helston factory can be seen in the article ‘Pacemakers’, in Industry Week January 1970. Only the fitting shop was fully air conditioned, the system was so sensitive the at the end of the day, when all the other employees had left, if you walked through the assembly shop (often in the dark as that was where the light switches were located) to the personnel exit door on the opposite side of the factory the system would roar into life frightening you half to death.
Optical manufacturing did not move to Helston during my time there but was planned for a future phase.
I recall that labour was more plentiful, but the degree of precision required caused new employees some problems. The move to n.c. controlled manufacturing – horizontal and vertical boring, and milling was certainly justified, but the programming was certainly complex – all ‘point to point’ with no canned cycles or parametric to help. This was in the early days when n.c. controllers were all hard wired, instruction was by punched paper tape and reliability of equipment was not the best.
The Helston area was a lovely place to live, if somewhat remote before the introduction of the M5 motorway and the upgrading of the A303, A30 and the A38 to avoid all the small villages and towns that they snaked through. Bob Peacock, John Hughes, Jim Flinders and I shared a rented house in Porthleven. Being single men in our 20’s we all dated local girls, John married his, mine, a lovely local hair salon owner got away. Bob moved back ‘up country’. Jim, I think, ran off with one of the girls from the OMT office.
I was fortunate to be sponsored by OMT in further training in Works Management, at Cornwall Technical College in Poole and in 1973 received an SSRC post graduate studentship to study for my MBA (specialising in Manufacturing Operations Management and Industrial Marketing) at Cranfield. At the end of March 1974 my employment was transferred from OMT to the Newall Engineering Company in Peterborough, where I was offered a position in the marketing dept., to coincide with the completion of my studies at Cranfield. In the event I decided not to accept this offer and left to become Director and General Manager of a contracting company. I will always be grateful to OMT / Newall for the training and opportunities they afforded me over the ten years that I worked for them.
Postscript.
During the latter part of my time at Cranfield, with a few of my fellow students we carried out a project which involved us in negotiating with Newall Engineering regarding a possible purchase of the rights to manufacture OMT products , which had just been put up for sale.
[[ See our OMT (General) page – Late History for more details. ]]
Brian Groves
Hej from Sweden. My name is Barry Chandler, and I was only with Newall’s from ’67 to ’69 upon returning to England from Volvo in Sweden. My previous employer, Perkins, had an intake stop, and I was offered a position in the Newall drawing office, which I took. I was totally new to the form of heavy machinery, and took it as a challenge, but found that I was simply not cut out for it, preferring to work with the end result as you might say, the crankshafts and camshafts as finished items to be installed in engines. When Perkins opened up again it was a fond farewell to Newalls, leaving as a wiser and more knowledgeable draughtsman as a result. I still have in my possession mementos from that time, items provided to make life easier:- an OMT Handbook, a well-thumbed Newall Standard Table of Limits (In Inches) and the later metric version of which I have seen that you already have a copy. I was also responsible for a slight re-design of the Newall nameplate as fitted to the machines, but unfortunately I cannot find my example. Being now wheelchair bound, access to my workshop/garage is severely limited, but I will find it and send you a photo in due course if you wish. Unfortunately I am unable to remember the names of anyone I worked with there, age plays a part I fear, but I can still see many of them in my minds eye, as all were very helpful in trying to make me feel at home there, including my section leader on the crankshaft grinder section.
[[Thank you Barry. I started with Newall in January 1969 working with Jim Phillips in the electronics department. This meant that for my first few years with Newall, I had very little contact with drawing office staff apart from Clive Ellington in the electrical section.
Please let us know if you find any other information (or photographs) relating to you time with Newall]].
Just to say how great it was to look through the website. I was one of the last of the apprentices to go through Shrewsbury Ave site, there were 7 of us – Myself, Andy McCullouch (his mum Joy worked in the offices and eventually married Stan Wheeler), Adrian Behenna, Chris Sharpe, Alan Harrison, Brian Moore(?) and Rob McHattie. We started in 1980 and all managed to get our papers. Great times! My mentor in the light machine shop was Charlie Newman, a turner. Vic Markley was our foreman. I attach a photo of most of us apprentices alongside a cylindrical grinder that was made – I think the roll on it weighed 15 Tons. Vic is in the photo far right; I am second left.
Ian Polson.
[[The photo Ian provided has been included in the section on Churchill Roll Grinders on our Newall Engineering Products Page 3]].
Hi, my name is Bob Peacock. I stumbled across your website when trying to locate one of the employees working at OMT in the 1960’s. Instead I ended up reading the comments from other people that have played a part of my life at OMT. As a result, for what it’s worth I penned the following:
I joined OMT in Maidenhead in 1960 when I left school to complete a five-year apprenticeship. I must admit it was the best time I have ever spent in a company. I started on the same day as Mr Sid Gibbons and we seem to follow each other throughout our time on a slightly competitive basis. After the initiation process of getting buckets of steam and left-handed screw drivers we settled down to an industrious time. We followed the normal apprenticeship route through the machine shop. Turning, Milling etc. The learning process was excellent where it was normal practice to read a micrometer to a tenth of a thou’ by eye.
The fitting shop was a great experience. It was a challenge on the detail fitting section to beat the piecework system by making or adapting the jigs, therefore cutting the through time by 200 to 300 percent and earning greater bonuses. I was given the job of assembling, from start to finish, 10” rotary tables under the watchful eye of Mr. Arthur Sawkins (fitting shop foreman at that time). This involved preparing all the components for finishing and painting, assembling the detail components and hand scraping the top to within a tenth of a thousand of an inch all over with about 50% bearing surface spotting. Also, we had to set the optical circle with an auto-collimator and prepare it for final inspection.
I progressed from there back into the machine shop on to the grinding section, part of which was spent on the thread grinder. Out of all the challenging components there are a few which stand above the rest. The Optical Thread Comparator requires a stylus with a ground ball on the end to fit into the thread being measured. Obviously, these have to be a perfect spheroid and extremely accurate in diameter and cover the range of sizes and thread forms the machine was capable of measuring. The grinding wheel had to be formed with a cube diamond on the pantograph. Other oddballs were the rollers used in the Measuring Machine base. Each roller when it has been hard chromed forms a build-up of chrome on each end which has to be removed then ground parallel and round, chamfered and the locating spigot formed on each end before being finally lapped to size. The tolerances to which we worked were very stringent because over a 2 or 3 metre length any error would accumulate and be unacceptable. During this time, I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Mr Gordon Wheaton, Mr Bennet, Keith Thompson and of course Dave and Stan Gibbs who eventually transferred to the Helston Factory. Being lowly paid apprentices, the camaraderie between the “year” was very good both at work and socially. There was quite a good underground operation in skimming motor cylinder heads and blocks. We also managed to run a coach to Richmond Ice Rink every few weeks, and of course stopping off for a Fish and Chip supper on the way home.
After I finished my time, I decided to gain some commercial experience and left OMT to work in Slough in production control. One day I received a phone call from Mr Jack Hann at OMT and in the course of the conversation he invited me to come and talk to him. It was around 1967 when I returned to OMT and according to the OMT Management Structure Diagram was responsible for Progress and Planning. This started a period of very hard work trying to meet the deadlines and ensuring parts were in the right place at the right time. At that time there was no mention of the move to Cornwall. I was in an office next to the Buying Department where I first meet Mr George Roberts who was responsible for Purchasing at Maidenhead and to whom I will be eternally grateful for shaping my future career later in life, but that’s another story. Some of the work was out-sourced to local machining companies to meet the production capacity requirements.
I was eventually asked if I would like to transfer to Helston and saw it as an opportunity to gain some independence and establish a new life. I can still recall catching the overnight sleeper from Paddington and emerging from a warm train onto a chilly Redruth station. In the early days the grey building, being partially finished was a bit austere.
At that time, we were attempting to manage production with completely new staff with a manual production control system. We recruited staff from Hollman Brothers in Camborne and RNAS Culdrose in Helston and in all fairness the calibre of the people was really good, but they were not used to the sort of tolerances the work demanded. It took some time to achieve the standard, but they were supported by the likes of Mr Dougie Austin, Gordon Wheaton, Tony Warburton, Norman Ladd, Trevor Williams, John Hughes, Brian Groves. We formed a Sports and Social Club to integrate the people that transferred and the locally recruited Staff which worked extremely well and as a team we worked very well together.
The experience of my apprenticeship has served me well over the years in my working life and helped me overcome some of the challenges set me.
[[This story by has been reproduced from the January 1947 issue of the Newall newsletter ‘Precision’. It was written by Kathie Bradley, and is an interesting example of life while working at Newall at that time.]]
The supply had to meet the urgent demand. But who had to take the place of these fighting men ? Women ? Yes. They could, and they did; and I was one of those women.
Six years ago I left an easy job at Symington’s to do my bit at Newall’s and help with the war effort. I found it very strange at first, working among men and young boys, wearing boiler suit and cap, which I cannot say I like, and working machines which I never thought I would have the nerve even to touch.
At first there were so few girls with whom to make friends, but as time went on, girls rallied round and came to help with the big job. We worked long hours, both day and night shifts, including Sundays, starting at 8 o’clock; but we did not mind that so much really, until the beginning of the air raids, which was the most trying time for our nerves. The men were very kind and considerate, and helped us a good deal, especially when we were flying to the shelters. Of course, those moments were not too bad – when we got used to them! We were always able to amuse ourselves by singing, playing mouth organs, a hot cup of tea, and then back to work after the ALL CLEAR.
Then there were our gay times, such as the work’s dances, which were on Saturday evenings, being our only free evening. Yes, they seemed to help us forget about our machines, gauges, etc.
Christmas times . . . we always enjoyed that part of it. That was, of course, without a foreman’s or chargehands cold, grey eye upon us. But, then, they were very understanding, and would not mind too much. We always had a moment to spare for the purpose of a sprig of mistletoe, or a spot of mother’s ruin. Even then, foremen and chargehands have their good days and their bad, just like the rest of us.
Well, back to the grindstone!
Then came the end of the war – husbands and sweethearts came home. The friends which I found were honest and good friends, all had to part. No more laughs with all the girls in the cloakroom at 12:20 or 5:20 or 7:20, whichever we were working. The remaining girls went back to the different towns which they had left, the rest got married, so that leaves me still at the same machine, doing the work I like so much.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Miss K. Bradley – Newall’s sweetheart. Operates Herbert Capstan No. 2s. Average run of work to + .001″. Joined Newall at time of Dunkirk.
[[Here a few of Eddie Murphy’s memories of his time with the group]]
Ike Good’s older son, Ted became Works Manager at Newall Peterborough. The younger son, Kenneth, was in the Clergy. In my time the major step forward was the association with Louis Gamet of France who made precision taper roller bearings. There is no doubt this moved Keighley Grinders up a notch and led to the first automatic angle approach grinder. Louis used to visit with his Bugatti.
We always had 4 months’ of orders which enabled Arnold Gamble the General Manager to ensure that all castings were well weathered. The Newall-owned foundry was in Lancashire. The major expansion at Keighley Grinders was in the time of John Macinley, the son-in-law of Dennis Player. At that time Keighley Grinders also had Jeremy Rowe, the son of Harold Rowe who was MD at O.M.T. in Maidenhead. I believe that many Newall products were moved to Keighley but that is after my time.
I moved to Newtool in Fakenham taking over from Chris Bull the grandson of Sydney. Newall was taken over by the B. Elliot Group. In fact I remain in touch with Harry Wingrove then Elliot Deputy Chairman who recently moved to Somerset.
I was called to Peterborough one winter, the road was icy, I skidded across the road and hit the kerb causing damage. I drove slowly to a garage for an urgent repair and they gave me a lift to the factory. At the end of the day I had to get back to the garage to collect my car. It was Joe Hobbs who drove me to the garage. I remember he phoned his wife to explain why he would be late home.
E.M.
[[The following information was supplied by Chris Bennett]]
From 1964 to 1969 I was the assistant to the Group Publicity Manager, John Pudney at Newall Group Sales Offices in Oundle Road. What a job! I had the privilege of visiting most companies in the Group as well as attending any International Machine Tool exhibitions during that time. I also went to a number of our customers such as Ford at Dagenham with Colin Clarke who was the company photographer and film maker. He and I had many adventures together until he eventually left the company to get married to a Belgian lady and moved to Belgium. Two other members of the Publicity Dept. were Harold Day who processed the many hundreds of photographs from his dark room which we regularly sent out with press releases and Anne Trevor who was our secretary. I remember many of the staff who worked in the Sales Offices and I will list them below:
Noel Staunton who was the Office Manager
Geoff Walker
Jack Adams
Len Bussey
Ralph {not Ron} who was the Export Manager and drove an old “high rise” 3 litre Rover.
Don Brown who was the Sales Manager and lived just a mile away in Oundle Road.
Mick Skelton who used to invite me round to his house occasionally for a meal made by his wife Cristal. He was best man at my wedding and died all too soon in his 40’s.
Masie and Joan we have already mentioned.
Jenny Bennett was the receptionist and telex operator
June Shewan
June Lincoln
Elsa Sayers (I think that was her surname)
Bob Clarke
Mr Wozniak (we never knew his Christian name) who was responsible for all transport whether to exhibitions or customers. We used mainly Kuehne and Nagel in those days. today they are still in business as K and N.
I also knew Vernon Wheeler and Bob Bridges and must not forget Arthur Howard who always found time to talk to me when I wandered down onto the factory floor and needed to know some information for one of the brochures I used to write and help produce. Arthur was a scraper and used to sit there patiently all day with his blue stuff scraping the beds of the jig borers.
Two other people I must mention were overseas agents. The first was Fred Ferraris from Switzerland who used to visit the company regularly and always called in for a chat. the second was Sergio ? [[see next paragraph]] who was our Italian agent and was always bursting into song. He had a fabulous voice and could easily have been an opera singer.
I believe I still have the odd copy of company brochures including an OMT one that I was particularly proud to have designed as well as one or two of the famous Newall Make A Note pads which I will try and dig out and photograph for your site.
I had many adventures while I worked at Newalls – not all for publication I have to say – but I will try and follow this up with one or two on another occasion. To anybody I have missed out of the list above I apologise but at the age of 71 the old brain is getting a bit hazy these days!
C.B.
[[Update. We have received feedback from Simon Wheeler, who added that:
“The Italian agent was Sergio Piuno based in Turin – his wife was Anna with children Raffaella and Christian.”]]
My name is Peter Atkinson and I was an employee of OMT for three years 70/73. I delivered their finished products as far as Glasgow, Cwmbran and Chelmsford. I delivered OMT finished products during these dates from the Helston factory, until closure. I went to most of the factories in the group, Peterborough, Fakenham, High Wycombe, Keighley and I think a place near Southampton. I had a table, can’t recall size to deliver to Massey Ferguson Tractors, Coventry, who as it happened were on strike, typical of the 1970s. They questioned me but let me in. I remember a little happening involving John Hughes. He was in the hardening shop at the rear of the factory next to the car park and he dropped or spilt a container of industrial ammonia, quite pungent, I think you would agree, but luckily there was a roller shutter door opening onto the car park, and everyone got out double-quick.
Amongst others I knew there were Tony Warburton (Machine shop), Mr Studley (Director), Mr Tiplady (Lapping dept.), G Wheaton (Quality control), Ray Kearney (Dispatch), J Hughes (Hardening shop) and Ken Measures, Joe Johnson and A Ladd (all in the Maintenance section). It was a very sad day when the factory shut; not just jobs going but there had seemed to be a good feeling about the place, satisfaction I would say.
P.A.
I heard this tale of an incident that occurred at No. 3 factory before I joined the company. Apparently one of the employees was trying to get into the premises to do some late night work and although he had a key to the factory he had forgotten to bring a key to the outer gate. Having decided he could probably climb over the gate to gain access to the site he was apprehended by a passing policeman (we used to have them in those days) who asked him what he was doing. The chap replied that he was an electrician who needed to get in to do some work. “OK, what’s your name” asked the policeman. “Frank Sparks” came the truthful reply, to which the response was “Sparks eh? – a likely story!” and he was marched off to the police station. It always amuses me to think that there was an electrician called Sparks, the chief inspector was Bert Rule and the service manager was Bill (Wilf?) Bodger.
[[ In July 2022 we were contacted by Stewart Allen who was able to round off the story for us with these additional details: “After trying to convince the police that he was indeed who he said he was (the duty maintenance electrician), he said to them ‘ring my boss Duncan Bishop and he will confirm who I am’. In those days practical jokes were an everyday occurrence, so when the police rang Duncan he said he had never heard of anyone by the name Sparks, and that it sounded too far fetched for him to believe it. This only added to Frank’s misery and he spent a lot longer in the police station than he would have liked. Eventually, Duncan thought better of the situation and rang the police back, trying to explain that he thought it was a wind-up from a co-worker. Needless to say, the police were not very impressed and it was touch and go whether they were going to charge them both with wasting police time. Luckily enough, they eventually saw the funny side and let them off with a warning. Happy days.” ]]
DCH.
Although my father was a well-respected member of senior management he still wasn’t exempt from the occasional wrath of his boss’s tongue. His boss was Mr. Rowe (“old man Rowe”; dad always called him “guvnor”) and he chose to have an argument with my dad while seated at the glass-topped boardroom table in the Maidenhead factory. I don’t know what the argument was about but my father obviously said something wrong because Mr. Rowe shouted at him “No Joe, No Joe, No, No, No!”, each time crashing his fist down on the table to emphasise his displeasure. On the final “No” the glass top of the desk shattered and my dad said quietly “Steady guvnor”.
DCH.
We were getting ready for the machine tool show at the NEC. A firm of specialist machine movers had been engaged to transport the machines safely from Peterborough to Birmingham. Some machines had been deposited at the Ivatt Way factory ready for collection and these included a small Danobat (I think) grinder. Anyway, whether or not it was a Danobat, it was certainly a top-heavy machine that cried out to be lifted from the top. Unfortunately, these specialist machine movers decided to lift it from close to the bottom which they did by putting some bars through the base and then lifting it by slings suspended from a forklift truck. They started to move it, but for some reason the forklift driver got off the truck to go and sort something else out, leaving the load suspended. It was quite a few minutes later (and I still don’t understand what triggered the event) but a group of us watched in amazement as the whole grinding machine suddenly toppled over and smashed to the ground, doing itself a considerable amount of damage.
DCH.
Jim Phillips, our chief engineer, liked us to think of ourselves as one big, happy family (which to be fair, we probably were for most of the time). On one occasion, a new recruit was being introduced to us all in turn. When Jim brought him to meet me he introduced us and told him he would be working alongside me and that we are all one big happy family here, “isn’t that right David?” I replied “Yes Jim” (at which he beamed) but I continued “… except in an emergency and then it’s every man for himself.” Jim’s expression went through several changes until he decided it wasn’t a bad joke and he muttered below his breath “Yes quite so, quite so.”
DCH.
John Stevenson had been a panel builder at No. 3 factory and joined us at Ivatt Way, looking after the PCB prototype etching section and other photographic duties. A Welshman through and through with a super sense of humour, he would often tell stories against himself. One of my favourites was about the time when he arrived home for lunch from the pub rather later than he should, and his wife had worked herself up into a very angry state as the dinner was really ruined. John said as soon as he opened the back door his dinner (complete with plate) came flying across the room, just missed his head and smashed into the wall behind him. “I can’t understand what’s wrong with her” he said, “… she used to be a much better shot than that!”
DCH.
Cica1973, I was called to the North Luffenham Re-Newall site to investigate a problem on a Newall Jig Borer which had been re-furbished, and fitted with a new readout system using the glass grating transducers. The problem was that the position display on one, or both, axes would suddenly ‘jump’, even though the machine axes had not moved. This problem was not unusual on the earlier systems, and was typically caused by power surge when a motor started or stopped. The main cure was to check the earthing system, particularly on the signal cables, and to ensure that the machine guards were earthed and closed. However, in this case, the fault still occurred 2 or 3 times a day even without operating the machine. As might be expected, we then noticed that the fault was worse (occurring every hour or so) with the guards removed. Attempting to investigate further, I tried monitoring the low signal circuit with an oscilloscope. This caused a further deterioration – in fact it became so bad that the fault seemed to occur every few seconds. And there was the clue – we realised that we could predict precisely when the fault would occur – every 9 seconds! When asked what might be happening on the site every 9 seconds, one of the staff noted that a radar system on the nearby RAF airfield rotated and pointed directly at the factory every 9 seconds! We conclude that providing the machine was not being taken to a site next to an airfield, then there should not be a problem.
M.R.
[[ During a meeting with Tom Skop, we were discussing the buildings at the No.2 factory, and the Apprentice School reminded Tom of the following story. He said: ]]
I joined Newall as an apprentice at the No.1 factory in 1966. Soon after that (early 1967) we moved to the new Apprentice School in Shrewsbury Avenue. There, as part of our training, we’d be given the job of making some intricate parts for the optical reader head used on the readout grating system on jig borers. These were quite small parts, and made to a very high degree of accuracy in respect of diameter, flatness etc. Sometimes, we might slip up, and produce something that we knew would fail inspection, and we’d not want to be in trouble for wasting time and material. So occasionally, we’d just hide the faulty piece in our pocket, and set about making a new one, hopefully without any one noticing.
Behind the apprentice school was a fence, beyond which was a field that was part of Newall’s land, and used as a football field. When needing to dispose of a faulty part that had been hidden in ones pocket, we’d surreptitiously chuck the offending part over the fence into the corner of the field!
T.S.
[[ Following on from that last story, we discussed what the building between the Apprentice School, and the main factory bays, was used for. There were 5 bays to this building, and Tom was sure that 3 of the bays were used for stores . . . . ]]
I remember that there were two doors leading into the stores area. When you went through these doors, the stores counter ran across from left to right. Both doors led into the same area, but we were told that we should use the left hand for parts (eg screws etc), and the right hand door for tools (taps for example). On one occasion I went through the right hand door and asked the guy behind the counter for some bolts. I was told I had come in through the wrong door, and he couldn’t help me. So I had to go back outside, and return through the left hand door. I then asked the same guy for the bolts I needed, only to be told they were out of stock! Of course, he could have told me that the first time.
T.S.
[[ The last story reminded Tom of another . . . ]]
I cannot now remember exactly why, but after requesting something, I was told I’d have to go and see Stan Ball – I’m not sure if that was the name, but it was one specific individual I needed to see. I was told he’d be in, say, the machine shop. So I’d go over to the machine shop, and ask someone if Stan Ball was about. The response would be something like “sorry mate, he’s gone over to the hydraulic shop”. So off I’d go. When then making enquiries in the hydraulic shop, there might be some discussion between two or three people about whether anyone had seen Stan Ball. Then someone would ‘remember’ that Stan had said he was going to (say) the drawing office. Off I went . . .
It was not till some time later that I discovered that this ‘Stan’ guy had died a couple of years ago, or never existed!
Those were the days!
T.S.
My first major project at Newall Electronics was a control system for an automatic inspection machine at RAE Bedford that was going to be used for checking wind tunnel models of Concorde wing shapes that were then being developed and tested. I remember Jim Phillips’s design included some revolutionary new dynamic memory chips with a capacity of 128 bits, miniscule by today’s standards but cutting edge stuff in those days. They were hugely expensive: I seem to remember each chip cost about £19 in 1971, which corresponds to roughly £262 today (2015) and I had the honour of soldering in these devices to our prototype circuit board. Unfortunately, when we tested the circuit we found that this particular chip was not working. We had a spare, so I soldered that one in its place, but this also was found to be dead. It was at this point that I discovered I had been using a soldering iron with a broken earth lead so I had just destroyed two expensive chips due to static discharge. My recollection is that Jim was not best pleased with my performance that day.
DCH.
Cliff Croxford was a lovely fellow who looked after the No. 2 factory site single-handed during the last few years of its Newall days and who tragically died in a road accident a short time later. He was very down-to-earth and sprinkled his sentences liberally with words of ancient anglo-saxon origin and I think he was probably the kindest person I’ve known – nothing was too much trouble and if you tried to thank him he would seem a bit embarrassed and just say “Oh, don’t be so fu**ing soft!” One day, I walked up the outside of the factory from the front offices to the rear gatehouse and every drain cover had been lifted off to expose an overflowing gulley. When I reached the gatehouse, poor Cliff was sweating away, pulling and shoving what seemed like about a hundred metres of drain rods into the furthest manhole that was full to the brim with raw sewage. He stopped for a breather when he saw me, and said “Look at this lot, just look at it. Of course, you know where it’s come from you don’t you?” Naïvely I said I didn’t and he just replied (with a broad smile) “Arse’oles mate, arse’oles!”
DCH.
Talking of Cliff Croxford reminded me of another amusing incident that happened just as the No. 2 factory was closing down, the auctioneers were in, cataloguing everything saleable, and there was a general clamour to grab anything that might be useful at home and not missed! I was running a smallholding then in addition to being a Newall employee and I had been taking a crop of hay from the old sports field. Cliff asked if I would let him have a bale “for his rabbit” and of course I readily agreed. The next thing I knew, at lunch-time Cliff was heading off across the field with a bale of hay on a sack truck. Well I knew he had a fair old journey to get home and back so I started running after him shouting that I would take a bale home for him in my Land Rover. Strong arms grabbed me, turned me round and urged me to be quiet and not make a fuss because “it isn’t really the bale he wants!”
DCH.
A computer system was located at No. 1 factory. I never saw it myself but I know it was powered by a motor-generator set to provide a clean source of power. Later, after the system had been replaced, and the company opened the No. 2 factory in Shrewsbury Avenue, the generator part was coupled up to an engine to provide an emergency back-up supply for the plant lighting, and when the company closed down I bought it for a project at home that was going to need 3-phase power. It was quite a beast, about 30kVA I seem to remember and it was driven by a 6-cylinder BMC diesel engine. Hardly the kind of computer power supply we have become used to today!
DCH.
My favourite story relates to a visit from a team from the Ford Motor Company to discuss progress on their order. After the customary lunch the Ford delegation came to a meeting chaired by Jim Player. The Ford team leader turned to Mr. Jim and said: “Now, Mr. Card.” Clearly his technique of word association to remember names had let him down on this occasion.
B.C.
In 1968, I attended an interview (for an Electronics Design Engineer) at the No1 Factory in Old Fletton. The interviewer was Jack Willkinson. We had driven over from Rugby, and I’d left my wife and our 10 month old baby (Helen) in the car for the expected 1 hour interview. In the event, I had to go for a second interview with Jim Phillips at the No2 Factory. I had no idea where this was, and was invited to follow Jack Wilkinson in his car. I hurriedly returned to my car – only to find that the driver’s seat was being used to change a nappy! It was a case of quickly scooping up our daughter, and my wife held her (nappy less) for the 15 minute drive to Shrewsbury Avenue. Fortunately, there were no ‘spills’, and we arrived safely. I was offered the post, and began work at Newall Engineering (developing readout improvements, and fixing problems with the existing readout system) in January 1969.
M.R.
The Spacematic was a large jig borer with a BTH point-to-point automatic control system that used punched card data input, and it exhibited high accuracy and repeatability. Joe Hobbs used to demonstrate these features to potential customers as follows. Using the automatic control system, he would send the axes to a point near the centre of the workpiece and using a single-point boring tool would machine a large diameter hole through the workpiece. He would then return the axes to their datum positions and using a pencil, draw four vertical lines, 90 degrees apart, up the walls of the hole he had just bored. Next, he would repeat the machining process, sending the axes automatically to the original hole centre and boring the same hole again before returning the axes to their datum positions. He would then proudly show that all four pencil lines still remained visible, demonstrating the superb quality of the machine axes, the control system and the spindle bearings.
DCH.
Towards the end of the 1960’s I was working for Airmec-AEI in High Wycombe, having transferred there from AEI Leicester along with a number of others including a very clever engineer called Derek Needham, who had done a lot of the development work on the Plan-E-Trol continuous path control system. I particularly remember being very unhelpful to Derek when he was doing some testing on a brand new 2030 jig borer in the Airmec-AEI works. He asked me if I knew which lever engaged the quill drive and I said I thought it was “that one there”. He engaged said lever but unfortunately the spindle was running at its highest possible speed and within about 2 seconds the quill had shot down and we had bored a neat half-inch hole deep into the machine table! Derek was very good about it and never actually blamed me but I shall always remember the look of horror on his face when he realised what he had done. I shouldn’t think the look on mine was much different either. Anyway, I think it was Don Cottingham who came out from Newall Engineering, plugged the hole with a cast iron plug and re-scraped the table surface so well that you literally couldn’t tell it had ever been done.
DCH.
On 29th June 1954 my father, Joe Hobbs, was returning from a Newall sales trip to the USA on a BOAC Stratocruiser aircraft. A little way into the flight, the steward came and asked him to look at some strange objects that seemed to be keeping pace with the aircraft. The steward said the captain thought they were flying saucers and had asked for assistance from the military. My father said it looked a bit like an anti-aircraft shell burst with one large cloud-like object and a number of smaller ones. They were observed for quite a long time before a jet fighter arrived to intercept them. As the jet approached, the smaller objects apparently merged into the larger one, which then shot off at enormous speed, far out-pacing the jet fighter, which had to turn back. The Stratocruiser made an unscheduled landing at Gander airport, Newfoundland and all the passengers and crew were interrogated at length. Although my father didn’t believe in flying saucers as such, he was never able to explain what he saw that day.
DCH.