Wallace Tricketts BLOGG SPOT 29-The Apprentice Part One.
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Many of us owe our working life to
the skills we gained as young people in the various trades we were fortunate to
have been taught as apprenticeships , and the opportunities it opened around the
world. This is the first part of my memories of that time.
As the school term came to a close
in the summer of 1969 word came through I had been accepted for an
apprenticeship fitter/turner at the Engineering Training school at Vickers. My
parents were pleased I had this opportunity after not really knowing what I
wanted in life at that age . There was to be no free lunch though ,between
leaving school and starting at the training school I managed to get my first job
to help with my keep . This was at Sovereign Chemicals who ran their plant in
Ainslie Street producing paints and tile adhesive. The General Manager Mr Roger
Fisher was our neighbour with his parents when we lived in South Row , his own
father Mr Fred Fisher having a building business at that time.
The plant employed around 15 workers
, a floor manager called Eddie and one rep called Charlie and had one Ford D
series lorry used to take export orders to Liverpool Docks each week . My job
was to assist with the manufacture of tile adhesive which meant the continuous
lifting of very heavy bags of Gypsum into the moving machinery. Each
working day I would cycle from our home at Roose to our Grandmothers home
in Hibbert Road , where I would don a boilersuit and walk to the factory
towards the reservoir end of Ainslie Street.
It was back breaking physical
labour in a noisy hot environment with young men who had not had the same
opportunity which lay ahead for myself, and after one week I was pretty
shattered. The real world of work was a wake up call , and by the third week I
wanting to quit as each day my overalls were becoming caked in dry adhesive
making the material crusty and sharp in parts. The first time being payed was a
novelty , though I recall being to tired to care .However I held this job until
a week before the Apprenticeship started , then spent a few days out on my
pushbike in the beautiful Furness countryside. It was an unusual period , Man
had just landed on the Moon and there was a great surge of interest in Space and
Astronomy , science fiction giving way to fact.
The intake at the Training schools
was around 180 for both Engineering and Shipbuilding , with young men and women
taken from schools all around Lancashire , plus Westmoreland and Cumberland ,
soon to become Cumbria in the new boundaries.
Since metalwork had never been a
strongpoint at Alfred Barrow I was somewhat apprehensive as to what lay ahead .
That said the whole idea was to learn a trade and better to go in as a novice
than with expectations.
We were assembled in the courtyard
outside the main doors and then told to go through to the cafeteria. Addressed
by workshop manager Joe Stringer and Apprentice Training Schools Manager Mr Bill
Topham , it soon became clear there was a no nonsense attitude and time wasters
would not see the end of their apprenticeships. A safety programme was run and
we were then given a sheet to write remarks on it and see how much we had taken
in. We were given a number, the first three digits been our identity number and
second our clocking on/off number. Mine was -202/567. We were split into
groups of about 12 , from group A onwards. I ended up in group J and the letters
went up to L. This would be our grouping for the next four years whilst we
attended block release at the Barrow Technical College and Howard Street one
full week in every three as well as other activities planned. Each group had an
instructor and would spend approximately three working weeks on each section
regardless of trade to be learnt, it was in effect away of ensuring we were
suited to what we were being paid to learn and get to know what other skills are
involved. Hence electrical and sheetmetal work were covered besides fitting and
turning.
Part of the weekly curriculum was PT
with Mr Brian Hethrington, and also baths at Abbey Road . PT involved a cross
country hike across the Jubilee Bridge and around the Rainy Park area , no
trains to spot here!!! We were encouraged to get involved with either
sports groups , after hour activities and Duke of Edinburgh Award which Vickers
supported. This was all positive things, indeed there was little excuse for
anyone not finding something worthwhile , aware at that age many were either
finding or curious about girlfriends or visiting pubs underage in the rush to
grow up and leave youth behind.
Group J had twelve members, none of
whom I had known before and I recall making friends with a young Scotsman called
Andy who had come to Barrow from Glasgow with his family . ( Today -almost
40 years on we are still very good friends and Andy has one of my paintings of a
Barrow built ship he later sailed on when in the Merchant
Navy.)
The sea of green machines in the
main workshop was at first quite bewildering , then after a few days as
everything started getting into place , the noise from everything running was
odd at first plus the sounds of lots of hammers and chisels going like the
clappers on the fitting benches. The first project in that department was
to make a set of G clamps out of solid blocks of steel with just a hammer ,
chisel and file , before drilling and tapping for the clamp to be fitted
through. This broke in us all , with blisters and cuts daily plus the odd
bruising from a miss swung hammer!!! Tired arms at the end of the
day made the pay of four pounds and four shillings seem hardly worth it ,......
but it was. After paying my keep I still had enough for the pictures on a Friday
or Saturday , using my bike to get around most places in the autumn months. As
winter fell I had signed up for Duke Of Edinburgh silver award which meant
I was out every evening be it nightschool for the apprenticeship or
for First Aid classes or Art as part of the interest part of the award. My tutor
was a carpenter from the Shipyard, Mr James Noblet who was an established
watercolour painter of small boats and pleasure craft. He was a very
kind man giving me his time each Monday evening at the Training
school like that and looking back it was good discipline to attend all
these things and have the opportunity. St Johns ran the First Aid course on a
Wednesday , this was for service award. We also spent several weekends out
in the Lake District on camps , plus a week at Lakeside YMCA on outdoor pursuits
a bit later for the Gold award. More on that next time.
When I arrived at the Shipyard
Training school for nightclass, the cleaner ladies would still be there and I
got to know all of them by name and some were interested in the
art I was producing. One evening arriving early one of the young ladies asked in
a joking sense whilst still cleaning the room if she could pose for me in
the nude, I never took her up on the offer though at 16 I was pretty hot
under the collar with the idea and still wonder what would have happened
if Mr Noblet had arrived to see me sketching a model as
such!!!
Each week we had a module to
complete on the work we had undertaken on the benches, as well an assessment at
the end of the three weeks period on each trade . It was important to achieve at
least 60% if not higher. Quite to my amazement the highest percentage I scored
was 76% and that was on the Welding course, which considering I could hardly see
a thing through the arc welding mask truly surprised most . On fitting I
attended around 68% and 77% on lathes in the turning course according to my
record book .The worst result was sheetmetal at just 54%
.
Here are some of the instructors in
the school of that year 1969-70.
In June 1970 Vickers
held an open evening for parents to come and visit the school, considered one of
the best in not just UK but Europe . Volunteers were requested and as I
had a free evening I decided to come in and was placedcon a Colchester lathe
.Visitors saw various materials turned then Mr Collins decided we should show
how nylon is turned. Nylon will wear steel out yet cuts like butter , hence at
around 1200 rpm the swarf -waste ,was shooting off it into the tray but I
overlooked when turning the coolant on how it would spray and just about
everyone standing within a 3 metre circumference wore
it!!!!.
Mr Jordon was suffering badly with
arthritis to all hi joints and was becoming very poorly. Sadly he passed away
before the first year of our apprenticeship so I organised a wreath from the
lads for his family, then our First Aid man went off ill so with attaining my
certificate through St Johns ,was placed in as First Aid officer at the school .
On the last week , just like at Alfred Barrow Boys, I drew caricatures of all
the instructors and was gifted to the school , for although I had entered with
little confidence I was realising how important it was to have this training and
skills as well as the many new friends made. We were about to leave the comfort
zone of the school and go into the yards, another world altogether which I will
relate my experiences next time.
This is the home of the WALLACE TRICKETT /LRU Print Collection
The Collection relives The old LANCASHIRE bus fleets
,Railway Locos ,Commercial Company Vans(Inc HOLLANDS PIES )
and Wagons of Days gone bye.
Click on the tab on the main menu to view and purchase via PAYPAL
