On a wet Thursday night in Plumstead ………………

Plumstead cinemas, 1928

Now I am on a roll, and having explored the cinemas of Eltham and Woolwich, I thought it was only fair to branch out into Plumstead.

Despite our Elizabeth and Jillian living in Plumstead, I rarely visited the place.

My friend Tricia has over the years spoken fondly of going to the Pictures in Plumstead.

So, for her and lots of others, here in the list of which you could go to in 1928, and 1947.

All along time before Tricia was born.

Plumstead cinemas, 1947

Nothing more complicated than that.

Of course some might want to compare and contrast the cinema's, offer up pictures or memories.

All of which would add to the story.

And no sooner had the story gone line than Frances Green posted this, "When the Globe in Plumstead Common Road closed down, my dad bought the cinematograph and lots of reels of silent film. 

We had the best birthday parties when we were little as dad would put on film shows for our friends. The one I remember most was Charlie Chaplin, I think it was called The Little Prospector. 

In the 60s it was on the news that these reels of films could catch fire and mum told dad they had to go. Dad sold them to the BBC and I still remember 2 people coming to collect them. We lived in Macoma Road".

Now that I like.

Location; Plumstead






Pictures; from the Kinematograph Year Books, 1928 & 1947

The not so dusty records of Woolwich ……..

Now for many years those of my friends who share my love of Eltham, Woolwich and Plumstead have sung the praises of the two volumes of “Records of  the Woolwich District”. *

 Down an alley from Woolwich High Street, 2013

And equally for years I have made a note to buy the two books, but something always came up and I got side-tracked.

But not now, because last month I took the plunge, ordered both and have not regretted it since.

The title may seem dull and off putting, but there is everything here from the Roman Road over Shooters Hill, the Norman invaders who stole Charlton, and more than a bit on the ancient buildings of Eltham, along with a snapshot of the place in 1881.

Added to which there is heaps about Woolwich, so I reckon there is a bit for everyone.

The Book, 2015

And a careful read will reveal how historians like Eltham’s own Mr. Gregory have plundered the records for stories, and I no doubt will join them.

The records were compiled by W.T. Vincent and published in 1890 and owed their existence to years of sifting through the records at several museums.

Plaisted's Wine House, 2013

Of which the highlight was the discovery of a sealed package with the title of “Dockyards of England-Southeast District” which had come out of the collection of George III, including an exact plan of Woolwich in 1748, a plan of “the Foundry from 1715”, plans of the dockyard from 1774 and a plan “of the 2-gun batteries and bomb-battery in 1737”.

And the rest as they are a riveting section in volume one revealing so much about the history of Woolwich with snippets about the other parts of the old borough peppered through volume two to make this a fascinating read, which can be dipped into or be used as the basis for more research.

Leaving me to ponder just where I will start, while reflecting on how popular such histories were at the the end of the 19th century.

My bookshelves are full of books written during the 1880s into the early decades of the the next century.

Some are slightly turgid, but most are extremely interesting, particularly those written about areas which were just decades earlier small rural communities.

Woolwich Free Ferry, 1905

And I suspect that is why they were written. 

Two of my favourite historians admit that they were motivated by a desire to record a way of life which was fast disappearing.

Both included descriptions by men and women who had been born in the early part of the 19th century who in turn drew on memories of conversations with parents and grandparents which went back to the years just after George III lost the American colonies, and in some cases even further back.

I am not sure that Mr. Vincent does this, but his meticulous use of old records make his book one to read.

Location; the old Borough of Woolwich

Pictures, down an alley from Woolwich High Street, 2013, from the collection of Liz and Colin Fitzpatrick, cover of volume 11, 2015 and the Woolwich Free Ferry, Tuck & Sons, 1905, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

*“Records of the Woolwich District”,  W.T .Vincent, 1890, and republished 2015 by FamLoc Books

The shock of the new ………… Genesta Road

Now I have always liked those smallish terraced houses which are a feature of south east London.

But these four which break the mould, appeal to me.

They are on Genesta Road, just down from Plum Lane, opposite Plumcroft Primary School.

And not for the first time I have to reflect that living in Manchester makes it just that bit more difficult to pursue a story, because there is only so much you can do online, before it becomes necessary to resort to a visit to the local heritage centre, which for me would involve setting aside a couple of days.

So, until someone comes forward with some information, I am left to wonder about when they were built.

They may be the result of infill after bomb damage during the last war.  I did also think that perhaps the plot had never been built on but given that the rest of the road is dominated by those terraced houses, which while they differ slightly in their design are much of a muchness.

Either way the four are a bold statement with some interesting features, like the balconies, and the garages.

I am grateful to John King for sharing the picture and I am always pleased when he posts images from south east London, because they are always interesting.

And that is all I am going to say and shall just wait for someone to comment.

And within less than hour of posting the story, people have helped me out.  Debbie Sullivan provided me a link to a site on Modern Housing, and Phil Clarkstone found a reference to our four on Wikipedia.*

Now as everyone knows I don’t as a rule rip off other people’s research, so I suggest you follow the link to read more about 85-91 Genesta Road, leaving me just to say that they were built in 1934, and were indeed infill, taking the place of an orchard.

So, that really is it, I think.  I shall close with a thank you to John who took the picture and to Debbie and Phil, reflecting on that simple observation that history should always be a shared project.

Location; Plumstead

Picture; Genesta Road, 2019, from the collection of John King

**85-91 Genesta Road, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/85%E2%80%9391_Genesta_Road?fbclid=IwAR3PODqYgmLbF7_R4rlTXC6kofyRL59byLDfB9WQZafU8PlgBs_-PuQTYlI

Two for the price of one original photograph ......... St Margaret’s Church, Plumstead in the summer of 1905

Now this may seem rather indulgent to offer up two identical pictures of the same spot but of course there is a tad difference and that comes from the success of the artist in colouring the original image.

I have no idea if both were issued at the same time or the coloured version was a second bite at the market, issued a little later when earlier sales were flagging.

But it is a nice example of the commercial drive of the company and other post card manufacturer’s who were prepared to reuse a photograph as many times as possible.

In the collection I have two of rural Chorlton-cum-Hardy which are identical except that one contains the seasonal message “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”

Picture; St Margaret’s Church, 1905, from the set Woolwich Town & City, by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://www.tuckdb.org/

Turning off Plumstead High Street and finding a Saxon Church .....

Now you would think that I would have known the church of St Nicholas.

After all I worked on the High Street and both our Jillian and Elizabeth once lived close by.

But I never did and for that I am a bit ashamed given that it has a history which dates back to 960 just 80 odd years after Alfred burned his cakes, bits date from the twelfth century and its tower went up sometime during the 1660s.

And looking at this picture from 1915 the casual observer might well think nothing much has changed, which is a tribute to the restoration work done in 1959 following enemy action during the last world war  which caused severe damage to the structure.

So that is about it.

I could have included a modern picture to match our 1915 one, but if you live in Plumstead or have lived in Plumstead you will know what it looks like, and for everyone else I suggest you turn to page 94 of Woolwich Through Time which has a then and now set of photographs.

And that really is it leaving me to wait for a comment from our Elizabeth and Colin and my old friend Tricia.

Location; Plumstead

Picture; St Nicholas Church, Plumstead, 1915, from Woolwich Through Time





*Woolwich Through Time, Kristina Bedford, 2014

When a smelly sewer was just one too many

Now I am pretty much sure I am going to be corrected today or at the very least attract someone who knows more about 19th century sewer ventilation pipes than I do.

But I grew up with one at the top of our road in south east London. It is still there today as is the one my brother in law took a picture of in Plumstead. Of course when you are growing up you take bits of street furniture for granted. Well I did anyway.

Ours was tall made out of iron and was always painted a pale green although the one in Plumstead is more a pale blue. But I digress.

They were for venting the sewers of the more obnoxious and even dangerous gasses which could accumulate down below. I suppose they are still necessary today.

Our Colin reckoned he heard running water when he took one picture of the base.

Now I have not come across one in Manchester but I bet there will be someone who has, and posts the fact with perhaps a picture.

I expect they help date the area.  One source I read suggested that they were erected in the years after the Great London Stink in 1858 and this would fit roughly with when my bit of Peckham was being laid out. They were particularly necessary in hilly areas where gas could get trapped in pockets, and both my bit of Peckham and Colin’s Plumstead are built on hills.

And at least one chap got in on the act and in 1895.  Joseph Edmund Webb, of Birmingham, patented the “Webb’s Patent Sewer Gas Destructor" in  March 1895. At its top, behind a glass, burned a small flame from the town’s gas supply. This acted as a chimney, drawing the sewer gas up to the flame, where it was ignited, thus illuminating the street. The cleverness of Mr Webb’s patent was the way it regulated the supply of sewer gas.

North Tyneside council has restored ten in Whitley Bay and Monkseaton. Blyth council has restored five. Sheffield, though, is the capital of the destructor.

It was built on seven hills, so there were lots of folds and u-bends in its sewer system in which to trap gas.

From 1914 to 1935, it installed 84 destructors, of which 22 remain with three still at work, casting an orange glow on the Sheffield streets.*

And much to my surprise there is even a facebook page.

Which I think might indeed be a fitting point to close on although I have yet to find  Henry Eddie & Co Ltd or the Bow Foundry.

Pictures; from the collection of Colin Fitzpatrick   

*The Northern Echo July 2008 http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/history/memories/3211527.Is_this_just_the_tip_of_the_stink_pole_/

Of bandstands, demolished churches and a closed pub, Plumstead Common in 1915

Now every good park should have a bandstand.

They were after all the centre of many parks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries which reflected both civic pride and that long history of listening to music in the open air.

I remember the one in Telegraph Hill Park which by the time I knew it had become a sad and forlorn thing.

It had long ago lost its cast iron pillars and roof and was pretty much just an abandoned lump which you past on the way through the park to school.

Now I have discovered an old post card of the bandstand and I think at some stage I will write about it.

But in the meantime I have fastened on another which stood on Plumstead Common.

It must be a full thirty years since I was last there and of course back then I wasn’t looking out for bandstands.

As I remember we called in at the pub on the edge of the Common.

All of which is a lead in to the picture which dates from around 1915, and shows the band stand, and St Margaret’s which was completed in 1859 and lasted just over a century and a bit. It closed in 1968 and was demolished in 1974.

I rather think the bandstand might also have gone and according to one of my sister the pub has also shut up shop.

Well that as they say is how things changes.

Picture; courtesy of Kristina Bedford.

Ms Bedford’s book on Woolwich Through Time is published by Amberley 

Ki-ora, a choc ice and Bambi ...... the lost picture houses of Plumstead no 1

Now a while ago I set down a challenge to find some of our lost cinemas, and quick as a flash Tricia came back with a first and the promise to find more.

So here is what she said and what I know about the Cinematographe in Plumstead High Street.

The Cinematographe

“That sort of challenge is right up my street Andrew. 

I will dig out my many maps of Plumstead & Woolwich & find one for 1913. The first time I ever went to the pictures was at the Cinematographe in Plumstead High Street although it was called the Plaza in the 1950's. 

I saw Bambi, I still remember sitting there sobbing when his mummy died. 

The Plaza was more or less where Iceland is now. It had one screen & seated 528 people. The second time 

And just before i it was demolished in 2012

I went to the pictures was to see Tom Thumb at the Century Cinema which although was classed as being on Plumstead High Street it was set back and  I think the entrance was in Garibaldi Street. 

That was a larger cinema than the Plaza although it still only had one screen and seated 913. 

It closed in 1960 after which the building was many things, in 2012 it was demolished & is now flats. The images are of the Century the second image after it closed but before it was demolished.”

And that I think has set me off on a new series, Lost cinemas of Plumstead, which might well become Lost cinemas of south east London.**

Location; Plumstead

Pictures; from the collection of Tricia Lesley

*Off to the “flicks” in the winter of 1913 and a challenge for today https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/off-to-flicks-in-winter-of-1913-and.html

**Lost cinemas of Plumstead, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Lost%20cinemas%20of%20Plumsted 
Lost cinemas of south east London. https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Lost%20cinemas%20of%20south%20east%20London

From Plumstead to Croydon via Canada, and the Western Front ........ with a sideways trip to Rochdale

I am looking at a picture of Alfred Frederick Shrub, taken in the studios of Joseph Gothard.

The story of this young man is a fascinating one, which like many of his generation ended on the Western Front during the Great War.

The photograph belongs to my old friend David Harrop, who because he knows I grew up in Woolwich, thought I would be interested.

And so, began a journey across the early 20th century, taking me by stages to Canada, Croydon and on to New Zealand and Rochdale, and linking together the young Alfred with his photographer.

On the surface there was not much to go on.

The address of the studio was 45 Plumstead Road, which was that short street between Burrage Road and Maxey Road facing the Royal Arsenal.

Sadly, none of the properties still exist, and judging from the historical records Mr. Gothard did not linger over long  in Woolwich.

Nor would it seem did Alfred’s family.  I know they were here by 1900, because of the inscription on the back of the photograph, and the census record for 1901 which has them at 9 Nyanza Street, but they may not have stayed much longer.

And the clue is suggested by the admission book of Plumstead Road school which has Alfred attending from November till just December 1902.  There after the next official record is of them living in Croydon in 1911.

But it is the Canadian connection which has yet to be fully researched, because I know from Alfred’s military records that he was born in Braccebridge, Winnipeg, in Manitoba in 1896, which it turns out is incorrect.

Braccebridge is in Ontario, and was the first of the mistakes on his military records.

I suppose the family must have spent time there, and given that his father was a general labourer Mr. Shrub may have been working on a civil engineering project, or they have just taken a chance on the New World.

Either way they were back by 1900 to have the picture taken in Mr. Gothard’s studio and for some one to write on the back of the photograph, “This his Alfred Frederick Shrub 4 years  old 1900”, and for some else to add “WW1 Casualty, The Queens Regiment Pte No S/5792”

The military records show that he enlisted in the October of 1914,  aged 18, and died on March 18th, 1915.

But here there is a slight confusion given that a Private Alfred Frederick Shrube was present at the wedding of James Edward Lawrence, also a soldier and Eva Amelia Shrub on September 2nd, 1917, at Christ Church, Croydon.

It may be a coincidence, but our Alfred had a sister by that name and the family had been in Croydon six years earlier.

It is one of those twisty turny stories I like, made that bit more interesting because his mother was born in India in 1869.

And because the search for Mr. Gothard was equally messy.  He came from Yorkshire, was in Norfolk in 1891, listing his occupation as photographer, a decade later was in Plumstead, only to move again to Rochdale in 1911, with his New Zealand wife and child.

All of which leaves me to say I doubt we have heard the end of either families.

Not least because my friend Tricia has promised  to go looking n the archives, down at Greenwich.

Location; pretty much all over

Pictures; picture postcard of Alfred Frederick Shrub, 1900 from the collection of David Harrop

Back on Plumstead Common in the summer of 1905

This is one of 12 picture post cards which Tuck and Sons issued in the summer of 1905, and I rather like it.

So as I have more in the collection I rather think I will show some more over the next few days.

Picture; Plumstead Common, 1905, from the set Woolwich Town & City, by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://www.tuckdb.org/

I never thought of Plumstead ............. taking the horse out for a jolly and a thank you to Tricia

Now there is nothing better when a story gets a second lease of life.*

And so here we are back with those soldiers somewhere not very far away from Well Hall.

I had at first thought we were in Woolwich sometime during the Great War.  It was the challenges laid down by my old friend David Harrop who had bought the picture post card and was waiting for it to drop through the letter box for a second time in a century.

And when it did it offered up not the Great War but sometime a little earlier.
it was sent by Miss Elsie Crane to 59 St Peter’s Villa, Risbygate Bury St Edmunds with the simple sentiment of “with love and kisses to all you at home, best wishes.”

The distributors were A & G Taylor who modestly claimed to be “The biggest photographers in the World” and judging by the number of picture postcards in the archives and for sale there does seem to be some truth in the claim.

They had studios on Regent Street, and Queen Victoria Street in London and within two decades of being founded in the 1860s had branches all over the country.

One source suggests they closed down in 1903 which I suppose gets us a little closer to when then men posed with their horses.

I haven’t found Miss Crane yet and I think nu 59 has gone but I think I now know where our soldiers were and that is down to Tricia who also took up the challenge.

“I have been racking my brains out over the images you posted concerning your above blog. The houses looked familiar but the surroundings didn't. 

I think now I might have found the location, I do believe the houses in the background are Brookhill Road Plumstead, the larger houses being Dundus Terrace but the same road. 

The houses are still there so is the brick wall & I have found some evidence that the ground opposite may have had some military connection. 

I have attached my evidence together with your original postcard but also if you could google maps for Brookhill Road Plumstead you will see both style of houses that are in your photo. Have a look Andrew & see what you think.”

And that as a certain criminologist would say is that ................ thank you Tricia and I look forward to the next mystery/story.

Location, Plumstead, London

Picture; “Army Service Corps, Horse Artillery, Woolwich” from the collection of David Harrop and other photographs sourced by Tricia Lesley

Wishing you well ........... postcards from Woolwich, Greenwich and Eltham for the summer ..... nu 3 Plumstead

A short series with few words looking at the postcards we sent from Woolwich, Greenwich and Eltham.

Our card was sent from Charlton on Sunday August 3 in the last summer before the Great War to a Mrs Greensmith of 14 Greening Street Abbey Wood.  The sender left their name off the card, but they were pleased that “Mrs G” had sent some kind letters and were sorry that “you couldn’t get a trap they are spoken for.” 

Sill it had been “a lovely day” and there was an invitation for Mrs G to come down any tine.

Location; Plumstead, circa 1913,

Picture; Plumstead, circa 1913, Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdb.org/

Back on Lausanne Road with another bit of street furniture and the memory of a street game

Now I am back with the street furniture of my youth but for once it is something that hasn’t vanished and I am pretty much sure still does the business it was made to do.

So long after the water troughs have gone and the old red telephone kiosk has become a rarity outside the tourist haunts you can still find those tall ventilation shafts.

They were for venting the sewers of the more obnoxious and even dangerous gasses which could accumulate down below.

I have written about them in the past and have been drawn back with memories of the one on the corner of Lausanne Road.*

Of course back when I was growing up there I took it for granted, after all I passed it every day on my way to Edmund Waller and then Samuel Pepys and like pillar boxes and telephone kiosks it was so much part of the scenery as not to even warrant a second look.

But now I wonder if they have a future.  It may be that they remain indispensible but given modern technology their days may be over and they linger on until someone decides they are surplus to requirements.

That would be a shame because the one on the corner with Belfort still evokes memories of hot summer days when the tar at the side of the road had gone soft enough to play with and for what seemed an eternity we would draw it out using discarded lolly sticks.

Back then there was little to distract this street pastime for few cars passed along Lausanne Road and after the milkman had been there was only the weekly bin lorry and occasional rag and bone man to interrupt us.

All a little different from this picture of Gatling Road in Plumstead packed full of cars which will have to stand it for Lausanne Road.

I chose it because it too has a ventilation shaft and also because I have never got round to taking a picture of that bit of Lausanne Road.

But maybe some has and I would welcome a picture of that piece of Street furniture I played beside.

Pictures; Gatling Road, Plumstead, 2012 from the collection of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick

*When a smelly sewer was just one too many, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Plumstead

The Manchester soldier outside Burrage Grove school in 1915

Outside Burrage Grove school in 1915

Now I rather think this photograph will set off a trail of comments.

We are on Burrage Grove sometime around 1915 and the picture comes from the George Davison collection.

George Davison was born in Manchester, enlisted in the Royal Artillery and for part of 1915 and again 1918 was stationed in Woolwich.

I can’t be sure but I don't think this is Mr Davison.

What fascinates me is the way the picture draws together a number of different stories, not least the fact that

I grew up not far from Burrage Grove and will have friends who may attended the school.

And here is one of those first lessons in dealing with photographs from the past.

Knowing that George was from Manchester I misread the name above the gate and went off on a fruitless search for Burnage Grove School.

When this drew a blank I looked again at the picture and found the name of a the photographer who had premises at 40 Plumstead Road, Woolwich and with that came Burrage Grove School built by the London School Board sometime after 1872.

Now this I know because the London School Board was established in 1870 and the OS map of 1872 does not yet show the school, that said it will have been built sometime during the next two decades, and I have every confidence someone will come up with a date.

All of which just leaves our soldier mounted on his horse outside the building.

Burrage Grove, 1872

Looking at the photograph and the map of 1872 Burrage Grove has changed dramatically although the pub on the corner is still there.

So it begs the question of why focus on this obscure picture of a place long gone?

Well I think because like all lost images this one deserves to come out of the shadows.

In time I will find out more about the school along with the circumstances behind this particular picture and perhaps even who he was.

I know that George Davison spent some time in Woolwich in 1915 and returned briefly on his way to France.  It was on this second period in London that he hastily produced a will which was witnessed by two of his colleagues.

It may also be that he spent another spell here in 1917.  There are no letters to his wife for this year and we know that she spent time in London living near him.

But that is to stray into speculation so that just use leaves us with this picture of a soldier from Manchester in Plumstead sometime during the Great War.

And just after the story was posted Phil contacted me with this, "I've had a search through the British Libraries online local newspaper archives about the school for you. 

The earliest reference that I could find is from the 12/09/1878 with references the 'Burrage Grove Board School' in Plumstead donating £2 10s to the relief fund for the families of the deceased of the liner Princess Alice which was lost in the Thames with the loss of 600 lives following a collision. 

That hopefully helps narrow down an opening date."

And so it does, thank you Phil.  All I need now is some one who who knows who the chap on the horse was.

Picture; from the collection of George Davison, courtesy of David Harrop and Burrage Grove from the OS map of London 1862-72, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

Growing up in Eltham in the 1950s ......... stories by Eddy Newport no 19..... the apprenticeship

Another in the series by Eddy Newport taken from his book, History of a War Baby.

Oliver Pell Control was a small company that specialised in the manufacture of solenoids (electromagnets) and electrical motors and everything it made was made on the premises. It had three assembly shops,

Machine shop, tool room, coil winding shop, ovens, finishing shop, jobbing shop, drawing office, planning dept and a time and motion study department. In fact everything a factory needed to function independently from the outside world. It was ideal to find out how a manufacturing company works.  I got the job and in fact, I was their first apprentice and very soon another seven were recruited.

I gave my notice to the White Line Laundry and left. Having gained some experience of how a motor car engine works, so it was not a waste of time. I said goodbye to Charlie who I think was glad to see the back of me and off I went to pastures new.
Oliver Pell was in Cambridge Row off Burrage Road Plumstead it was a five storey building and had been in operation for over sixty years. The original company was the Varley Magnet Company and that was its trademark. Mr Varley sold out to Mr Oliver and Mr Pell.  Mr Pell died and Mr Oliver gave up the running of the firm to Mr Oliver Junior who was the big boss when I joined the company.

He was to us mere mortals very posh and spoke with an upper crust accent. He had had a public school education and a very “I’m the boss and don’t you forget it” attitude about him. Everybody was dead scared of him and he walked around as if he owned the place. Of course, he did. He had his directors, who did all his bidding and jumping up and down when he said jump.

The company’s main products were solenoids, these were made by winding a measured number of turns of insulated copper wire around an iron core and when electricity was run through the coil it caused the iron to become a magnet and moved a centre core. Solenoids were used as switches and to move levers and many other uses in industry. Other products were small electric motors that were used in the Morphy Richards hair dryer. One of their biggest sellers was a solenoid sold to the SU Carburettor Company and was used in partially all motor cars made in the UK.

We apprentices were to spend a period of time in all the departments. It was written in my indentures that I was serving an apprenticeship in Mechanical / Electro Engineering; that was until I reached the age of twenty-one.

My first position was in an assembly shop that assembled the solenoids and tested them. Our foreman was Mr Charlie Bunstead he had an assistant David (I have forgotten his surname).  In his younger days, Charlie was a Millwall goalkeeper and was famed for his skills.

However, the people who worked there were mainly women with one or two men. My job was to assist in any way I could and I was given cleaning and packing jobs to do. The first job was to help a guy wound a very large coil and at each layer of copper wire it had to be lacquered and layers of paper between the windings. It took about three days to finish one coil and was about three feet in diameter then it was taken off to the ovens for baking to seal the lacquer.

I met a young man about my own age who was to become a very firm friend, his name was Tim Leonard he had started at the same time as me and his ambition was to become a toolmaker. He was to spend most of his time in the tool room. The tool makers in OPC would make the forming, shaping and punching tools used in the machine shops. Most of the tools were to go into the powerful presses that made the parts that ultimately became the solenoids. Also, they made assembly jigs to help in putting parts together. Theirs was a very skilled job as you had to know how to operate lathes, milling machines, grinding machines, drilling machines, shaping machines and how to heat treat metal. All this was done to very high degree of accuracy.

Tim and I would cycle home together as he lived in Eltham Road Eltham.

I was given one day off to go to college, which happened to be the Woolwich Poly in the Wellington Street building. I was put onto the Second Year Ordinary National Certificate in Electrical Engineering.  I struggled with that course, and I failed the exam and was asked to see the principal, who advised me to take the City of Guilds Exam in Machine Shop Engineering.  This I did, it was in the annex school in Plumstead. I carried on with this course until my apprenticeship finished. to be cont...

© Eddy Newport 2017

Pictures; from the collection of Eddy Newport

Growing up in Eltham in the 1950s ......... stories by Eddy Newport no 17 ..... leaving school, apprenticeships and a job in Plumstead

Another in the series by Eddy Newport taken from his book, History of a War Baby.

On becoming fifteen years old, I had the opportunity to leave school and I went for an interview with a company in Sidcup called Kolster Brands Ltd.

This company was manufacturing television sets and was at the forefront of technology. They took on apprentices for various types of work ranging from tool makers to machine setters and other skills appertaining of their industry.

At that interview, it was suggested if I stayed on at school until I was sixteen and got the first part of a three-course of the national certificate I would be accepted into the tool room as an apprentice.

The firm would send apprentices to college once a week to get the higher certificates. So this is what I decided to do. So I stayed on for a further year, promising to my dad to get my head down and study, hard.

My uncle David had a share in a small company making industrial cutting tools for the tailoring industry. I rightly or wrongly thought it might me nice to end up working for him. This was my idea and not his. I did not realise it, but the understanding with the other partners of this company was not to employ members of one's family. I was not to know this at the time. The reference to this will become apparent later on.

Now 16 and having left school. The pending interview with Kolster Brands was coming up dad and I went to meet my future employees.

The interview went well until I was asked the question “When you have finished your apprenticeship, what do you intend to do then?”

Time, to a sixteen-year boy, is forever and what I intended to do five years from then seemed to me a very funny question. I was completely thrown. I had never given it a thought as to what I wanted to do.

All I knew is that I wanted to get an apprenticeship and get a skill. So I said the first thing that came into my head. “I would like to join my uncles' firm and work for him.”

Well, the silence was deafening, dad squirmed in his seat and I just sat there. “Well, that’s I would like to do,” I thought.

The interview came to an end and very shortly I got a letter saying I was nor successful in obtaining an apprenticeship with the company. I was devastated to say the least.

This was a problem for dad as to what to do with me now. He did not want me to become a motor mechanic. So we went to see the Youth Employment Officer at the Woolwich Employment Exchange.

The man looked very glum when he said that all the large firms had taken their quota of apprentices for that year, and I would not be eligible for the next year as I would be too old.

However, there was a firm in Plumstead that was starting a new apprentice scheme and were looking for recruits. I think that the government were trying to encourage employers to take on these schemes and were given financial support to pay and educate young people.

The company was Oliver Pell Control Ltd.

As this was probably the last chance to get an apprenticeship I went for it. An interview was arranged and off I went. Only, this time, I was prepared to answer any doggy questions that involved the future.

© Eddy Newport 2017

Pictures; from the collection of Eddy Newport