Posted 07-10-16
I am David ’Morty’ Mortimer.
I
worked
for
Auto-Wrappers
for
over
42
years
(1968
to
2010).
I
started
as
an
apprentice
on
19/08/68
at
8.00
in
the
morning
and
the
very
first
person
to
speak
to
me
was
George
Wiggett,
who
said
‘don’t
look
so
worried
lad’.
Apprenticeship
There
were
9
apprentices
in
my
first
year
of
which
we
spent
in
the
training
school
,
Bob
Howorth
and
Johnny
Wright
were
our
training
officers.
the
traing
school
was
situated
next
to
the
plating
shop.
The
1968
apprentices
were
Peter
Blyth,
Dick
Bull,
David
‘Jake’
Johnson,
Alan
Catchpole,
Keith
Sadler,
Peter
Watts,
Roger
Hadden,
Steve
Dickenson
and
myself.
The
first
year
was
taken
up
by
making
a
lot
of
our
tools
EG
vices,
scrapers,
screwdrivers,
height
gauge,
G
clamps
and
main
more.
I
remember
Jake
taking
about
12
attempts
to
screw
cut
one
8
inch
screw
length
for
the
vice
we
made.
After
the
first
year
we
were
all
let
lose
into
the
factory.
One
job
we
had
to
do
whist
apprentices
was
to
go
round
the
factory,
after
the
morning
tea
break
with
the
lunch
menu
to
find
out what people wanted to eat, so the canteen could prepare the lunches for the one hour dinner break.
As
I
was
doing
the
technical
course
at
Norwich
City
College,
i
was
required
to
do
work
experience
i
was
to
go
into
the
planning
office
for
3
months,
followed
with
3
months
working
in
the
stores
before
then
going
into
assembly
shop
for
6
months.
The
next
three
and
half
years
were
spent
working
through
all
the
departments
like
details,
turret
and
horizontal
mills,
centre
lathe
and
6
months
with
my
"adopted
dad",
Ivan
Mortimer
on
the
capstan
lathe.
I
finished
the
last
6
months
of
my
5
year
apprenticeship
working on inspection within the machine shop.
Drawing
Office
Years
After
the
first
5
years,
I
applied
and
got
the
job
in
the
drawing
office
as
a
detail
draughtsman.
In
these
days
in
1973
all
the
design
and
detail
drawings
were
all
hand
drawn
on
drawing
boards.
I
worked
with
section
leader
Jeff
Bloomfield
and
fellow
detailer
Kelly
Knott
on
the
Mark
1
verso
flow
machines,
One
year
we
issued
83
sold
machines
to
the
production
department
to
make
and
deliver
to
customers
(the
hey
day
of
flow
wrapping).
The
Mk1
versoflow
did
not
change
very
much
during
the
70’s
and
80’s
but
the
infeed
systems
to
feed
in
the
product
to
the
machines
did.
The
main
work
in
the
Drawing
office
was
to
design
and
detail
infeeds
and
new
size
parts.
From
the
Mk1
evolved
the
4
Sided
Seal
Machine,
also
a
top
seal
variety,
and
a
biscuit
on
edge
machine
(BOE).
I
did
a
lot
of
work
on
the
4
sided
seal
machines,
normally
for
packed
medical
products
and
spent
time
at
"Smith
and
Nephew"
in
Hull
and
"Johnson
and
Johnson"
at
Gargrave.We
also
had
many
good
times
out
of
the
office,
We
had
drawing
office
fishing
days
on
Surlingham
and
Ramworth
broads.
I
remember
that
Roy
Cook
had
a
theory
on
how
to
catch
fish...
he
said
"The
bigger
the
bait,
the
bigger
the
fish"
So
he
used
a
big
earth
worm
to
try
and
catch
a
big
fish
and
to
hopefully
to
win
the
match,
only
to
end
up
catching
a
2
inch
long
Bullhead
fish,
which
we
said
"the
only reason tha he had caught the tiddler, was because the worm had actually wrapped itself around the fish like a python".
In
the
80’s
we
also
had
some
good
times
in
the
Drawing
Office
with
a
lot
of
tricks
and
windup’s
going
on
by
Roy
Cook,
Mike
Harvey, Ernie Rose, Julian Woods and of course... myself.Some of the following happened:
1
-
Terry
Lappen,
the
technical
writer
owned
a
camper
van
so
we
sent
him
a
fake
letter
telling
him
he
would
have
to
pay
poll
tax on his camper van as it was his second home. It took him weeks to find out that it was a windup.
2
-
We
put
Mike
Harvey’s
house
up
for
sale
whilst
he
was
on
holiday,
Roy
Cook
managed
to
borrow
a
very
large
"For
Sale
Bachelor
flats"
sign,
and
put
it
in
his
front
garden
whilst
he
was
away
on
holiday.
The
best
thing
was
a
local
councillor
called
round to Mike’s to see if he was really selling his house.
3 - The lads put my car in the ‘cars for sale’ in the Eastern Evening News.
4
-
We
made
Graham
Conway
a
“Do
it
yourself
operation
kit”
out
of
samples
we
were
wrapping
in
the
factory,
we
gave
it
to
him
whilst
he
was
in
hospital.
The
best
bit
was
that
he
got
told
off
by
the
hospital
for
having
unofficial
scalpels,
syringes
and
sewing
thread on the ward.
5
-
We
sent
Jeremy
Howlett
a
fake
letter
from
the
ambulance
service
for
‘frequent
user
insurance’
after
he
had
been
knocked
of
his
bike
a
couple
of
times
and
landed
up
in
hospital.
The
letter
stated
if
he
did
not
take
out
the
insurance,
the
ambulance
would not turn out the next time he was knocked off his bike. It took him 10 hours to find out it was a windup.
6
-
Mike
Harvey
and
Roy
Cook
doctored
my
packet
of
Golden
Wonder
plain
crisps,
by
refilling
it
with
cheese
and
onion
crisps
and then re-sealing the pack with the hand sealer end crimps. But I got the last laugh…
by complaining to Golden Wonder and they sent me 12 free packets of plain crisps. Thanks lads.
7
–
Jeremy
Howlett
crashed
his
motor
bike
one
night
so
the
next
day
we
made
him
a
Yamaha
rebuild
kit
from
old
cams,
brackets,
electrical
wire
and
odd
parts.
This
was
all
put
in
a
large
box
and
put
on
his
drawing
board.
On
his
return
to
work
the
next
afternoon
the
box
was
thrown
across
the
office
by
a
very
angry
Jeremy.
This
cleared
the
office
for
about
15
min
before
he
calmed down.
In
the
drawing
office
we
had
a
‘Take
the
P’
box
in
which
we
had
to
put
in
5p
very
time
we
took
the
P
out
of
each
other.
Over
the
year
we
would
collect
enough
money
to
go
out
to
dinner.
The
main
‘P’
takers
were
Mike
Harvey,
Ernie
Rose,
Graham
Conway,
Roy
Cooke,
John
Marlee,
Jeremy
Howlett,
Julian
Woods,
Chris
Rayner
and
Carl
Brooke,
This
went
on
for
many
years.
Meanwhile,
the
flow
wrappers
were
evolving
in
the
80’s
with
the
introduction
of
the
Mk3
machine
with
the
end
and
bottom
crimps
being
driven
though
gearboxes
but
was
not
a
roaring
success,
Then
came
the
Mk5
flow
wrapper,
which
was
design
like
a
panther
tank
being
made
out
of
welded
thick
plates,
This
machine
was
mainly
mechanical
with
a
large
open
back
on
it
for
easy
maintenance.
All
the
standard
and
special
infeeds
would
fit
onto
this
machine
and
even
a
Biscuit
On
Edge
version
was
designed.
In
the
late
80’s
computer
aided
design
(CAD)
was
introduced
into
the
Drawing
Office,
I
had
to
go
to
Barnsley
and
Nottingham
to
test
two
systems
of
CAD
to
see
which
one
was
the
best
for
Autowrappers.
We
chose
HP-ME10
and
4
units
were
put
into
the
drawing
office.
we
spent
the
next
6
months
drawing
all
the
standard
parts
onto
the
CAD
system,
Then
the
technical
director
at
the
time
did
not
like
or
understand
the
system
and
shut
it
down.
The
sets
were
transfered
down
the
road
to
the
Europack
Factory at Beccles.
We
also
had
some
sad
times,
I
remember
Reggie
Suffolk
the
chief
draughtsman
having
a
heart
attack
and
died
in
the
office
in
the
mid
70’s.
Peter
Flander
(Poppy)
died
from
a
brain
tumour,
as
did
Brian
Daynes
a
few
years
later.
Mike
Knights
died
from
a
heart attack and poor Roy Cooke had a rear cancer and died a week before his first child was born.
Aftersales Years
In
the
90s
I
transferred
into
the
sales
department
to
become
part
of
the
Spares
and
Ancillary
section.
This
position
formed,
as
this
area
of
the
business
had
been
hit
by
redundancy
the
year
earlier.
In
the
section
was
Roger
Knight,
Barbara
Myhill
and
myself.
Steven
Joy
handed
the
rains
over
to
Paul
Holmes
who
became
the
department
manger.Through
the
90,s
and
00’s
the
departments
turnover
increased
as
we
offered
a
full
solution
to
the
customers
requirements
for
ancillary
equipment
and
spare
parts.
I
travelled
to
many
customers
factories,
quoted
for
the
parts
required,
designed
and
issued
the
change
parts,
chased
through manufacturing, shipped to customer and briefed the engineers to fit the equipment on site.
In
2005
GEI
sold
the
business
to
Bradman
Lake,
and
a
bit
later
we
left
Whiffler
road
and
moved
to
a
larger
new
factory
in
Old
Hall
Rd.
But
we
did
not
know
it
at
the
time
but
we
were
not
going
to
stay
there
very
long,
as
the
old
Bradman
Lake
was
suffering
financial
problems.17
Oct
2007
was
a
very
stressful
day.
I
was
working
in
Toronto
Canada
with
Glyn
Sparkes
and
was
to
fly
down
to
the
Bradman
Lake
offices
in
Charlotte
at
6am
in
the
morning.
after
boarding
the
plane
we
found
it
had
an
electrical
fault
on
push
back.
so
the
plane
returned
to
the
gate,
and
I
got
off
the
plane.
I
now
had
a
6
hour
wait
for
the
next
flight,
so
I
went
into
a
café
to
have
breakfast,
which
I
paid
for
on
the
company
card.
I
then
went
back
to
the
same
café
at
about
9.00
and
again
tried
to
pay
on
the
card.
The
card
was
denied
in
that
time
the
company
had
gone
bust.
So
there
i
was...
stuck
with
no
money
and
a
dud
phone,
as
the
one
I
had
been
given
didn’t
work
in
Canada.
I
finally
got
onto
the
12.00
flight
and
arrived
in
Charlotte
mid
afternoon
with
no
one
to
pick
me
up
as
no
one
knew
where
I
was,
as
I
was
6
hours
late
and
no
phone
to
tell
anyone
had
happened.
After
the
company
when
bust
it
was
sold
to
the
Langley
group
(
the
current
owners
)
they
decided
that
new
factory
overheads
were
too
expensive,
so
they
moved
the
business
to
the
Europack
site
in
Beccles,
18
miles
away
where
it
still
is.
The
only
apprentices
from
the
1968
intake
left
working
at
this
time
were
Dick
Bull,
Jake
Johnson
and
myself.
I
travelled
to
the
new
site
for
just
over
2
years
everyday
on
the
bus
but
eventually
left
AW
(Bradman
Lake)
on
19th
April 2010.
I
spent
42
years
working
at
Auto-Wrappers,
I
made
many
good
friends
and
colleagues
and
when
you
leave
after
that
amount
of
time,
it’s
the
people
you
miss
(even
Smarty).
I
am
now
working
part
time
at
Snetterton
race
track
as
a
medic
which
is
fantastic, as I now go motor racing nearly very day.
Below are some drawings of Morty by Ernie Rose...
Morty's History
David ’Morty’ Mortimer.
