Working at Autowrappers from 1964 to 1973. by KELVIN WOODARD
August
1964
saw
the
beginning
of
the
Auto
Wrappers
apprentice
training
school.
I
started
there
aged
fifteen
straight
from
the
Lakenham
Boys
secondary
modern
school
and
with
no
particular
qualifications.
My
father
had
on
an
earlier
occasion
walked
me
around
to
AW
and
Heatrae
looking
for
an
apprenticeship
as
he
had
told
me
that
I
needed
to
get
a
trade
behind
me!
Other
apprentices
who
started
at
that
time
that
I
can
recall
were
Phillip
White,
Graham
Tuddenham,
Keith
Ripley,
Barry
Moore,
Oliver
Chastney,
Peter
Clarke,
Micky
Hunt.
Also,
there
was
Ray
Watering
who
went
straight
into
the
drawing
office.
The
person
in
charge
of
the
apprentice
training
school
was
a
Mr.
Tuck
whose
only
claim
to
fame
was
that
he
got
stopped
for
speeding
through
the
Mersey
Tunnel
on
a
tandem!
My
starting
wage
was
£3/6s/4d
a
week.
At
age
sixteen
I
along
with
my
farther
signed
my
apprenticeship
papers
as
a
“fitter
machinist”
with
Frank
Salt
who
was
the
then
MD.
The
MD’s
secretary
at
that
time
was
Cybil
Flowerdew.
In
1964
the
AW
factory
was
still
in
Edward
Street
and
the
training
school
was
located
behind
the
tool
room
in
the
newer
part
of
the
factory
to
the
left
of
the
loading
bay.
The
foreman
of
the
tool
room
at
that
time
was
one
Peter
Marlee.
For
the
first
week
in
the
training
school
Mr.
Tuck
was
not
there
and
the
new
apprentices
were
placed
in
the
charge
of
Peter
Marlee.
As
he
had
nothing
better
for
us
to
do
Mr.
Marlee
gave
us
each
a
file
and
a
piece
of
mild
steel,
which
was
already
cut
square,
and
told
us
to
get
on
and
file
it
square!
In
addition
to
spending
time
in
the
training
school
the
apprentices
were
also
sent
on
“day
release”
to
the
City
College’s engineering department to obtain their City and Guilds qualification.
From
the
training
school
and
still
at
Edwards
Street,
my
first
job
in
the
factory
was
in
the
“details
section”.
Here
we
would
make
small
handmade
machine
parts
and
assemble
items
into
jigs
ready
for
welding.
The
details
charge
hand
at
that
time
was
George
Wigget.
The
only
other
names
I
can
remember
are
Arthur
Rowley
and
????
Basingthwaite.
The
details
section
was
located
through
the
machine
shop
(the
machine
shop
foreman
was
Ray
Sexton
he
left
Wrappers
and
took
over
as
the
landlord
of
the
Ringland
Swan)
and
up
a
set
of
wooden
stairs.
It
was
a
long
narrow
room
and
was
over
the
top
of
the
tool
store.
This
part
of
the
AW
factory
consisted
of
an
old
dark
Victorian
type
building
and
was
separate
from
and
to
the
left
of
the
new
Edward
Street
factory.
The
windows
along
the
outside
of
the
details
section
looked
onto
the
side
of
the
old
Odeon
cinema
which
was
located
on
the
original
Botolph
Street
prior
to
the
Anglia
Square
/
Sovereign
House
redevelopment
of
the
area.
This
part
of
the
factory
may
still exists as part of the PMT shop, the rest of the site is currently a car park with bright graffiti painted on the remaining walls.
Edwards
Street
at
that
time
was
a
dead
end
and
the
plating
shop
was
a
separate
building
standing
at
its
end.
In
addition
to
the
new
Edwards
Street
building,
the
machine
shop
and
the
plating
shop
AW
also
owned
the
end
terrace
house
on
Leonards
Street.
(I
believe
this
house
was
demolished
to
make
way
for
the
road
changes
that
have
taken
place
over
the
years).
The
terrace
house
was
used
as
the
factory
kitchen.
The
tea
lady
who
worked
in
there
was
Ivy
Greengrass.
She
made
the
tea
in
a
big
urn
along
with
cheese
rolls.
At
tea
breaks
a
trolley
was
pushed
around
the
factory
by
Tom
Scrafton
with
the
tea
urn
and
mugs
on
it
as
well
a
basket
with
Mars
bars
etc.
in
it.
Tom
would
sometimes
start
his
tea
round
with
a
drip
on
the
end
of
his
nose.
By
the
end
of
his
round
the
drip
was
gone
and
nobody
was
quite
sure
if
the
drip
had
gone
into
their
mug
of
tea!
As
well
as
Ivy
and
Tom
an
apprentice
also
had
to
help
out
with
the
tea
making
etc.
On
one
occasion
an
apprentice
had
fallen
fowl
of
somebody
in
the
drawing
office,
on
that
afternoon
the
DO’s
tea
pot
was
laced
with
Ex-lax
resulting
in
some
urgent
visits
to
the
toilet
for
some
of
the
draughtsmen!
By
1967
AW
had
moved
to
its
new
site
on
Whiffler
Road.
The
details
section
was
now
located
at
the
bottom
end
of
the
machine
shop
in
front
of
the
welding
shop.
The
welder
at
that
time
was
George
Moon.
Although
my
apprenticeship
was
for
a
“fitter
machinist”
I
spent
little
time
in
the
machine
shop
as
I
had
very
little
interest
in
working
on
a
lathe
or
a
mill.
I
was
more
interested
in
the
assembly
of
the
machines.
So
it
was
off
to
the
assembly
shop
after
spending
a
little
time
with
George
Moon.
My
bench
was
in
front
of
Pete
Marlee’s
office
(he
had
by
that
time
become
works
manager)
just
where
the
door
was
through
to
the
clocking
in
clocks
and
canteen.
At
this
end
of
the
assembly
shop
we
built
the
Versoflow
machine,
the
SIG
horizontal
flow
wrap,
the
WLX
over
wrapper
and
the
cartooning
machines
(I
think
they
were
called
D
machines).
At
the
other
end
of
the
assembly
shop
the
Super
2000 roll wrappers and feeders were built.
I
worked
alongside
the
likes
of
Dick
Gash,
Georgie
Proudfoot,
Ken
Kalinski,
and
his
son
Dave
Kalinski,
Dave
Reynolds,
Frank
Oakley,
George
Wigett,
Roy
Middleton,
Roland
and
Martin
Catchpole,
Micky
Gosling,
John
Prentice,
Bob
Bull,
Billy
Allen,
Vic
Harvey,
Dave
Garnett,
Phillip
White,
Barry
Moore,
Adrian
Warnes,
Johnny
Dye
etc.
The
chargehand
was
John
???
who
worked
on the same bench as Morris Jones.
Incidentally
Johnny
Dye
was
the
first
aid
man
and
also
supplied
the
apprentices,
from
the
first
aid
cupboard,
with
the
necessary
family planning item for the weekend!
At
this
time
Ken
Mirams
was
managing
director,
Pete
Marlee
was
works
manager,
Burt
Goodings
was
works
foreman,
Jack
Lowe
was
the
assembly
shop
foreman
(he
had
previously
been
the
union
shop
steward
which
was
taken
over
by
Frank
Oakly).
Angus
Sherwin was chief engineer, Reg Suffolk was head draughtsman and John Plumstead tested the machines before dispatch.
The
company
ran
a
bonus
scheme
and
overtime
was
available.
So,
by
the
early
70,s
providing
I
worked
four
hours
overtime
during
the
week
and
a
Saturday
morning
and
achieved
the
maximum
50%
bonus
I
could
earn
£20
per
week,
which
was
the
same
amount
that
a
charge
hand
was
paid
at
that
time.
In
1972
I
got
married
and
needed
a
mortgage
to
buy
a
house.
The
building
society
needed
a
letter
from
my
employer
for
proof
of
earnings.
Pete
Marlee
was
good
enough
to
write
this
for
me
and
asked
how
much
I
needed
to
have
to
get
the
mortgage
approved.
So,
a
figure
was
calculated
which
was
not
necessarily
the
same
as
what
I
was earning!
When
the
Whiffler
Road
factory
first
opened
there
was
a
proper
canteen
at
the
front
of
the
building
looking
out
towards
Drayton
Road.
I
believe
that
by
the
time
Wrappers
left
the
site
it
had
been
turned
into
office
space.
Two
ladies,
the
manageress’s
name
I
cannot
recall
but
her
assistant’s
surname
was
Hawes
(the
mother
of
Alan
Hawes),
ran
it
and
provided
meals
at
lunch
time.
The
canteen
was
segregated
with
one
part
for
the
office
staff
and
the
other
for
the
factory
workers.
There
was
also
a
social
club
and
I
was
on
the
committee
for
a
while,
which
was
good
because
we
could
skive
off
during
working
hours
for
meetings
in
the
canteen.
We
organized
coach
outings
to
places
like
Felixstowe,
Christmas
dinner
dances
at
the
Landsdown
Hotel
and
trips
to
the
pantomime at the Theatre Royal for member’s children.
There
was
always
some
sort
of
“fun”
going
on
and
one
Paul
Jarvis,
who
worked
in
the
development
section,
probably
had
something
to
do
with
it.
Unfortunately
Paul
is
no
longer
with
us
having
died
aged
sixty
of
cancer.
On
one
occasion
a
dummy
camera
appeared
fixed
high
up
in
the
toilets
off
of
the
assembly
shop
and
looking
down
at
the
sinks.
The
words
“Big
Burt
Is
Watching
You”
were
written
on
its
side.
This
was
a
reference
to
Mr.
Goodings
who
would
be
after
you
if
you
attempted
to
wash
your hands before the allotted time, at going home time.
Then
there
was
the
Russian
spy
trawler
jest.
In
the
sixties
and
seventies
the
Cold
War
was
still
at
its
height
and
there
was
always
stories
in
the
Evening
News
about
spy
trawlers
being
off
the
coast.
From
the
development
section
there
appeared
a
rocket
shaped
object
made
of
aluminum,
about
eighteen
inches
long
and
four
inches
in
diameter
with
a
point
at
one
end
and
fins
on
the
other.
The
pointed
end
unscrewed
and
a
Christmas
cracker
was
placed
inside
and
some
Russian
characters
were
put
on
the
outside.
The
rocket
was
then
taken
down
to
the
coast
and
stuck
pointed
end
into
the
sand.
The
next
evening
there
was
a
piece
in
the
paper
about
a
local
who
had
found
the
“Russian”
rocket
on
the
beach
while
walking
his
dog.
It
also
included
a
picture
of
him
holding the rocket. Curiously that was the only ever mention of the incident in the media!
I
left
AW
in
1973
and
went
to
work
for
Mayflower
Packaging,
which
was
run
by
Bill
Sawdy
who
at
one
time
had
worked
in
AW’s
sales
department.
The
likes
of
Danny
Tyrrell
and
Brian
Parker
also
worked
there.
After
working
at
Mayflower
for
a
few
years
I
left
and
went
to
work
for
myself.
For
twenty
five
plus
years
up
to
2010
I
had
my
own
company
CSS
Machine
&
Engineering,
which
I
sold
to
Scan
Coin
who
had
been
the
main
customer.
Unfortunately
Scan
Coin
in
early
2017
closed
the
Norwich
operation
and
moved
it
to
Sweden.
Over
the
years
I
employed
many
ex
AW
“Boys”,
and
worked
with
others
who
had
also
gone
on
to
run
their
own
business.
Due
to
the
great
background
and
training
people
had
received
at
AW
I
always
had
a
great
team
of
colleagues
to
work with.
“Good old AW”!
KELVIN WOODARD