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GEC WITTON WORKS

Aston Your great. Thanks so much. The site of a memorable innings. The site of an infamous field hocky game played against a GEC womens team I think. Still have the bruises. It's not what I hoped to see though probably the same for you.
Regards.
 
When I was courting my ex husband in the mid 1950s we often used to go to the Magnet Club, they had very good dances there at the time.  The last time I went there was in the 1970s when they held regular Country & Western nights, I think to a group who hired the club, we only went once, they were a friendly crowd, but so intense about their interests, they started off with shooting at targets, the room was so filled with smoke, but the lasting impression I have is when the raised the Stars and Stripes flag and gathered round to sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and many of them had tears in their eyes.  We felt outsiders looking in on a private ceremony!! as everyone but us was dressed in cowboy or cowgirl outfits.
 
Yes they new how to put on a good dance at the club, two of the main stays on the club commitee were  GEC bowling bubbies of mine Jimmy Jack & Alec Sutton. It was the time when men had dinner suits and the ladies wore evening dress. I remember dancing to  Sid Lawance? and his band I say dancing more like prancing my wife was the dancer in our family,it was great fun all the same.
THE MEMORIES COME FLOODING BACK ON THIS WEB SITE
MANY THANKS FOR A VERY VERY GOOD SITE.
ASTON
 
My mother worked at the GEC early 50s,she assembled runway lights.They worked on' piece work' and when the person came round to set the price they would work very slowly.

There was a lot of union involvement in the 50s.In the 1970s the West Midlands County Council had a leader called Sir Stanley Yapp and my Mom recalled that he was once her union convenor,then plain Stan Yapp.
 
Alberta, my dad assembled runway beacons during the war at GEC witton.Later he became chairman of the clarks & clerical union succeeding Jimmy Meadows who later became Lord MAYOR of BIRMINGHAM. Both Sir Stanley Yapp & Jimmy Meadows were long time union colleagues of my dad William Jenney.
When they were running down the GEC Witton.Councilers ,SILVERMAN,HOWLES, and many others visted Witton to try to prevent the unpreventable.Standing on a flatback trailer in Turbo Drive it was stated by the named councilers " WE WILL NOT LET WITTON CLOSE" this was followed be a March round the block down to Witton ,passed the Villa [grounds and back down Electric Ave. :-[
 
This photo was take at dinner in the Winter Gardens Blackpool on GEC  Annual  outing to the Lights Time about mid- fifties. In the picture is on the left side table, My Dad, Brother, Mom & I next to me is my aunt, uncle & cousin.In the botton left can be seen my other Aunt & Uncle. The price on the back of this print was Whole 2/- That is two shillings (20p for you young uns) ;D
Rupert I am still looking see any photos of inside the Magnet Club, do you have any?
 
Sorry Aston. That part of my life was gone untill you and Keith Berry posted some pictures. I must dig out my old photo's though there might be some other stuff thet would be of interest here.
Regards.
 
Speaking of large stators I guess some of you will remember Vic Easton and Bernard ? who were designers. Do you know where the stator on the Wynne's trailer was bound for and do you remember the building of a divided winding rotor for the CEGB at Didcot Power station. I have dined in the Magnet club on several occasions as a visitor and enjoyed the old GEC hospitality both before and after dare I say it Mr Weinstock I used to be a projects man with CEGB
 
Hi Jim, I was in Large Turbo sale/Contract Dept, prior to C.A.PARONS taking over the engineering side my boss was Alf Coutts ? and I worked along side Jim James.Our Engineers were, the bossman
Vic Easton & Bernard Patchett? (I think thats how his name is spelt ). Did you ever see Vic Eastons home built sports car  he was so proud of it! & Had Bernard got his beard when you new him? As I have said a number of times on this topic I must go into the dark and far reaches of my loft, as I know there are many more memories of Witton up there.
Nice to hear from an ex GEGB Engineer, Do you have any PHOTOS OF WITTON BUILT MACHINES or PROJECTS.
Regards ASTON (Keith Jenney)
 
Yes Bernard Patchett[thanks for his name] certainly had his beard when I knew him. I also saw Vic's home built sports car but he was a perfectionist. Another name that comes to mind was Howard White a sales representative who lived next door to me in the 1960's and Derek Acock who was a GEC apprentice and worked for me at Bournville Lane [now a police station] before the CEGB moved to Cheltenham/ Gloucester. Was there a Paul [or Peter] Doherty who went to work for CEGB Plant design at Barnwood?
 
YES PETER DOHERTY,DID WORK AT WITTON. I WILL TRY TO REMEMBER OTHERS THAT WORKED THERE.I MAY HAVE AN OLD TELEPHONE INTERNAL PHONE BOOK.WHICH WILL HELP ME .ON GOOD AT NAMES ONLY FACES.LOL :)
 
I ASTON , ITS TRUE WHAT THEY SAY THEN ABOUT US WE BRITSH POMS, WE ARE AN IDLE BUNCH COMPARED TO OUR FORINERS, THEY PREFFER WEALTH , WE PREFERE COMFORT AS YOU ARE CLEARLY DISPLAYING AH / I BET YOU WAS ON GOOD BUCKS , MONEY FOR OLD ROPE, HEY , I WAS GIVING SWEAT AND BLOOD AND BLISTERS , TO EARN MY BIT OF CORN , DOWN AT THE OLD SMOKEY FOUNDRY IN TUBES IN ROCKY LANE ASTON , STILL WE CANNOT HAVE TO MANY SHERRIFS AND NOT MANY COWBOYS, NOW CAN WE , STILL NICE PHOTOGRATH, YOU LOOKED LIKE THE MD, BEST WISHES ,ASTONIAN,;;;;
 
I may have been on GOOD BUCKS as you say, but it was no 8.30 to 5.00 job, my brain had all the sweat, blood & blisters. some nightS it would be after 2.00am before I got to bed, if I had a 9.00am meeting up in Yorkshire or South Wales. My HANDS MY NOT HAVE GOT DIRTY BUT I SURE EARNED MY MEGER BUCKS !!!!!!
Regards ASTON
 
I also recall Les Berry who was a motor man, a Scout leader and for a number of years Secretary of the Birmingham Electric Club and Douglas McCliskie who I believe still lives in Birmingham but sadly Les and his wife Marjorie have died and I believe Peter may have also. I shall have to do a bit more research and see if I can find some other names from the 50/60's. I was involved with Hams Hall "C" PS which had 6 x 60 MW GEC turbo- alternators and which was converted to run on Natural gas which it did throughout the miner's strike. I also did some work at Tilbury "B" GEC 350MW sets and Kingsnorth and Didcot which were GEC 500 MW sets but became Parsons when they took over.
 
Hi Jim WOW you have a better memory than me, Les Berry was our out side salesman and lived just around the corner from me. in Sutton Coldfield.His wife was my young sons Arkaler when he was in the boldmere cubs.
GEC GAS TURBINES using Bristol Gas Engines I recall we put these on trailers and tried to sell them as mobile generating sets.That GAS convertion at Hams HALL is all that left of the Power Station. Cooling Towers gone along with the 6 x 60MW sets.
In the latter days of GEC I had the unenviable task of transferring all the information we held on these machines spares and parts to NEWCASTLE ie C.A. PARSONS.
I visited the Witton site a few days ago to take some pic's for this Topic, it was sad to see the Turbo Bay Workshop gone and only the frontage left of the main addmin block, in which I spent many HAPPY YEARS.
Thanks for jogging my memory banks
Regards ASTON (Keith Jenney)
 
Aston, I wonder if Les Berry is any relation to Keith Berry who lives in Brantley Road and has taken all those amazing photos of Brum over the years?

My father worked at the GEC Witton way back in the early l920's. He was very young and didn't have a career in mind. He worked on a machining lathe and lost the top joint of one of his fingers of his right hand. He used to smoke so he had this rather strange looking brownish yellow three quarter finger. We never thought much about it though.

My Mother used to go dancing at the Magnet Club a great deal in late l920's and early l930's...so we heard a lot about what went on, etc. She had got fed up waiting for Dad to come back to England from Canada where he went when he was 23 years old. Mom was a very good Fair Isle knitter and had sent Dad a few pullovers while he was away in the first year. When he arrived home and went looking for her one night at the Magnet Club, she was dancing with another fellow who was wearing one of the
"infamous" Fair Isle pullovers knitted by my Mother. This inflamed my Father who promptly asked this fellow to step outside and they had a few blows so I understand. Dad won the day so it seemed.

Does anyone remember the Friday morning in the late l950's when the later infamous Kenneth Littlejohn held up the Wages Department at the GEC and got away with a lot of cash? Those days they used to use pay packets and they were just starting to "do the wages". This would have been his first hold up robbery with several more to follow. I went to school with Kenneth Littlejohn at the junior level. He went on to become involved with the British Government and the IRA. There is a lot about him on the Internet. I believe he went to Aston Grammar. He was eventually murdered in the l980's. His brother Keith was also involved in the supposed MI6 capers and they both went to prison in Ireland. Kenneth escaped and was on the run for 20 months.

He was always very nice to me as we were in the same class most of the time. I was very surprised when he held up the Wages Dept. at the GEC and even more surprised when my Mother started sending newspaper clippings to me in Canada about he and his brother's exploits. I was coming home very late one night from a dance and heard footsteps walking behind on me on Marsh Hill.
I turned around quickly in response to a voice and recognized the owner as Kenneth Littlejohn. He lived along Streetly Road I remember. I hadn't seen him for years. This must have been l958. I remember he had an older brother and a younger one.
https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/11/newsid_2800000/2800267.stm
 
WOW Thanks Rupert thats a much better view than I was able to get, do you know were the war memorial has gone, I was asked on one or two Nov 11th to present R.P.D. Sales tribute.ihope it is safe at a new location.
Thanks again for Keit Berrry's site some good pics there.
Regards ASTON
 
GEC OUTINGS: THIS ONE IS GEC SWITCHGEAR PROGRESS DEPT OUTING TO BILLINGS AQUADROME NORTHAMPTONSHIRE AROUND MID 1950s
Any one know any one? My Dad is back right, my brother standing in front of him, I know the man seated front right is a Mr Lees. ANY HELP?
ASTON

GEC_SWITCHGEAR_BILLINGS_AQUADROME[1].JPG
 
Hi Rupert, I have just found my old Magnet Club Membership Card,see attached. Do you remenber them? NOTE the Company "PARSONS PEEBLES" The begining of the end for GEC Witton as you can see from the cutting out of the Birmingham Mail at that time :'(
 
was it the G.E.C. works that at various times was called 'Osram' (the lights people) and then Radiation?
as my dad used to work there in the 70's...(he was a driver)
I'm sure when he started it was still called the G.E.C. works.

I remember a social club there that he took us kids to (on a Friday night?) that had films/cartoons, on a screen, and a bar etc...
 
Hi Mazbeth, GEC OSRAM work was sited at the junc; of Tame Rd & Brookvale Rd in Witton, most members of the GEC used the Magnet club at some time, thats if you had a card like the one posted above, the car park of Osram work is now used by ASTON VILLA on match days. Opposite Osram was a Company called HIGG'S MOTORS. It had a motor, set on a plinth in the grounds which you could see form the road rotating all day long,this was on the same side of the road as what was ICI.
ASTON
 
Aston, I must have gone by the Higgs Motor on the plinth thousands of times and it
always fascinated me. It was a very unusual type of thing for a factory to put on display but
people certainly notice it. Was Higgs Motors bought out eventually? I can remember that they used to stack bomb casings in the fields adjoining Higgs Motors during the early to mid-1940's and I remember there were several buildings painted with camoflauge paint. While we are in this area, do you remember the petrol station close to Tame Road and Deykin Avenue, just a very small place run by identical twin brothers?
 
jennyann,I cannot recall the petrol station you say was close to Tame Rd, Deykin Ave, :-\can you give more details.I only remember that area after 1950, as thats the decade  when I started work at the GEC in Electic Ave.
 
Aston, there was a Garage called LCC Garages I believe it was Electric Ave near the Railway Embankment opposite a Cafe it was still there in the late 60s as it sponsors of my Ten Pin Bowling Team :)

Hope this helps

Its address was 227 Electric Ave Aston B'Ham 6
 
Hi Alf yes I know that one its a small car park now.For a long time they had a sign on the site which stated petrol @ 3/6p a gallon. was it ever that cheap?? :2funny:
By the cafe,was a gent hairdressers, He moved to what now is the vesey art studio at Beggers Bush Sutton,As I  was so used to him cutting my hair at lunch time when I worked at GEC, I drove to his new shop for my hair to be  cut. Little did I know I would be living less than 1/4 of a mile away some 15 years later. "It was one of the best hair cuts in town". O0
Regards ASTON
 
Hi Aston: I will have to have a look in one of Alton Douglas's books for a photo of the
Petrol Station on Brookvale Road because I came upon it not too long ago.
 
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