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Ionic Plating Works

Hi Astonian, Sorry to say I don't know of the fella that set up Screw Fix, at first I thought it may have been my old mate Wally Pearce who was one of those clever clogs. As a young bloke he was the Asst. Manager at The St John's Mill. He was seconded to go to Hong Kong and help set up a factory for GKN and it was to be for 2 years. I had left GKN and at that time I was going to Australia as a 10 pound Pom.
The plan was that my 2 years would be up and I could return to the UK without having to repay my fare to the Aussie Govt (Free holiday eh!).
At the end of the 2 years Wally wrote and said his time was up and how about we meet in Tokyo and come home together. He was a good boy and had saved his money etc., I was the Black Sheep and had spent my money as soon as it came to hand on wine, Beer, women and other such like!
So Wally went home got married and was out of work when GKN folded. He spent his severance pay on buying up a lot of stock from GKN and set himself up in business. As he had a daughter, didn't become a Millionaire (as far as I know) and still lives in the UK it ain't him.
I don't know of anyone trading out of a little shed but a hell of a lot of the stock walked out of the factory. When I asked the Warehouse Manager if I could get a few screws for a job I was doing at home he said help yourself but take a gross box not take a few out of the box as people would complain that they were short changed.
The Head of Security was a sort of chubby Hitler looking bloke and the story was that he designed his own uniform which was a bit over the top and not only was he disliked but he was a bit of a laughing stock.

The main office doors were near the Heath St. exit and you came out the revolving door then had to go down 5/6 marble stairs to the roadway and main gate. One evening one of the office staff had a bit of an accident and his briefcase fell out of his hands and about 6 gross of screws spilt down the steps to everyone's amusement.
The poor bugger was trying to recover them with the aid of others coming out and amid heaps of laughter. This was within a matter of feet from "Adolf" who "Saw Nothing".
 
Hi Freddy,

My dad Tom Ketteridge was I believe sales manager, I don't believe he became a director, also he was never a violin maker or fisherman.

Unfortunately I don't know the sales directors name.

Kindest regards,

Paul.
 
Hi Freddy,

My dad Tom Ketteridge was I believe sales manager, I don't believe he became a director, also he was never a violin maker or fisherman.

Unfortunately I don't know the sales directors name.

Kindest regards,

Paul.
Hi Paul,

sorry I wouldn't have known tom ketteridge....thanks for posting tho...any info or stories about Ionic are welcome.

frankf
 
Well it's been a good while since I posted last, but this may interest some respondents.

Terry, I can recall the name "Terry Amos" but can't put a face to it. Did you work on the vat section? Ron's picture shows a relatively mild looking man, but he was a holy terror to slackers and idlers, fortunately I got on with him very well, but those who crossed him rarely did it twice!

Andrew who posted above was a I think a contemporary of two guys who were also chemists and moved on to other jobs within the company; Eddie Hiscox and Alan Kenny. I was in the wave behind them and worked with Jimmy Alldrick, Dave Quick and Dave Clarke.

Andrew might have known the late Mike Turley who was a chemist at the Dudley works, Les Jones the site manager, John Smart the maintenance guy, and Les Harper, one of the foremen. I didn't have much to do with Dudley, just occasionally filling in for guys on holiday or off sick, and installing a couple of new processes. It wasn't a place I much enjoyed; old fashioned, cold and a bit shambolic, not a patch on the new facility that Tom and his fellow directors built in Halburton Street after the barrel section fire in the Grove Street works.

In my time there were two Grove Street fires, the first in the old 21 shop which destroyed two big automatic barrel zinc plating machines and the phosphating area, would have been around 1968. The cause was never clearly established, but the huge wooden Belfast roof burnt out and set everything under it ablaze. I'm sure this was reported in the local Press, not least because the steel tanks holding the cyanide based plating solution distorted and sagged, allowing the stuff to enter the storm drains. The second was in 3B section, a manual barrel plating set up, which was started by a fitter welding (or at least working hot) over some cleaning tanks, and would have been post 1970. I've got some snaps up in the loft of the damage to 21 shop, and the workforce in the assembly areas after the 3B fire. This latter was definitely attended by the M&B brigade, they were the first to attend.

3B was quickly rebuilt, the damage was mostly to the roof area immediately over the source, but 21 shop was a complete write off, the steel structures bent like sausages and even the outside wall was compromised, hence the move to Halburton Street. To make up for the loss of production capacity the old manual lines were worked as hard as we could go, so I found myself working shifts. For a young chap about to get married and saving up for a mortgage deposit, this was good news, the shift bonus was +25% of my basic pay!

Other names that have come to me are George Marshall, Albert Adams, Billy Ford, Olive Pagett, and Henry Knight all in QC, Cassel Mckenzie, Margaret Nolan and Margaret Howe in the Lab, the Mooney brothers, Arnold Dodd and his brother, and "Bronco" Lane, Gordon Woodley and his dad Bert, all in the barrel section, Johnny Stamp and Gren Pickin in the phosphate shop, Alf Trubody in the dem shop, June Gastinger, Sue Berrow, Brian Kilgallon, Mick Lahane and Larry Smith in the offices, and Rose and Pearl, two West Indian ladies who were very funny and very rude! Dave Palmer aided Dave Westbury, Lew Jones understudied Tom Archer in the engineering dept. I think Lew was in command when the company finally folded. Mike Burrell, a dear friend who died much too early was assistant to Colin Prosser the tech. dir. and did a lot of research into barrel plating. Mick Lahanes wife ran the canteen and produced a real he mans cooked breakfast for a princely nine pence, cheaper than a pint of mild in the Cape.

Match and pleasure fishing was the big sporting interest, and the angling section was very active; Ionic supplied a mini bus and driver so we could have a pint after a match, and the annual "fishing club do" was always a hoot.

Although I never regretted leaving Ionic for a better job, I also never found anywhere else where you could have as many laughs in spite of, or even because of, working hard, and I missed that. A couple of us were sent on a residential Shop Floor Supervisors course run by the Engineering Employers Federation, which was my first management qualification, and has stood me in good stead to this day, even though I'm retired. In some ways I think the management would be seen as paternalistic by some today, but it wasn't any the worse for it in my opinion; they looked after their people.

As Andrew said it was a good place to work.

Freddy
 
Hi Freddy, I was at Ionic at what seems the same time as you (1967-1970). I came as a qualified chemist and worked in the lab. I remember all those people mentioned. I was intially at Grove Street doing R&D, then to Dudley for a stretch, finally back to Grove Street. I remember Mike Turley very well, and was shocked to see that you wrote the 'late' Mike Turley. There was another person in the lab at Dudley at that time (1967-8) but I cannot recall his name.
Among the lab people was Roy Castle and Robin Tea. Colin Prosser was director, with Clive Pearce as chief chemist. Then Azam Azamgarhi appeared on the scene. His reorganisation of the lab at that time was problematic.
It did cause a commotion when Margaret Howe and I left the company rather dramatically.

But it was an interesting place to work, and a great transition from the academic work of university to the reality of industry!
Brian
 
I’m the Dave Quick that Freddy refers to in his last post. Amazed to see my name come up like that after 50 years. Freddy, forgive me, I don’t really remember you. But were you the guy with the Morris Traveller? I was in the lab from 1964 to 1968 under Eddie Baker and ended up as process chemist on the vat section when Eddie Hiscox moved up. I regretted leaving Ionic for a long time but I was young and impetuous and desperate to get out of Birmingham at the time. It was without doubt my happiest time ever in employment. The place was full of characters and events that stick in your memory. I never forgot the place. Some memories:

Dave Clarke was a big buddy of mine, lost touch when I left. There was a nice old guy who worked the vat chrome, I think his name was George Benson. Dave C and I used to drink with him in the Engine. It was a bit of a race as to what would get him first, the copious pints of mild he consumed or the chrome ulcers.

I recall an inebriated Ernie Cale leading a Christmas singsong from a table in the Cape one year. Ernie’s nephew Steve Bott working in sales for a time. Steve was the ultimate mod, floral tie, Rod Stewart hair, the lot.

Jim Alldrick and I used to fetch the bacon sandwiches at morning break when everybody congregated around a desk in the corner of the lab. Great banter, loudest voice award went to Frank Paget who was getting married to a girl in sales.

Eddie Hiscox used to give me a ride home in his Austin Healey Sprite.

Alan Kenney, great practical joker. He would fill your boots with screws and on one occasion glued somebody’s boots to the floor. He also made a pulley system for lowering a large dummy spider in to the doorway to scare the girls when they came through the lab.

Tom Ketteridge, I last bumped into him some years later at M&T when they were in North London.

Bert Wallbank always gave a short speech at the Ionic Christmas party, there was always a risqué joke in it.

During summer, we used to sun bathe or kick a ball about on the flat roof above the lab. Needless to say the atmosphere wasn’t too good up there. Colin Prosser put a stop to it, quite rightly.

The wiring section was a place to avoid if you were a young man. The ladies there were, shall we say, not shy. It wasn’t the place to be if you were easily embarrassed. Roy Castle married one of the girls at a very young age. I bumped into him many years layer at Pender Plating in Poole (Twickenham Plating Group Ltd), where I eventually ended up.

Dave Quick
 
Hi Dave, Hi Brian,

What a treat to hear from you both; really made my day.

Dave I remember you and Jeannie very well. Did you ever tell her about your feelings for Servilan in Blake's Seven and Nyree Dawn Porter in The Forsythe Saga?

I was indeed the guy with the Morris, only it wasn't a Traveller, just a white saloon. When Judith and I got wed, and went on a brief honeymoon, some bright spark (probably Alan b****** Kenny!) wired a kipper behind the radiator. I only found the wretched thing three days later when we got to Carlisle!

In those days I was known as Fred Molloy, not Freddy so that might ring a bell. I started as a research chemist with Roger Hayward and Mike Nixon but rapidly got bored and transferred to process chemistry, almost exclusively on the barrel section. Jimmy Alldrick and I worked shift about for what felt like donkeys years.

Brian, I can remember to this day when you and Margaret Howe "left the company rather dramatically." Typically, me being as dumb as a rock, I hadn't a clue what was afoot. I was coming up the stairs from Reception when you both walked past me and Margaret said "Bye bye Fred we'll be leaving you now" and gave a little wave. I just bimbled on thinking it was some sort of joke. When I got into the Lab and asked what was gong on, all I got was The Thousand Mile Stare from Maggie Nolan.

I recall us all going to Rolfe Street baths for a swim some lunchtimes, and also occasionally slipping up to GKN Rec in Bearwood for a sandwich and a game of table tennis.

I remember you in R&D running the AAS machine day after day. I think you were well off out of that.

More sad news .... Frank Paget passed away with a sudden heart attack just after you guys had left. I was absolutely stunned, really devastated. We'd been very good friends and buddies working together. He was the first of "our" generation that I'd lost, and poor Mike Turley was the second. Broke me up for a long time.

Dave Clarke stayed in the plating trade for a long time after he left Ironic, and was at still at EC Williams in Spencer Street in the late 80's. Roy Castle was at some outfit in South Wales around 2000 odd. Merthyr Plating I think.

Robin Tea married Geraldine, who I think was Tom Archers secretary. Last I heard he was on the road for Schloetter.

Dave, it was indeed George Benson, and amusingly his wife was Ivy, though she didn't play the trumpet! They were lovely people, and Judith and I were very fond of them both. When George went off shift he'd walk into the bar at the Cape and order two pints of mild. Whilst the second was being pulled the first went down without swallowing. Did you go to Jimmy and Carols wedding in Kings Norton? We had a terrific night there with George and Ivy.

Azamghari, known as Aazzonga; what a star. When he dropped a brass Hull Cell panel into the cleaner in the dem shop, Alf Trubody gave him a vat magnet to fish it out. I don't think the penny dropped even after ten minutes. Alf nearly had a hernia laughing. Colin Prosser protected him for far too long, but eventually Bert dropped the hammer. It turned out that he'd forged the qualifications on his CV and job application, and was actually a BSc Pharm (failed) Aberdeen. So that explained a lot.

Jimmy and I devised what we called the "Aazzonga Gambit". If we didn't quite know how to fix a problem, we'd work out what we thought Aazzonga would do in the same circumstances and do the exact opposite. Never failed!

When he had responsibilities in Dudley he'd be at Grove Street, when he had responsibilities at Grove Street he'd be at Dudley and when both called he'd disappear somewhere on the New Road; he was some sort of Schroedingers Chief Chemist, the quantum Aazzonga.

Personally I never had much of a problem with the wiring ladies though I do recall Dan Eaton claiming he'd had to separate Jimmy and one of them with a crowbar on a particularly jolly Christmas Eve. Apocryphal I'm sure. Rose and Pearl the West Indian pair often worked together sorting mixed loads of fasteners; I've still both sets of fingerprints on my bum, bless them. They were great girls.

The Christmas parties (was it The Prince of Wales?) were great fun and equally charged hormonally. I need to draw a bit of a curtain over that to protect the guilty.

Dave, I agree with you, my days at Ironic were also by some distance the happiest of my working life. We were young kids having lots of laughs, earning reasonable money, and learning a lot socially and professionally. This may be an old mans way of saying that I had more fun as a 23 year old than I do at 73, but whatever, it's still the truth.

The only downside was the place being full of Bluenoses!

The best of luck to you both, and all the other ex-Ironics, it's been great to hear from you and know that you are well

Regards

Fred Molloy
 
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Brian, after a bit of stirring amongst the depleted grey cells, was the chap from Dudley lab. Graham Whitehouse?

Fred
 
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Fred Molloy - of course, now I remember. Jeannie was Dave Clarke's other half though. I'll search the memory bank and get some more stuff down - this is great!

DQ
 
Dave, isn't it!

Daft as it sounds I lay awake half the night after seeing your post recalling what I've always thought of as a great and formative period in all our lives. So yes, I'm still a sad sod. :)

Was it Sue?
 
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Yes Fred, but we divorced long ago.

So Forum guys, I found a little gem in the loft, my old note book from when I was the Vat Section process chemist. I've uploaded my diagram of the layout (1966/67) and all the tanks are numbered. Anybody remember what each tank contained? Ignore the rinse tanks and drag outs which according to my little green book are 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, 21, 24, 26, 29, 32, 34, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 59, 62. A clue: tank 49 was the chrome vat that you could see through the window grill from Halberton Street as mentioned in a previous post. Have fun!

DQ
 

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Also from the little green book, the lead shop. I recall the lead shop & the inspection being on the way down to the precious metal plating department

DQ
 

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Yes Fred, but we divorced long ago.

So Forum guys, I found a little gem in the loft, my old note book from when I was the Vat Section process chemist. I've uploaded my diagram of the layout (1966/67) and all the tanks are numbered. Anybody remember what each tank contained? Ignore the rinse tanks and drag outs which according to my little green book are 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, 21, 24, 26, 29, 32, 34, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 59, 62. A clue: tank 49 was the chrome vat that you could see through the window grill from Halberton Street as mentioned in a previous post. Have fun!

DQ
Re the vat section plan from the ‘little green book’:
Tanks 1-5: cleaning line for steel and copper alloys
Tank 6: hot anodic cleaner for steel
Tank 8: 50% hydrochloric acid
Tanks 10-13: cleaning line for polished nickel Rover parts
Tank 14: dull cadmium
Tank 17: cyanide copper
Tank 20: Perflow semi bright nickel
Tank 22: bright nickel
Tank 23: cyanide copper
Tank 28: bright nickel
Tank 30: dull nickel
Tanks 31, 33, 35: bright nickel
Tank 38: nickel strike
Tank 39: Satylite nickel
Tank 44: decorative chrome
Tanks 48, 49: crackfree chrome
Tank 56: brass
Tank 60: lacquer for brass
Tank 61: tin-nickel alloy

DQ
 
Also from the 'little green book' some material costs Ionic was paying c1966. It was £sd in those days of course (pound, shillings and pence not to be confused with LSD the hippy drug which was getting a lot of press at the time). Also, this was before metrication so oz, lb, cwt, g (gallon not gram). I have an internal memo from Shaun Gwynn dated 16th May 1967 advising switch to metric system for expressing routine analysis results. Why the hell was he called Shaun anyway? His initials were MJM (!)
 

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Fred, you'll like this, I found a memo from Clive Pearce with your name on the circulation list. Hope you can read it, suffice to say it is 50 years old and it's one of those flimsy carbon copy sheets from the typewriter (remember them?). The memo refers to a nickel drag out problem. Clive makes a comparison to a labourer's wages which apparently was six shillings and six pence per hour. Woohoo!
 

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These are some other names that from the 1964-1968 era that I found from some old vat section meeting minutes which I still have (amazingly):

John Ellis - chemist, I think he came from Dudley
George Wallington - lead shop production/ inspection(?)
Arthur Rudge (?)
George Marshall (?)

Anyone remember them?

DQ
 
Dave,

Sorry for the tardy reply, we've been away for a few days.

Vat Section quiz .... null points. I racked what's left of my brains trying to think if there even was a semi-bright nickel or not. I had thought there was a sulphuric etch in there somewhere, it might have been after your time. Mike Turley got so fed up with the new issue of pagers we were given, he lobbed it in the etch and left it there.

Clive's memo .... Why me? I only ever went on the grid to get warm when 21 shop was freezing (virtually always)! I did occasionally fill in on high days and holidays I suppose.

Lead bond .... remember the fridge in there? One weekend I left the fishing clubs maggots and casters in it, and some escaped; Monday morning Olive Pagett went ape. George Wellington was indeed the inspector come production guy.

Shaun Gwynn ... I remember his given names as Micheal John Mainwaring Gwynn; Sean / Shaun is the Irish form of John, but who knows? I liked him a lot, we had a common interest in rifle shooting and I used to go to his club small bore range which was underground at Birmingham University. I can't remember now why he jacked, but there rumours of a rich widow; I hope they were right.

John Ellis ... wound up as MD of RoHoCo up in Wolverhampton, a very nice guy and good white finish chemist. When I was Chief chemist of the Anochrome / WEP group we did a lot of business together.

Arthur Rudge.... Sure it wasn't Bobby Rudge who was a sort of leading hand labourer and shop steward? Tall chap dark haired with a voice second only to Frank Paget's, and a dry Brummie sense of humour. He'd be the guy that filled the anode cages.

George Marshall ..... Chief Inspector, holed up in the inspection office that was sort of inside the bottom lab, his half back was Albert Adams, one of the Ionic anglers. George was an inoffensive round faced chap who lived in Moor Lane near Villa Park. He got his name in the papers for chasing a burglar out of his house with a Samurai sword, so not so inoffensive after all!

Since this thread kicked off I think I've located Jimmy, and possibly Dave Clarke too; if I do manage to get in touch I'll let you know.

Fred
 
That’s amazing Fred, it would be great to catch up with these guys again. How come the memories of the place are so vivid?

When I unearthed the little green book from the loft, I also found my old lab note book which dates back to March 1965 which must be when I started. This decaying relic, with it’s chemical stains & slight whiff of almonds, records the R&D work I carried out during that period. I also found minutes of vat section meetings which I was entrusted with. Whilst I have no intention of boring anybody stupid with this lot, it does evoke memories for further posts.

Attached is the TCIMF examination paper for 1966. We all did the night school course at the old Matthew Boulton Technical College which was an austere imposing old building at the top of Suffolk Street. The lecturer was an ex Cannings man who had an eye condition which resulted in very bad eyesight. Most Ionic students had such good technical training and experience at work they would smash the course with ease.

DQ
 

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Dave,

Ditto on Matthew Boulton, I did the Tech Cert. there too; must have 1968. I was laid up for a long time in 1966 with a busted knee joint. Can't recall anything much of the lecturer though. For some daft reason I can recall his exposition and my notes of the Kanigen electroless nickel process like it was yesterday, even the deposit hardness figures. What I did last Sunday morning is a mystery. I think memory is like that.

Brian Kilgallon played in the Ironic football team that was started and managed by Wilf Manning, lovely guys; I'm not sure that Goosey Baker didn't play too, I bet you remember him. Another Bluenose!
 
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Fred,

How could I forget Goosey. Johnny Baker wasn't it & didn't he work in stores. Quite a character I recall. Dave Clarke & I used to have a few laughs with him. I remember we all played in a friendly match against Dudley I think. We were football mad in those days. I haven't lived in the Midlands for many years now so i'm ignorant to what a Bluenose is, i'm guessing it's a Blues supporter.

Picking up on the further education trail, while I was at Ionic I did day release HNC Chem at Chance Technical College as it was called then. I bet that's long gone.

Dave
 
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