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Ionic Plating Works

I left in 1968 but share lasting impressions of the place with you all. I think it's great that there is still a few of us around to tell the story.

I too remember the canteen. Jim and I used to go down & collect the hot bacon and sausage sandwiches in little white paper bags and take them back to the lab for morning break. All the lab staff used to congregate in a corner of the lab for this daily ritual. Frank Paget used to dominate proceedings of course.

Dave
 
The canteen ..... the wonderful lady in charge was Mick Lehane's (progress chaser and transport) wife. She was a kind soul and just like Mick, full of fun. I think her name was Lil, but not 100 % sure after all these years. I bet Jimmy Gull will remember.

When I was working morning shifts, we'd head up to the canteen for a cooked breakfast; tea, bacon and egg with canned tomatoes and a slice of buttered bread for the princely sum of ninepence. If Gren Picken, Gordon Woodley and Bob Belcher were present the laughter was almost continuous. Blissful times.

Brian, where are you living now? Dave is in Poole and I'm in the sticks near Ludlow.

Fred
 
Good to see some are keeping the tread alive . Chris here again from the Wiring Dept . Recall the Csnteen . Bob Belcher on Steak and Kidney pie lunch . Standing up and yelling “ come on own up who got the kidney “ another time the progress chaser mentioned in previous posts . Rushed in to get a cuppa and rushed out again at speed , slipped and fell got up again and rushed on . Bob said “ bloody hell did ya see that “ he didn’t spill a drop of his tea “ Bob had a great sense of humour . He married a June from memory . She worked at Etam,s in town . He came round to the wire section once and said it was his wedding anniversary. He said he use to mark on the calendar with a pencil every time they had sex then Joked “ been married 3 years and sti haven’t sharpened that bloody pencil “ funny the things that are still in the memory bank after 50 years lol . His mother worked in the wiring section too for a short time . Almost a family business lol
 
Chris Rem said:
Good to see some are keeping the tread alive . Chris here again from the Wiring Dept . Recall the Csnteen . Bob Belcher on Steak and Kidney pie lunch . Standing up and yelling “ come on own up who got the kidney “ another time the progress chaser mentioned in previous posts . Rushed in to get a cuppa and rushed out again at speed , slipped and fell got up again and rushed on . Bob said “ bloody hell did ya see that “ he didn’t spill a drop of his tea “ Bob had a great sense of humour . He married a June from memory . She worked at Etam,s in town . He came round to the wire section once and said it was his wedding anniversary. He said he use to mark on the calendar with a pencil every time they had sex then Joked “ been married 3 years and sti haven’t sharpened that bloody pencil “ funny the things that are still in the memory bank after 50 years lol . His mother worked in the wiring section too for a short time . Almost a family business lol
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Harry Bolton was the running progress chaser .
 
Chris,

Lovely to see you. Bob's wife was Joyce.

Judith and I went on a number of fishing club nights out with them .... they were both wonderful company and an absolute hoot together.

Another stalwart of the angling club was Gordon Woodley. Earlier on in the thread I managed to get his dad's name Bert, confused with Bob's dad George, not an easy thing to do. :rolleyes: Often when we finished on 6 -2 shift we'd drive down to the Lenchford or Hanbury Wharf and have the afternoon and early evening fishing.

One Saturday when the club was going to a contest, we'd started out from Grove Street in the mini-bus, and promptly got lost in country lanes near the venue. Goosey wound the window down to ask a passerby for directions, and from the back we all heard Gordon call out, "Pull yer 'ed in Baker, else he'll think it's a cattle truck." Poor Goosey, we all roared.

FM
 
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Didn’t even know the Ionic had a Fishing club ! . Thing about humour back then was everyone was fair game and no one took offence ,they owed you one . Memories of Happy Times and people who just got on with it . In the words of Sandy Shore . We thought they would never end . Take Care
 
Chris Rem said:
Didn’t even know the Ionic had a Fishing club ! . Thing about humour back then was everyone was fair game and no one took offence ,they owed you one . Memories of Happy Times and people who just got on with it . In the words of Sandy Shore . We thought they would never end . Take Care
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Great fun reading the about tales from the canteen. Thanks Chris, I still treasure that picture you posted of me and Dave Clark (both clearly drunk) on stage with you at the Christmas party. Fred, what happened to Goosey Baker? I remember him well. Didn't he work in the stores. The recent activity on the thread has me shuffling through my old crumbling memos & stuff again from over 50 years ago. Call me sad but I kept them for some reason or other. I was the poor sod who got lumbered with the writing the 4B monthly meeting minutes up! If I find anything interesting I'll post it.
 
Hi Dave,

I lost touch with Goosey when I left Ionic, so I've no idea as to his whereabouts then or now.

He did work in the stores, but did other stuff too.
 
Chris, Dave,

Both of you will recall Billy Ford (another keen angler) I'm sure.

When the cleaning line on 3B section, the old manual barrel lines, caught fire a number of stalwart heroes (!) led by Frank Paget rushed to tackle it with hand held extinguishers. Bill had got hold of one of the old style copper cylinder foam jobbies. For the previous zillion years Horace the labourer had polished it (and others) to a magnificent mirror surface. You could see your face in them.

When Bill banged the knob on top to pressurise it, it gurgled bit, didn't do very much, and then the body being so thin, the bottom split open leaving Bill standing in a puddle of foamy water.

I had never before and haven't since seen a man actually dance with rage; he was beside himself. The air was already pretty blue but Bill won the swearing contest by a country mile. In fairness Bill got really close up to the fire before letting fly; it was a genuinely courageous act.

I'd let off a CO2 high pressure cylinder across the burnng kerosene tank which had absolutely zero effect, at which point some kind soul let off another one straight into my ear (it could have been Larry Smith) so I immediately stopped seeing the funny side of Bill's predicament. Painful.

Frank, noting not only the deficiencies in the equipment available but also the utter incompetence of his helpers, advised all and sundry to vacate the area and leave the premises. That's what he meant, but being Frank not what he actually said.
 
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