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GEC WITTON WORKS
- Thread starter The Baron
- Start date
Just came across your request. The name Larry Butlin comes to mind. Is this him in the photo?
Ray Griffiths
master brummie
Have you photo of Horace Cane he's one of two people I think it might be
I think he was either an inspector or a fitter who used to work next to Ralph Kay who I worked with assembling Hobart Bacon machine motors in the Small Motor
Hi I was an apprentice 1964-69 worked everywhere and played for the Colts lol, they got rid of me as fast as they could as the place was beginning to wind down, however someone asked me recently "Did GEC make generators and switchgear for the now decommissioned power plant in Cumbria?" I say decommissioned but I mean switched off with a load of work to be completed.
I am surprised at how little activity there is on this post, GEC was one of the biggest employers in the city when I was an apprentice there 1964-69, it was bit like a small town and people had worked there for years, my dad worked there making bespoke things on a lathe cant remember which section. I must have worked everywhere Apprentice Training centre, Switchgear, Transformer, Switchgear test, travelled to Lowestoft to do "Outside Erection" on substations. I suppose the industry was changing in the 70's and GEC was a bit of a dinosaur so broken up and revamped. In the time I was there the Magnet Club thrived, snooker tables, cheap beer, the canteen where the "Apprentices Assc." held it Christmas dance. Others must remember! The crush for the buses, the pinball machines in the "caffs" the chippy.........
Ray Griffiths
master brummie
004 Is the Transformer Dept which was the first door on the right as you walk through Main Gate, my mother worked on winding potential coils which a very fine copper wire wound on insulation it took days to manfacture
Martyn
master brummie
A wartime photo of the night shift and a few other pics from around
the same timeAttachments
Mike Bond
master brummie
Great photograph's Martyn, I served my Engineering Apprenticeship in the 60's ending up in the New Turbo Shop but I spent a few months in the main fitting shop. I was always fascinated by the huge lathes and boring machines and the tremendous responsibility those skilled machinists had- one mistake *******. Mike.
Ray Griffiths
master brummie
Great pictures spent a lot of time during 1950's in main test whilst serving my time in the Big Shop.
It was a nightmare to work in main test with cables all over the place and oil on the metal beds it was like an ice rink.
Memories of working with Jack Orton he only had about a dozen hairs on his head and he used to plaster them down with hands full of hair cream making his head shine.
Jack was a hard task master to work with he say I'll show you once how to do it and with that he'd disappear and if it wasn't done when he came back yu'd get a right ticking off.
I think the stator shell on the boring machine looks like the Alternator built for the Jersey Power Supply.
When this generator was shipped to Jersey they had no cranes on dockside to lift it from the Royal Navy landing craft which was to ship it to Island.
To carry out this operation they done a dummy run and dropped the dummy load in the sea, I'll bet somebody had his back side kicked.
Thank for show these pictures they bring back both happy worrying memories of Jack the apprentice nightmare fitter to work with.
It was a nightmare to work in main test with cables all over the place and oil on the metal beds it was like an ice rink.
Memories of working with Jack Orton he only had about a dozen hairs on his head and he used to plaster them down with hands full of hair cream making his head shine.
Jack was a hard task master to work with he say I'll show you once how to do it and with that he'd disappear and if it wasn't done when he came back yu'd get a right ticking off.
I think the stator shell on the boring machine looks like the Alternator built for the Jersey Power Supply.
When this generator was shipped to Jersey they had no cranes on dockside to lift it from the Royal Navy landing craft which was to ship it to Island.
To carry out this operation they done a dummy run and dropped the dummy load in the sea, I'll bet somebody had his back side kicked.
Thank for show these pictures they bring back both happy worrying memories of Jack the apprentice nightmare fitter to work with.
Martyn
master brummie
I'm pleased that the photos were of some interest, here's a few more. I can only assume 'D' is of a mobile searchlight built during the war. The others are of a foreign (Russian?) delegation probably early 1950s to the Engineering Machining Division? with 'B' showing them admiring a Magnet Wheel Body destined for Tasmania.
Attachments
Ray Griffiths
master brummie
The magnet wheel was one six 25 Megawatt for Tunatinah Hydro Electric Scheme in Tasmania.
The visit wasn’t the Russian visit of Malankof the State Minister for Power, it might have been the Australian customers
The drawing office at Wilton in the 1950s. Viv.
A number of posts about GEC War Memorial have been moved to here. https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/gec-memorial-plaque.49515/
Thank you to all those helping to locate the memorial which was lost in 1994. Viv.
Thank you to all those helping to locate the memorial which was lost in 1994. Viv.
Ray Griffiths
master brummie
Has anybody got any information about the where abouts of Reg Marlow Turbo Dept I believe he moved to Lincolnshire some years ago
Wow, just came across a Parsons Tyburn Road staff photo posted by The Baron. I'm the 1 next to Jogi by the steps. Great to see faces from 30+years ago. I left Parsons to take up a position with Ashanti Goldfields in Ghana then I moved to Takoradi also in Ghana to run a limestone factory. I presently run a specialised chemicals company and a small hotel, check out africabeachhotel.com.
Bob Baldry
The Baron
master brummie
Hi Bob, I posted that photo under my username ( The Baron ) I hope you and DI remember me Keith Jenney Mining Projects under Viv Horder.
Are you no Facebook?
Nice to hear your doing well.
Surely I remember you Keith, I look back on the RPD period as the good ol' days. I also remember applying for a job in RPD: the boss was Bruno Adler and I asked for GBP1000 (presumably per annum), he laughed like a baboon and told me that I'm only worth GBP950! During my time at Ashanti Goldfields I used to meet up with Chapman's lot, Outside Services, when they came to service the mine hoists. No, I'm not facebook man but you'll find my kids Robbie, Michelle and Chris on it. Di returned to the UK in the late 90s. Do you ever hear of Alan Firth, Kurt Wright, Len Moore, Jim James?
The Villan 1956
Brummie babby
Hi @Bob
I have only just found this. I no longer live in Birmingham. I worked as a commercial trainee for soem year from 1960. I did training in the cost office, Transformer Division, Rectifier Division and the Plastics division.
When GEC started to sell of the units, I worked in the Rectifier Division as the boss of the Costing department and then moved to Witton Moulded Plastics at the bottom end of Electric Avenue. They eventaully moved to the Rectifier site and they were eventually sold to Guinnes Plastics. I worked for both of them before moving up to Scotland to work for a plastics manufacturer.
The Magnet Club was brilliant. I played Football, cricket, snooker and darts as well as badmington. I stopped playing foorball due to a football injury where I lost part of my sight.
It was great at lunchtime, becuase you could go up there to have a meal at very cheap prices. You don't get that anymore. Mondays were always the worst if Villa lost.
Is The Barron still alive?
Baldrey
Hi Bob
I have only just found this. I no longer live in Birmingham. I worked as a commercial trainee for soem year from 1960. I did training in the cost office, Transformer Division, Rectifier Division and the Plastics division.
When GEC started to sell of the units, I worked in the Rectifier Division as the boss of the Costing department and then moved to Witton Moulded Plastics at the bottom end of Electric Avenue. They eventaully moved to the Rectifier site and they were eventually sold to Guinnes Plastics. I worked for both of them before moving up to Scotland to work for a plastics manufacturer.
The Magnet Club was brilliant. I played Football, cricket, snooker and darts as well as badmington. I stopped playing foorball due to a football injury where I lost part of my sight.
It was great at lunchtime, becuase you could go up there to have a meal at very cheap prices. You don't get that anymore. Mondays were always the worst if Villa lost.
Is The Barron still alive?Baldrey
The Villan 1956
Brummie babby
OMG. I did a bit of work in the wages department as a commercial trainee in the the mid 60's. I remeber the name of the boss. I also think I remeber the guy called Rooke. If my memeory serves me right his first name was Harold. I had an interview a few year later to work in the Accounts department for Parsons, but I decide to work in the Accounts department for Witton Moulded Plastics, at the end of Electic Avenue.
The Villan 1956
Brummie babby
Ha ha I used to run up and down the central stairs in th emain admin. Th esargent with the posh hat on alwys used to catch me and tell me off. Can't remeber his name anymore.
Ray Griffiths
master brummie
Was it CID Cid with his gaiters
The Villan 1956
Brummie babby
Yes that was his name. You didn't mess around with him
Thanks Ray
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Hi - I was interested to read your stories of the cricket teams/names in the 1960s. My father Fred Bennett was the cricket president of the cricket teams in that era & I remember the players that u quoted fondly. My father played cricket for many years for the GEC & I also played with him from when I was 13 onwards with the players you mentioned.& remember the fast bowler Thomson (very fast, I was in the slips) but a lovely friendly man.
I played there for about 4 years & remember all those players you mentioned plus another bowler Ron Hewlett! What lovely happy days they were & as you say the ground was of such a high standard! My name is John Bennett & I went on to play for Aston Unity @ Court Lane Erdington In the late 60s & early 70s & played against Tommy Cotton when he played for Smethwick. You painted a lovely picture of those times in your comments & one of my finest memories is having a drink with my dad/players in the Magnet Club after the games! Kind regards
trevor bow
master brummie
I never played cricket or football against GEC but as a member of the "Old Griffinians Rugby Club", I played year in year out against "GEC WITTON RFC", as they were officially known, from the mid sixties. The changing rooms were down in the bowels of the Magnet Club as I recall, and the pitch was the furthest away of any. It was on a shelf and there was a set of steps leading up to it. It was always in immaculate condition and we loved playing there, not least for the club bar and facilties afterwards. GEC were a great bunch of lads and after the game, there would be endless games of snooker and darts with the losing team buying the opposition the drinks. As can be imagined, these games were even more hotly contested than the one on the pitch ! I remember them telling us that they were thankful for the nearby motorway being built because they could then train at night under its lights ! But all good things come to an end and I played in the very last rugby match at the Magnet club which I think was at the closure of the 1983/84 season. The club itself upstairs had closed its doors for the final time a couple of weeks before. But no one was going to be denied their after game drinking session. The GEC lads had somehow 'come into the possession' of a last barrel of beer, a gas tank to serve it up, and thirty one glasses which included one for the referee. So there we all sat in the one changing room singing our heads off and proposing toast after toast to the "GEC WITTON RFC" and the good old Magnet Club. I think they moved to another pitch somewhere but shortly afterwards, they merged with "OLD CENTRALS RFC" near Streetly to become a new club which they called "ALDRIDGE RFC". The Old Griffinians played against all the works sides in Birmingham e.g. Lucas, Kynock, Bakelite, GKN etc, but there was something special about "GEC WITTON" and the Magnet Club. Sadly, all of these clubs have now disappeared with only memories left.
lmr3103
master brummie
Wonderful memories Trevor. Certainly a different world. My Aunt worked at the GEC and it seems it was a very special place in many ways. I have a Witton News dated 1966, which was an in house magazine for the GEC. If anyone would like it they are more than welcome.