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Tubes Limited

Punch said:
Hi Norman

Hi Norman isn’t strange in life there’s things you never forget like your moms Co op number or the old customer job numbers Vauxhall 13996,Rolls Royce 12701,Salisbury 13655/56,13622and the oldest I can remember is Morris 900.I bet you and Bazz can remember a few as well.
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OMG............my mothers Co op number 200038 :-)
 
Unfortunately, no good memories for me. One of my neighbours, Eugene Ford got me a job there in 1973. I was put on straightening castings on a giant press. I hated it and left after 2 weeks.
 
Banjo said:
Unfortunately, no good memories for me. One of my neighbours, Eugene Ford got me a job there in 1973. I was put on straightening castings on a giant press. I hated it and left after 2 weeks.
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Hi Banjo. I remember Ginger Ford that was good of him to get you a job but you should have given it a bit more than 2 weeks before you decided to leave.I know it was heavy work but a mate of mine Stan Rogalson did it for 28 years.
 
Banjo. I too remember Ginger. It's nice to see people still recalling names after all these years.Maybe i'm wrong, but did Ginger hang about with a girl named Alison Baker (i think) ? Just wondering.
 
BazzM said:
Banjo. I too remember Ginger. It's nice to see people still recalling names after all these years.Maybe i'm wrong, but did Ginger hang about with a girl named Alison Baker (i think) ? Just wondering.
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Hi Bazz you are correct they were a item and eventually got married.I think Alison worked in the main office.
 
Glad my memory stood the test of time, thanks Punch. I'm sure i took Alison back to her house at lunchtime on a working day. Can't remember what she wanted, but i was glad to drive her there. Wonder how the two of them are nowadays. Hopefully, well and safe. Anyway, thanks for the reply Punch, and you take care too.
 
Darquorze said:
Hi there, i,m trying to find out if anyone can remember my uncle who worked at Tubes in the early seventies. His name was Jim Bird and he sadly passed away in the seventies at the age of 46. As far as can be recalled he was still working for Tubes when he died and i was just trying to find out if anyone had any recollections of my uncle. I believe he worked on the shop floor.
Hoping you can help,
Regards,
ian.
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Hi Ian I can’t remember if I replied to you before but your post is from some time ago.
I do remember your Uncle Jim Bird if my memory serves me right he lived in common lane opposite the swan pub on the Washwood Heath Road.If I recall he was on his way to work when he died of a heart attack god bless him.He worked in the forging department on the turning section for Don Fell and George Beavon. He became a operator of a boring machine which bore a hole through a billet
to a high degree of accuracy. Jim was a short man thinning on top but such a gent
 
Hi, Thanks for your reply,
You are correct he died of a heart attack on his way to work and your description of him is spot on, however he lived in Membury Road at the time.
Nice to know someone remembers him after all this time, i was very young at the time and have only fleeting memories of him.
Sadly his wife died in February of this year.
Thanks again for your reply as i posted this a number of years ago,
Ian.
 
Fred Raybould said:
Hi Bazza how ya doin?
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hi fred and welcome to the forum....bazza had not been seen on the forum since last may...we do know that he was very poorly...however i have sent him 2 private messages in the past few weeks as his absence was noticed but sad to say that so far i have not received a reply which is not like bazz....

lyn
 
john jeffries said:
How do i look ay the pictures?
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victor de quincey said:
I would love to see the photos please John
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Always read a thread you visit for the first time from post 1. That way you don't miss anything.
However this is a link to page 13

Tubes Limited

Hi Norman Hi Norman isn’t strange in life there’s things you never forget like your moms Co op number or the old customer job numbers Vauxhall 13996,Rolls Royce 12701,Salisbury 13655/56,13622and the oldest I can remember is Morris 900.I bet you and Bazz can remember a few as well...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
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Hello late to this site but was an apprentice from 64 to 69 and left in 70 after a stint in the forge as a fitter.
Played football for the brilliant first team on the best pitch in the midlands carefully looked after by Bert Bates.
Remember having to get a move on when the " bolts went on the Pilger Mill main drive sheared" and the alarm sounding when the rotary hearth furnace stopped rotating!
Great times with special people especially the characters in the fitting shops.
 
Hi neiljarvo while working in the forge your senior Forman must have been Harry Allport and Harry Bowen the Forman. In later years Ian Cooke became Senior Forman.
 
Hello folks. Nothing of any great interest but I played for one of Tubes football teams as a guest(I must have been half decent). I think it was around 1972. The team was called LF Roma. What a side, top of the premier Division of the North Birmingham League. One thing I do remember was being allowed to see the works physio after an injury. He was visually impaired but incredible. He sorted me out a treat.
Incidentally my aunt lived in Cromwell Street just at the top of Rocky Lane.
 
Hi Punch I apologise it must be my 75 years old brain fog! I worked in the Pilger Mill not the Forge after finishing my apprenticeship as it was the only job on offer on days and not the dreaded continental shifts.
Looking back through some of these pages I noticed Richard J posting who I am certain must be Richard Jones!
We both made our debuts for the 1st. team at the same time and Richard got clobbered by a nasty piece of work from a fullback playing for W.G.Allens in the Black Country! He fractured his cheekbone but fortunately the " enforcers" in our midfield..Keith Perrow and Cliff McDade made sure he wasn't allowed to get away with it!
I played in the Birmingham City Shield final against the Wolseley at St.Andrews and we lost 1-0. First half penalty given away rather recklessly by our Yorkshire born, no prisoners centre half Gordon? Had the best centre forward in the whole works league, George Storer, been available to play for us,he was recovering from an appendix op., we would definitely have won.They had a very good centre half called Harry Franks playing for them who was slow but terrific in the air and sadly we weren't able to put his lack of pace to the test.
Other players from my 5 years of playing were Chris Middleton, Dennis Brassington,Richard Morgan,Tommy Nichols,Keith Hirst ( went on to be MD of Metsec), George Kershaw, Ronnie Godwin, Billy Davies, Billy Larcombe, Gerry Johnstone and of course the great Georgie Storer.Both George Storer and Richard Jones were wanted by Coventry City in Georges case and Oxford United, then managed by the old Blues manager, Arthur Turner wanted Richard jones but it was a love match with Carol for George and a career in industry for Richard..how times have changed!!
Going back to your message Punch I don't recall who our Foreman was in the Pilger Mill but Harry Bowen I thought was a foreman in the Central Fitting Shop.
I worked with another former apprentice...Tony Harris.
In our apprentice year..1964.. ther was :-
Pete Daly, Sammy Evans, Tony Payton, Dave Bibb, Tommy Nicholls, Richard Morgan, myself Neil Jarvis, and our Apprentice Supervisor was Albert Wykes who eventually became Senior engineer taking over from Maurice Cooksey!
Finally on a more sombre note I remember the wall collapsing in 1969 or 1970 ! I had been asked to fill in on continental shifts during the Summer holidays and was on 6-2 that hot week! There was a cul-de-sac road leading off Lichfield road ( can't remember the name) which bisected the Drawbench Dept. and the Large Finishing Dept.
There was a group of about 5 or 6 Irish lads using Kangos digging up the pavement alongside the DB wall when it literally peeled away in one giant block and killed them all without warning! It appeared that this was a false "blast wall" which had been built to protect the large electrical control boxes on the inside of the DB wall from bomb blast during the war.Nobody had checked the drawings prior to work commencing and those poor men never stood a chance.Don't know the outcome of the investigation but suffice to say there would be major repercussions today!!
Other names coming to mind:-
Albert Cater...Welding
Stan Smart lovely big bear of a man...machine shop
Bunny Castle...Carpenters
Stan Dingam...Paint shop
I was in the Pilger Mill when poor old Harry Hough was killed by a flying tube tag end that he used on the mandril straightener!
Loads and loads of memories but best to wait for another day.
 
Brilliant, George Storer was our centre forward. Crikey, could he hit the ball sweet. If my memory serves me correct I think Mick Parsons was our manager.
In later years I played for The Leopard against LF Roma. They had got a young kid on the wing. Very tasty lad who turned out to be George's younger brother Barry. These amateur football teams were like a community. Happy days.
 
What about other tube makers and the export company that arranged shipment of their tubes overseas.
Anyone remember them ?
Tojo.
 
BazzM said:
Tubes Ltd.

Hi Merrell68. was the surname of Eddy and Graham Merrell or something else. I worked in the office in the Forge Dept. with the foremen between 1971-1977. Its quite possible I know them, but at the moment its hard to remember. What did they do, etc.? Barry.
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Hi I’m a Newbe, but worked at Tubes from 1963 to 1970, initially as an engineering apprentice 63 - 68 then in the maintenance department for a Further 2 years, leaving in September 70 to join Joseph Lucas at King Street as a draughtsman.
I noticed a few names that I certainly recall and have very many happy memories of that period. Happy memories of fellow apprentices, the cold games room , apprentice workshop and Albert Wykes our first year instructor ( top man ) , Boldmere Sports Ground, Outbound Training Centre in North Wales ( Plas )
Are there any other apprentices from that period out there ?
 
Hi Neiljarvo, I remember you as an apprentice although I don’t think we were ever teamed up.
You mentioned the wall collapsing - the road was Catherine Street, strange that you were working on the 6 - 2 shift as I came on for the 2 - 10 shift and remember looking in the trench and even picking up the discarded Polorode negatives - probably taken by Factory Inspectors ( forerunner of H&S ) and you could clearly see the bodies lying there…..
If my memory is correct, I think you left for a Compressor Service Engineers job ….perhaps Tilghman out of Manchester. ?
You will remember the compressors at Tubes were Bellis and Morcom a great Birmingham Company.

I was partnered with Tony Payton and Sammy Evans and of course other apprentice during the 5 years, I finished my 5 years just as the continental shift pattern was starting and was happy to sign up, earned good money, I was part of Alf Fosters team with Bob Collingwood and Chalky White as foreman supervisors ….even have a photo taken during our lunch break on a 10 - 6 shift, Bob Collingwood is in it as are all the shift fitters, me included …..Tony Payton’s clothes locker is in the background, embellished with the night clubs he would go to ….Rum Runner etc and groups he liked…Smoky Robinson etc
Happy days indeed……often wonder what everyone ( apprentices ) ended up doing and where they all are now.

My first posting after the apprentice workshop was the Pilger Mill ….wow my ears would ring each evening as I cycled home - no ear defenders back then.
I also remember in1963 when I started the working week was 42 hours, starting at 0730 , finishing at 1715 Mon, Tue, Wed and Thus, but 1700 on a Friday…. sometime during 65 it got reduced down to 40 hours and we finished at 1700 .
Day release initially at Aston Tech and then several years later at the new Polytechnic at Perry Barr

The threads indicate that Baz is unable to join in….great shame as he started all this and has been a great ambassador.
 
Hi Lad in the lane I remember Tony Payton when he worked in the Forge as a fitter under Ian Cook and Harry Bowen.
I recall the bad accident when a number of contractors lost there lives when a blast wall which was built during ww2 to protect a electrical panel mounted on the wall of the Draw Bench department.
You mention Bob Collingwood who was my dad,He passed away in 2006.
That’s great to hear you have a photo of a group of people in the central maintenance shop which includes our dad.
Would it be possible that you could put it on this forum so both my brother and me can see it.
I worked in the Forging Department from 1968 to 1986.Starting as a fitters mate then a production welder and finally Production Supervisor.
 
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