Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships come in all sorts and sizes. My own is of the type that is ongoing. Will it ever be completed? I doubt it. You may note the present tense.

I see from my newspaper today that pundits of the Sutton Trust and the education correspondent (of the newspaper) have come to believe that a practical apprenticeship of "on the job" training is superior to a degree in Media studies or something similar.
What took them so long?

My own apprenticeship began in 1940 when I was four. I have memories of the fierce Miss Sambrook and the gentle Miss Preston.
Two times Two is Four......Three times two is Six.
C A T cat.....M A T mat.

Other things had to be learned at about this time not least of which was how to manage without dad. We also took note of the fact that evacuees from Liverpool had never seen a cow. Nor did they know that Apples grew on trees. They found a new sport: chasing a herd of Sheep from side to side of their pasture field. They had to learn.

Looking forward now to better times, (but not much better ) dad came home and I had to consider my future. Work experience to me was six months' probation as apprentice Carpenter. My pay was 7.5 pence per hour for a forty-eight hour week.

After the probation I was signed up formally to my employer with a deed of Apprenticeship. I still have the precious document. I had to promise all sorts of things to do with my conduct,not least of which was a promise not to divulge to strangers my employer's trade secrets. Also I was forbidden to leave the employment of my Master until I was twenty one. My transport was a bicycle.

About this time and as an integral part of my practical apprenticeship, I had to begin a course at 'night school' and found myself deficient in Mathematics, Trigonometry, Algebra, Geometry, and associated subjects.

John and Aida Broadbent came to my rescue and for several years I visited them twice a week to receive tuition in these subjects. I remain enormously grateful to them both and I note with pleasure that they are remembered upon a seat placed at Pinfold Corner at Wybunbury. It is only a few weeks since, in passing the corner, I stopped and parked my car and sat upon the seat and reflected on what I owed to them.

Perhaps few people in Wybunbury remember them both, but I do. They would never accept any money for their effort, but they did allow me (yes allow me) to mend a damaged window for them with my newly acquired skill as apprentice Joiner.

My mentor and instructor was Harold to whom I looked up. He taught me how to handle the tools of my trade but his additional skill as a motorcyclist was passed to me also. To him I owe the fact that I am still alive having ridden motorcycles from 1954 to the present. He also had a large influence upon my attitude to life, the formation of my political views and many other aspects of the development of this (sometimes silly) youth.

He also taught me to use the Stanley Steel Square on which we calculated the length and cutting angle of all the component pieces of a house roof.

This tool is as close as I got to a computer and I still have mine though some of its complexities have drifted slowly away. When I built my present house I used it for the last time, and then cut the timbers with my trusty 'Diston' handsaw and built it piece by piece. I think it was the last of the constructed roofs in Audlem. Little did I know during my learning days that we should come to having roofs delivered on trucks and lifted by cranes.

In 1957 I graduated at The Manchester College of Science and Technology. This is the establishment which now is the Faculty of Technology of the University of Manchester. I became an Associate of the Manchester College of Science and Technology.

I was presented with my certificate by Oliver Lytleton Lord Chandos. He was a senior member of the government. We would now call him a heavyweight at the foreign office.

In 1957 we were all still living under the shadow of the cold war. Our undeclared war with the Russian Empire caused us to constantly be aware that Nuclear Weapons were a distinct possibility. It was quite alarming.

Lord Chandos in his speech brought forth an idea that had not yet occurred to me. He said that we should not fear Russia as the Russian people (like us) were trying to improve their living conditions and would soon educate themselves away from their belligerence and come to appreciate a life of progress , reasonable comfort and peace of mind. The threat would diminish given time.

He was right and I am grateful to him teaching me yet another lesson in life.

I was now twenty one and full of belief in myself. Being asked by one of my fellow students if I would consider working for his company on a new factory being built for H J Heinz at Wigan. At interview I was offered the position and took it. It was many years afterwards that I realised that I had been "Head Hunted" as one of only five students in Cheshire who had qualified that year.

I was sent next to Trafford Park to take part in building a Laboritory for The Geigy Chemical Company. To Derby to build a Power Station and on to Burton on Trent to another Power Station. What had temporally escaped me was that my Apprenticeship was in fact continuing because I knew so little about the techniques of building a Turbine Block or an underground Coal Handling plant.

Onward then to Culcheth, Lancs to build a mental hospital and Ipswich in Suffolk to build a Civic College. Next to Sheffield, this time as chief site engineer. Oh! I was flung in at the deep end all over again. There was still so much to learn. What is depressing is that many of these buildings have now been demolished for there was something else to learn. When a building has outlived its usefulness it has to be demolished. Nothing lasts.

In 1961 another era of learning had to begin when I came back to Audlem and began to build Milking Parlours and of course back to House building, Road building and handling heavy machinery. Most of the Milking Parlours have of course now been demolished and quite rarely new designs have been built in their place. I say rarely because Cheshire's milk industry has been decimated.

Whilst this frenetic activity was going on I had the urge to learn yet another new skill. I wanted to fly.

Learning to fly

I began at Wolverhampton Municipal Aerodrome to learn to fly. Several instructors were involved in this enterprise and the Airport was managed by an elderly gentleman who for some reason was known as Dadda Holden. It was some time later that I discovered that Dadda had held a senior position in the Spitfire Factory at Castle Bromwich . A very distinguished and clever man.

The Chief flying instructor was Harold. This was his part time occupation as I understood that he was also professor of Dentistry at Birmingham University.

As students will do if an opportunity arises I had a peek at Harold's assessment card of my progress as a pilot . He had annotated the various exercises so far accomplished and the added the comment: "This student might make a competent operator". It doesn't do to pry.

It was Harold who examined me in the class room and in the air for the award of my pilot's licence. Harold didn't pull any punches. As we climbed from the aircraft after the flight handling test he said "Well!, with some reluctance I intend to pass you. But only on the strict understanding that you regard your licence as a licence to learn to fly." I am still learning.

Well! As I wrote earlier my Apprenticeship in all aspects of my life is ongoing. So what have I learned this week and who was my mentor.

A few days ago a young man was introduced to me with the explanation that he so badly needed a house to rent to house his wife and family. I had a house to rent. I also had grave misgivings about granting a tenancy to this man as he was a recent immigrant from Poland. Conversing with him was not easy but he tried very hard to overcome my doubts. He did succeed and I handed him the keys.

Yesterday I visited the family and found a profoundly grateful wife and three delightful little girls. I added another notch to my still incomplete apprenticeship.

Bye for now
Geoff

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