Your first job in Coventry

Brilliant Traveler.........I remember now.

Hi all, Hi Tricia, I had a school holiday job at the GEC stoke plant, 1962/3, Tricia. I was in the transmission stores. After a summer holiday period, then the Christmas, Easter & the following summer, they offered me a permanent job in the Auto exchange lab that was in Glencoe Rd.

The Hotel This little story made us smile although it could have turned out so different. We were installing a new telephone system at the Xxxxxxx Hotel - the name has been withheld to protect the guilty. The original hotel was a converted house/houses? At the time when the new telephone system was being installed the hotel was having a makeover, a complete new complex was being built abutting the old hotel, as a result the new swbd was to be installed in the new block, this caused all sorts of problems at the time because the builders were still building . All the bedrooms in the old block had to be rewired and cables directed towards the new swbd. It has to be said this project was not one of our best enterprises, we had a bit of a fall out with the management as a result of us making too much noise while cabling between floors some of the guests left and some made formal complaints, it was a bit of an impossible task really to run cables between floors without making any noise, we tried to point this out to the manager which resulted one of our apprentices be told to get off the site, the situation was not tenable so as I was the senior engineer on site I/we decided to leave until a workable formula could be worked out (blows had been exchanged). As we walked towards the exit we were called a few choice words, it was just at that moment we heard an almighty crash, the noise came from the new block! As we walked towards the vans we looked to our right and we could see three builders on the second floor drinking tea and eating bacon batches, something was missing, but what? When we looked closer then it dawned on us it was the wall, the complete wall fell out including the inner wall leaving a complete gaping hole. I think the wall had not been tied into the steelwork and as a result the bricks had just fallen out, could have been so much worse, it's lucky no one was killed. We all ran over to check to see if anyone was under the rubble and glad to say no-one was hurt. Now the funny bit, as we looked up we could still see the three builders sitting round a makeshift table drinking tea. At that moment one of the builders stood up, came over to the opening, kicked the remaining bricks out of the way, looked down over the edge, he then turned and walked back to the table, picked up his drink and carried on as if the wall falling out was an every day occurrence - we were all gobsmacked. And then we all burst out laughing. But then out came the management, they shouted up to the builders "What the b****y hell do you think you are doing? You b****y morons." At that point about three of the guests windows were opened and one or two of the guests shouted out "Will you keep your noise down please, we are trying to sleep here, some hotel this is! You can rest assured we will not be using this hotel again". Talk about egg on your face. It was all we could do to keep a straight face. It took until the next day before we received a sort of an apology for hitting our apprentice, after all that was our job. We agreed to try and keep the noise down and they then provided us with a list of rooms that were occupied so we could avoid them (not many rooms were taken after the fracas). The wall falling out was very funny, it looked like a scene from "The Plank". I think the builders were on a budget, which endorses the saying "you pay peanuts, you get monkeys". It also makes me wonder how many of the other walls were not tied in? Colin.

I came to live in Coventry in September 1975, My first job was at Shepherds metals, A scrap yard in Longford. I stayed there for 18 months then went to work for G.W.Hillditch in Coronel avenue in Rowleys Green. The best paid scrap yard in Coventry,

My first job after leaving school was at the Kensington Laundry. I operated the switchboard and priced up the laundry books - I loved it there. There were 'Agents' throughout the city as well as the shop in Earlsdon. I went back to work there a few years later on a temporary basis while I was unemployed (yes, I did declare it!) and am still in contact with one of my fellow workers 37 years later

Hello & welcome to you, Ballingham10 Hope that you enjoy your time with us.

My first job in Coventry was at G.W.Shephard sheetmetal and builders ironwork. I was employed as an apprentice sheetmetal worker. We were based in Cherry St. in a big lean to on the side of George Shephards house. It is now where the fire station at the bottom of Radford Rd. is situated. One of my first jobs was to take a wheelbarrow to Gas St. to collect coke for the pot bellied stove, our only source of heating. One of the first jobs I was taken on site to do was at the old Baginton Mill.We had to replace all the old blades in the water mill. The wheel hadn't been working for many a year so ropes and pulleys and much manpower were utilised before eventually it started turning, unfortunately, I was inside the wheel at the time and ended up like a hamster climbing the blades, luckily it only went part way round and I was able to climb out. And for this I was payed eleven pence tree farthings per hour. Happy days, I think.

Hi Polly just found your posting - hope you are still looking in on this excellent site. I have been looking for a while for news of an ex Patents dept employee - from around the period you were there. She was called Pat Clark(e) - later became Pat Cox. If you have no direct news,have you or anybody else any ideas of where I can find ex employees details?

"get on with your homework - do you want to end up working at Woolies?" Seriously though, I had a Woolies connection, I used to work for a construction firm called Truscon, they used to design and construct the foundations (often piles and ground beams) fornew storesfor Woolies Truscons also built 17 storey blocks at various locations in Coventry, plus I think they were 10 storey blocks around Primrose Hill Street - they also had a factory at Wellingborough that produced precast concrete slabs (True Span) Oh my first Coventry job (Holiday) Wages Dept.GEC,Christmas 1951/2/3circa, - - I had a ball, for some reason GEC were transferring all their paper wages records onto what they called "microfishes"- spent a lot of time in a small cubby hole (Stockroom) I appeared to need a lot of tuition (usually female)-Oh I loved GEC

I had a job in a weaving factory in Foleshill (forget name) foreman kept getting on to me and all the girls most days, I got really cheesed, so one break time he was called away, I poured the tea out of his enamel cup, hammered a six-inch nail through it in to the wooden bench, poured his tea back into it, sure boosted my ratings with all the females. but the noise of the looms was deafening, didn't stay long.Never had a job as good as retirement.

My first job in Coventry was in 1965 aged 15 in Boots the Chemist . In those days it was in Trinity Street opposite Timothy Whites . We later all moved to Corporation St into new larger premises. We then used to get actors from the Belgrade theatre and stars from the Hippodrome regularly.

Hello Heritage, Apologies for being a couple of years late, but I haven`t been here very long, I noticed your posting, when reading through this very interesting thread, particularly the mention of Silk Ribbon Weaving. My Grandmother used to tell me some tales of her family involvement with the `cottage` side of things and she has lodged with the Herbert Museum an 1858 Broadsheet (ref PA 2119) and an 1860 ribbon weaver`s Strike Committee Book (ref PA 174) - I have never seen them, but possibly they may contain information of use to you. The particular tale she told me perhaps referred to the "strike" "There was a Character, who appeared to represent the weavers, who used to speak in public on Greyfriars Green, when he was "up" i.e scheduled to speak, the population used to rush down Hertford street shouting "Dicks up", "Dicks up" . Perhaps in those days unions and strikes were not legal." Grandma was Mrs Annie Turner (nee Bryan) of 201 Oldfield Rd., obviously she came from the Bryans, but also there were Lowers in the background and she also used to mention that there was a Mr.Butler,who was a" journeyman", who used to collect the finished work from the cottagers and take it off to London - presumably for resale". Finally she also showed me pieces of ribbon she called "true Coventry Blue"

Yes my brother in law worked there I think was a foreman or shop steward there during that time Dennis Chapman he also use to be the manager of Keresley Village football.

My brother did his apprentiship there. He would have started in about 1961. I think he was there quite a long time.

Yes Dennis was my foreman for a while very likeable chap