Wickman Machine Tools

Just to say a big thank you to Chris and all of his staff for making yesterday a great day out. Met up with lots of old work friends whom I had not seen for years.

Hi Mick, Great to see you at the Wickmans 100 event. I'm a Webster and Bennett apprentice (1969 intake). I trained and worked as a Machine Tool Fitter, eventually moving into methods Engineering where I stayed until Webster and Bennett machine production was moved Banner Lane in the early 80's. I worked for Archie Eglise until being made redundant. Webster & Bennett were located in Northey Road, Coventry (near to the Lockhurst Lane railway bridge). As you know all W & B apprentices spent their first year at the Wickmans Apprentice School at Banner Lane. I also played in goal for the Wickmans Football team for many years where I'm pretty sure I met you when playing under Terry Smith as manager. Post copied from topic Webster and Bennett on 29th Jan 2026 7:03 pm

Hi Tony, Do you remember working with a Bert Kingham?

Hi Becky, welcome to the forum Since Tony doesn't seem to be a regular, you may need to send him a message via the contact button after a week or two. Depending upon how he's set up his site mail box, he might get a message redirected to his real email. The site uses dummy emails, so you can only send message via the forum.

Thanks Helen! I just wanted to ask anyone really who worked at Wickmans in the 70s if they knew of or had any photos of my grandad Bert Kingham. He recently passed away so I just wanted to see some memories of his earlier days 😊

Yes welcome Becky. Mick who started this thread was at Wickman's so hopefully he'll be along shortly. Enjoy the forum.

Hi Becky Sorry to hear about you grandfather he was a Wickman legend, liked and respected by everyone. I knew him casually but Mick will respond because he worked directly with him in the HMS for years, I however had the fortune or "misfortune" of having his 2 sons Steve and Gary as my apprentices. Both great lads (never got any fags), will spill the beans later when I have more time if appropriate. If you have a look around there is a Wickmans page where you will no doubt get a better response to your quest. Pete

Hi Becky, I knew an Alan & Gary Kingham, (Brothers), but not through W&B, are they relations at all ?

Hiya, Yes Alan and Gary were my granddad's nephews, his brother John's sons! How did you know them?

Thank you, yes he was definitely a legend no matter where he was, it's lovely to hear how fond everyone was of him. I will have a look at the Wickmans page thank you. 👍 Yes my uncles! I bet it was a laugh to work with them together.

For convenience, I've moved the latest relevant posts across to this dedicated Wickman thread.

Hi Becky, great to hear from you. I worked for many years with Bert in the Heavy Machine Shop and have many fond memories of him. Got to know Janet, Steven, Gary and Russell too and spent many a happy time at their house in Canley. I even got Bert to play football once for the 5 aside team. We sometimes referred to him as Albert Francis (after Frank Sinartra), and he used to give us a song, usually "my way". He became our shop steward probably late 70's and truly was a great bloke.