Your first job in Coventry

The staff agency The staff agency in Trinity Street, the agency occupied a couple of floors above the jewellers on the corner of "New Buildings" just up from the pet shop, Johnson's, anyway Dennis the foreman and myself had a job to fit a new telephone system for this agency, I think the company was called "Alfred Marks or City Staff" not too sure which but it's not of importance to the story, after the completion of the new system we had to recover the old telephones and swbd, now due to the location of the premises it was a bit of a pain parking (double yellow lines and all) and on a very busy bend, delivery lorries had a right job turning into "New Buildings" from Trinity Street. On this particular day we contacted the traffic wardens located at the police station in Much Park Street, we were told to expect a visit from the local warden to check all was in order, the warden arrived not long after our chat with the control, the idea was to park our van on double yellow lines in order to load the recovered equipment, we took the number of the warden's lapel badge, and after her telling us we could park there and if anyone were to challenge us we could quote the id, warden's number, I parked my empty van right outside the door with the rear doors wide open, Dennis parked his van a little further down the lane on the left side opposite "Exchange and Mart". We both proceeded to the second floor to gather up the old equipment and have a cup of tea (well what did you expect? An Englishman at work). After a short while we both came down to the street level loaded with boxes of equipment although I could not see the van I knew it was there, well that's what I thought, as I reached the kerb I started to feel for the van doors, but no van, the van had gone!? We both struggled to put down the equipment on the pavement, just them a man came running up the lane shouting "sorry mate I had to move your van as I could not get round the corner with my delivery lorry" I replied "that's ok mate no problem". "But there is a problem" the man began to explain. "Go on then tell us what has happened". "Well it's like this, I popped into the driver's seat, released the hand break and with one foot outside the van I began to scoot the vehicle, that's when it all went wrong, the steering lock was on and I could not steer! I mounted the the kerb and in my panic I applied the foot brake but with no engine running it did not stop and crashed into another vehicle, sorry". At this point Dennis was in fits of laughter, he thought it was so funny, he soon wiped the smile off his face when he found out it was his van that had been hit, it was a right mess, all the back caved in and we could not open the doors. "What a day it was turning out to be, my van with the front smashed and Den's rear doors smashed". Now opposite was a bookies and the punters had been watching the goings on, this real big bloke came out and thought he would have his ten pence worth, now Dennis took exception to this man who started shouting the odds saying we had no rights to park where we did and it's your fault, you should have more sense than to park there, typical GPO. I could see Dennis getting wound up and without much ado he marched over to the gobby man and said "You should mind your own business and wind you neck in, you don't know what you are talking about so keep it shut". Dennis had said all this while looking up the man's nose! He was big. "We had every right to park there", Dennis said. "Bet you didn't" said the giant, to which Dennis replied "Yes we did and we can prove it so shut up or put up, you gobby git" (the actual words). I thought that it was going to kick off when the man just walked away to sound of clapping and cheers from the bookies, I don't think the man was too popular with his fellow punters. That was a bit close and reminded me of the episode in the Bible "David and Goliath. Bottom line, don't mess with Dennis. And by the way the lorry driver was considered to have been responsible for the maelstrom. Colin

I must remember that RKid - 'Gobby Git' - it's a bit more ladylike than swearing.

My first job was with "Verichrome Plating" Ball Hill right next to Gosford Baths. That was 1970 and the swimming pool had already closed down by then.

My friend Gus Bit of a loner my friend Gus, during my time on GPO we had a few laughs at his expense. He was a kinda rough and ready type of a bloke, came in to work did his allotted jobs for the day and then off home, on this one occasion he had us all in bits with laughter, on this day Gus was sent to install a telephone in a lady's house in Canterbury Street. Now before I continue I must point out that the house frontage layout was very repetitive i.e. you have a door then a window then next door then a window and so on. Gus knocked on the door in order to confirm he was at the right house, a woman told him to carry out the installation and promptly shut the door to conserve heat (winter), he began to drill the window frame to make an entry for the drop wire cable, the drilling complete he began to feed in the wire, after he had completed this task he began to attach the cable to the window frame with staples, feeding his way up the wall, after a while he saw the curtain twitch and the cable was being pushed out of the hold. "What's going on?" he thought, he approached the window and he could see the lady feeding the cable back out of his newly drilled hole. "What you doing?" he exclaimed. "What are you doing?" the lady shouted. "Fitting your phone" he replied. "But I don't want a phone" "Make up your bl***y mind" Gus shouted. Just then the door opened and out popped the first lady he had been talking to, the real customer. "You have drilled my neighbour's window frame". "Oops, have you any wood filler?" Gus asked. After he had completed the installation he knocked on the other lady's door to apologise and as a parting shot he asked her if she was sure she did not want a phone, lol. Only Gus would be so cheeky.

I left school aged 15 and was apprenticed to the plumbing trade, that was 1950. My first boss was W.A. Woodward and we did various jobs around the city, and on the new council housing estate at Canley. There were several plumbers there and of course other workmen, carpenters, bricklayers, plasterers, electricians, etc. Unfortunately I had to leave Bill because of illness within his family, my apprenticeship was transferred to E. Harris & Son, general builders, Again I worked on housing estates at Allesley and elsewhere (can't recall where now, the old brain cells need recharging!). My apprenticeship lasted 5 years in all and I do recall that we were expected to attend the Technical College one day a week and one evening practical work. After five years I was called up and joined the Army for 3 years as a short term regular, but that, as they say is another memory.

Reading about punch cards in another thread reminded me of my first job in 1963. It was in the EMEB offices in Sandy Lane which is now Harp Place a wonderful old building that used to be the offices of the Daimler and remained after the factory was bombed. My first job involved the punch cards of the domestic accounts. The "stubs" of the previous days bills that had been paid in the showrooms and Post Offices were brought to me each day and I had to "pull" a card for each one. The cards were then put into a tabulator that added up the holes to balance to the amount received. Very often you would be a penny out if a corner got bent over but we had to balance spot on. I must have been well trained because when I left work a few years ago it was commented on that I would always balance to the penny. We had it drummed into us that if something was a penny out it could be £100 pounds one way and £99.99 the other.

That last comment reminds of a very long day at Wickmans in the 60s when I pored over reams of bank statements and cash received sheets, cheque book stubs and a large manual cash book in my regular task of the bank reconciliation. With the help of an adding machine roll several miles long, I was trying to find the 10/- difference which the bank rec was out. After several hours I spotted a 10/- error between a cheque book stub and the bank statement. Deep joy, I thought, as I rewrote the reconciliation, only to find that the adjustment was the wrong way, and I was now £1 out! It took several more hours, and miles of tally roll, to find it - but I got there!

My first job was as an apprentice radio and television engineer. I worked at G.H. Beamish & Co. Ltd. 914-916 Foleshill Road. I can still remember the phone number 89208. My wages were £5.10s per week, but rose to £6.00 on my 17th birthday, then rose another 10s when I passed my driving test in the May of that year.

Over the fence at Woolies Although I promised I would not do any more Woolies stories I had forgotten this little tale about the builders working through the night to complete an on going project that could not be carried out during the day. It all started as the store was closed for the day, during the day a hoarding was assembled around the door near Coventry point. At around 7 pm the men began to drill an hole through the floor using Kango drills (a bit noisy), at around 10 pm they stopped for a break and all fell quiet except for the chatter, now at this time a few people were walking past the store and they stopped when they heard voices coming from behind the hoarding, now thinking they were up to no good they called the police. The police duly arrived, climbed over the hoarding and arrested the workers who of course pleaded their innocence, they were held by the police until the store managed was called to the store to identify the workers and confirm their duties. The time was getting on a bit and the manager was not too happy with the goings on, he left the site bidding the workers and police a good night. The workers got back to work and all was well, well almost, it would appear that around 2 am a bobby on the beat heard noises coming from behind the hoarding, it would appear that the police shift had changed and the previous encounter had not been noted (I think you know where this is going), the beat officer called for backup, they arrived and climbed over the hoarding to arrest the men again. The men in their defence told the officers of the previous fracas, to which they were having none of it, they bundled them into a van and took them to Police HQ, Little Park St. The only person that could collaborate their story at this time was the manager, he was asked to attend the police station, he was not happy. Not too sure as to why the police had not recorded to previous incident, the fact that men were working behind the hoarding late at night should have been logged by the police. An oversight by the manager who paid dearly for his omission. After that night the workmen who were working nights were often quizzed by the beat officer. I wonder who got the blame for this one, I bet the manager found someone to blame. Colin .

I served my time at the Humber in the early 1950's as a tool and die setter, after my apprenticeship I stayed at the Humber and worked in the demonstration shop, worked there till I left for Canada in 1964. Great time. Dave Charley.

It's a good job it was not next to the Bank then ! They would have been surrounded.

I went to the same place wasn't it Brooklands annexe?

1963-67