Coventry Technical College

Yep, Alan B, I remember him, young and keen; in later years (according to a couple of students we had) he became HoD. I also remember an elderly eccentric chap called Ernest Jessup; he knew all about computers.

Alan once mentioned he had been the youngest HoD at the college, he was very proud of that but as time went by he began to suffer from stress and I think he retired because of it. Never met Ernest Jessup I'm afraid so I can't shed any light on him One incident I do remember was one of our practical sessions had to be cancelled at short noticed and we were sent home. Apparently the college had just bought a new batch of oscilloscopes but they worked on both British and American voltages and somebody at the end of an earlier session had switched them over to the American system, so when they were next switched on many of them blew up before it was realised what had happened and there was a panic on to repair them as quickly as possible and modify them so it couldn't happen again

Back in the early 80s, when the IBM (no clones then!) PC was the latest must-have, two of them were ordered and delivered to the uni at great cost. Without checking, a keen academic plugged one in and switched on, with a loud bang, flash and smoke from the power supply. They'd been shipped from the USA, and the switch on the side was set to 120V. After that, my solution for any similar piece of equipment was to set the switch to 230V (invariably a slide switch), then run in some glue to stop anyone altering the setting. Nowadays, of course, most stuff will run on anything from 85V to 300V or similar.

My father was born in 1915, and left school to do a six year apprenticeship at Herberts. He always gave me to understand that he spent his time at CTC in the Butts. That would imply that the college was in operation in 1930.

This from Wikipedia may help

It sounds like it moved, so my father must have done his final year there. Never knew that.

My dad was born in 1916. After working as a van boy with the Co-op he went to Alfred Herbert's and then to the Winfray Tool Company in the Butts and then to the Gauge and Tool. He could well have met your dad, Slim!

Hi Anne Very likely; my dad spent his last year in the drawing office, he won the Coventry scholarship prize, then went into designing machine tools. He moved from Herbert's to the Gauge, then when war broke out was promoted to Chief Designer - a priority job as the country needed machines to make armaments. Needless to say, that put a few noses out of joint, being Chief Designer whilst still under the age of 30! One of the relics I inherited is a memo from senior management of the Gauge of that era about tea breaks in the morning and afternoon. It talks about the new arrangements, whereby Mrs. Someenglishname was responsible for serving the morning tea, and how it should "enable the new scheme to work efficiently if staff refrained from making inappropriate or offensive remarks in her presence". It goes on to state that the afternoon tea duties would be "carried out by the office boy"! I shudder to think what would happen to me today if I were to refer to anyone at work as the office boy! That internal memo is priceless. I have it filed somewhere, and when I find it, I'll scan it in and publish. I recall that everyone had to sign it once they'd read it.

Yes Slim, and then the office boy was probably anything between the age of 14 and 65, but the name would be accepted. When I started work at the EMEB there were many lowly jobs given to the new starters especially fetching the tea and coffee twice a day. ( A big tray full for the whole department, trouble was you couldn't tell the tea from the coffee). Your dad could well come across quite a few of my relatives at the Gauge. My dad was there but he was sent to the Jaguar Browns Lane Shadow factory during the war although he was still working for the Gauge. He met my Mum there in 1945. Also my nan met and married my step grandad Eric Wilson through my mum. He worked there a long time and was a very good engineer. His dad also worked there and I believe he had a lot to do with the union. Eric eventually went to work at the Coventry Gauge factory in Poole. I don't know what he did but when they came up to Coventry he used to go to a place to buy industrial diamonds

This is where I went to school aged eleven. Our classrooms, apart from woodwork, metalwork and school assembly, were in purpose built Nissen huts behind this fa

During the 70s I attended the Butts, most of my time was spent in the wooden huts out the back.

I remember the first time I saw the Technical College I thought it was like Buckingham Palace. I attended for 3 years 1967-1970 taking my City & Guilds in Metallurgy. Lessons were mainly in the main building but some were in the huts at the back. I remember that the College Principal was named Mr Arculus (we called him Dracula). Lessons were in Metallugy, Physics & Chemistry and lecturers included "Purple" Hayes, Mr Moreland, Mr Ravenhall & Mrs Carey. Classmates included Brian Horton (Standard), Richard Christopher (Brico), Martin Prue (Unbrako), Patrick Bermingham, Danuta Napierska, Blonde Sue, Rich Evans, Dave Thompson. I (Derrick Oldham) worked at Dunlop. I remember one evening after college three of us donned our white lab coats and chased one of the other lads through town shouting "Stop him! Stop him!" Not surprisingly no one did. In our second year we had lessons from 9:00 in the morning through till 9:00 at night with a break for lunch and tea. We spent a lot of mealtimes in the chippie opposite the Hen & Chicks but as a special treat (every Wednesday) I would go the King Wah Chinese restaurant in Warwick Row. They did a special menu of the day for 5 shillings (double the price of fish & chips but it made me feel really good as a 17 year old to be waited on). I used to have chicken & sweetcorn soup, special chow mein and pineapple fritters. Just remembered my very good friend Graham Gronow from Wolvey. Not only did we go to Coventry Tech for 3 years but we went to Wednesbury Tech and later worked together at Chrysler UK in Humber Road (along with other Cov Tech colleagues Dave Thompson & John Karabinas). Sadly Graham died some years ago of MS or a similar illness.

Derrickarthur. In 1951 I was told that the exam papers at the Tech were either the previous year's same papers or papers from five years before - could I find out, through a girl I knew in the admin office? Have no idea now what subjects were involved. But I was told a year date. My friend G Pugh taught Metallurgy at the Tech in 1990's.

Nice picture of the entrance hall of the Butts College from 1923. Loved this building. Has anyone visited the hotel and know if they kept this?

Answered my own question, wow something that was left as it was, well done Premiere Inn, 97 years old