Click on the photograph to enlarge the image.
Back row (Standing L-R)
Gerald Chergwin, Stuart Harrold, Mike Fortey, Steve Price, Trevor Jones, Chris Farley , Dave Budrey, Roger Goode, Andy Fowler, Bob Holmes, Tony Dyer, Colin Archibald, Bruce Carr.
Front row (Seated L-R)
Brian Simkins, Barry Aldridge, Andrew Ellis, Harold Shenton, Geoff Moreton, Bert Ravenhill, Gerald Williams, Noel Pocket, Bill Tomas, Malcolm Austin.
Can you help us by naming the remaining people on this photograph and adding memories about them? Perhaps you were an apprentice with them or knew them? What memories does this photograph bring back? Please share your memories and stories by clicking on the words Add a comment about this page below.
Comments about this page
Does anyone remember the fire in the storeroom at the back of the hardware store opposite the works entrance to Fieldings? It must have happened around leaving time because a group of us apprentices stood and watched the smoke and listened to the pots of paint exploding for a while and Malcolm Austin said something about it being to do with spontaneous combustion which I didn’t really understand at the time. He was a witty chap!
I was in the HMS for about 18 months, it’s heartbreaking to think that it’s shopping mall now! Bert Ravenhill also called Malcolm Austin ‘The Mighty Atom’.
In the Heavy Machine Shop I worked on a Webster and Bennett vertical borer, a small planer, a ‘Boko’ miller and a centre lathe on which, amongst other things, I turned crankshafts. Turning the first big end was terrifying when the whole 4′ x 8” diameter bar started to rotate around the centre of a big end. Everything vibrated at my first hesitant cut then ‘Nobby’ Beard signalled to me to go in harder and away we went. My favourite was the Richards horizontal borer, it was big and old, there was a brass plate on it saying that it had been painted in accordance with wartime regulations. It was so versatile, fly cutting, boring, milling and drilling. Thread cutting was very interesting. Firstly, I had to paddle in an oil drip tray at the end of the machine to change the gear train, then the gear levers had to be set and tied in place with a cats cradle of string in case they became disengaged during the operation. Fascinating work!
Ed: Andrew, thanks for another fascinating story. How long were you in the HMS? John B
Malcolm Austin was a schoolmate of mine at the Junior Technical College in Cinderford. We both got apprenticeships at F&P and were mates until I left in 1967. Malcolm eventually went to live and work in Australia and ended up running a shop. I bumped into him in Ross-on-Wye about 12 years ago when he was in the UK visiting family, I have not seen him since. Bert Ravenhill gave Malcolm the nickname of Levin after Bernard Levin, as Malcolm had a very sharp way with words!
During the apprentice school first aid course we were taught about pressure points. Neil Edwards, who was in a later intake and who was the son of Nurse Edwards, saved his own life by using a pressure point to stop himself bleeding to death after a motor bike accident.
Hi Andrew! Thanks for your contributions to this page and your recollections of the many colleagues you encountered during your career at Fielding’s. Hopefully, you will also add comments to other pages as well. Keep them coming! John B
I learned about engineering at Fielding’s, but I also learned a lot about life and people from the kind, knowledgeable and funny men like ‘Pop’ Brain, Tony Franklin, Ray Leach, Jim Baker and John Arkell. I still think about some of the things they said and did to this day.
Geoffrey Morton, when introducing us to the First Aid course, told us how his officers pulled the body of a young woman out of the water. He told them they may as well practice artificial respiration on her. She was revived, jumped over the side and swam away!
We walked through the Light Machine Shop to get to the apprentice school. When the men working there learnt that we were taking a First Aid course they teased us that we had to practice giving the kiss of life to Albert, the labourer, who had a huge moustache and no teeth!
Ed: We were relating this story at the coffee morning last Sat. (29/04/17). Albert Ridler was his full name. Great character! John B
Tony Dyer is involved with the model railway at Stratford Park in Stroud.
Yes, Tony Dyer was very keen railway photographer, I seem to remember that he had his films developed but not printed.
I worked with Tony when he was a designer at Hawker Siddeley Power Plant at Thrupp in the late eighties.
Andy Fowler I also met in 1991/2, he was technical director of a Warwick (I think) based company who had a manufacturing plant on the Gloucester Trading Estate. They made hydraulic steering gear for military vehicles.
Hi John! I remember Gerald Chergwin used to work on the marking off table in the heavy machine shop. I also remember Gerald’s dad being in the metalwork shop at Gloucester Technical College as an instructor when I attended there 1967/68/69.
I did get to know Tony Dyer for a while during the 1970’s, I seem to remember that he was interested in steam locomotives.
Chippy Aston.
I feel sure that Shergwin was spelt Chergwin.
Gerald’s dad (Ex GAC) was a lecturer at Gloucester Technical College.
Geoffrey Morton had been a senior officer in the Palestine Police Force after WW2, and had a book published about his experiences.
Harold Shenton drove a bright red Bond Minicar and Gerry Williams was a Vespa scooter man.
Ed: I’m sure you are right about the spelling of Gerald’s surname so I have corrected it – John B.
Thanks to Chris Farley here are the names to fill the gaps in the line-up: back row (left to right) Trevor Jones, Dave Budrey, Colin Archibald front row Malcolm Austin
Second left is Stuart Harrold
Thanks Mike. John B
Back row first left is Gerald Shergwin.
Huge thanks for adding this page and photograph Bob! We only need a photo of the 1968 group and we’ll have all the 1960 intake photos!
It would be good to hear about what was it like to be part of the 1960 intake – what did you learn from Harold, Bert, and Gerry that sticks with you today, and who were the real characters, and what did they get up to? Which part of the Works did you go into after your 12 months in the Apprentice School?
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