Martin Blakeley
Memories of the Apprentice School and the Hydraulics Fitting Shop in the 1960s
Martin Blakeley joined Fielding and Platt as an apprentice in 1961 and stayed with the company for ten years. He applied for several similar apprenticeships all over Gloucester and was accepted onto all of them, but he chose to go to Fielding and Platt because of the reputation the firm had within the engineering community. It was also the closest to home for Martin, but this had only a minor importance in the decision to accept their offer!
In this selection of audio clips, Martin recalls his memories of the female crane driver, a Polish blacksmith, an outward-bound course, and the stringent “kit inspections” that Fielding and Platt apprentices had to endure during their training courses.
In the final clip on this page, Martin goes into detail about one of the tools he used during his time at Fielding and Platt – a centre finder – and explains what it did.
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