Sadly Dennis Barrow died recently. He enjoyed sharing anecdotes and memories about his time at Marshalls and this article will remain on our site as our memorial to him.

MARSHALLS

MY APPRENTICE YEARS

By Dennis D Barrow

Written by Carol Davies

I left school in 1937 and my father for some reason or other, booked me into Rose Bros. as a trainee engineer. I was not very keen, as a country lad, to go into a workshop where machines were worked on in galleries, so close that you could hardly move.

It was dark and dismal, but I stuck to it for a month or two. One day I was spotted by the Plant Manager eating an apple, and he reported me to the Forman and a day or two later the Forman said he didn't think that I was suitable for this job. Maybe I should find myself a job on a farm.

It could not have been truer than where I ended up. Being a young lad this did not really bother me and I was politely asked to go, in other words they sacked me. My wage at that time was 6s.9d per week (34p). A week, not an hour!

So I took myself across to Marshall and asked if there were any vacancies for apprentices. They said yes, you could start the following week, the wages will be 9s. per week. So I received a rise in a matter of a day.

Marshalls in 1937/38 always started their trainees or so called apprentices as an office boy as there was no school. The idea being that you got the run of the factory and at a later date you decided which profession or job you would like to follow. I was detailed into the Blacksmith shop. A bit of a dirty place for me at the time as I was not used to it, me coming out of the country.

I commenced work as an office boy in 1937 at the tender age of 14 with a starting wage of 9s per week (45p). The hours were: - 7.30a.m. - 5.30p.m. and Saturday mornings, 1 hour for lunch and no tea breaks. I also had to cycle 10miles per day from my home in Blyton come rain or shine.

The job entailed delivering messages from one shop to another - fetching drawing and taking them to the blacksmiths for them to work from.

One of my weekly jobs on a Monday morning was to collect tobacco, cigarettes etc. from the local shop, Nuttals on Trinity Street, for the canteen that was situated above No 2 entrance. The large building down Torr Street (where the Tesco Petrol Station is now) was then only used as a teahouse; they did not cook meals. We had this little canteen near the Blacksmith shop were you could have your cup of tea and a midday snack.

I was in this job for approximately 3 months by which time the so called Personnel Manager called for me and ask what trade I wanted to follow, which I replied I would prefer to be a Fitter

I would like to give you an idea of the size of the Smiths shop in those days. It was a rather large building, about the size of a football pitch and had approximately 100 hearths. They were not all in operation at the same time.

They were arranged with 2 hearths to one chimney and approximately 4 rows of chimneys running the width of shop and then down the full length of the shop. 2 Blacksmiths could work through one chimney (exhaust). Also mentioned in the article were some foundations that were found of what Mr Bloom thought were Steam hammers. He was quite right they were Steam hammers but they did not run on steam but were powered by compressed air. They had about a 5-ton drop.

One of these hammers was directly in front of my office. All the offices were raised, usually to 2nd story height and had a gallery running round. This was so that the Forman could have a view of the whole shopfloor and keep an eye on everybody. The Blacksmith on the Hammer in front of the office was a chap by the name of McClean, and he was a great big burly Scots man (incidentally he had a rather attractive daughter, but that is by the way).

He had 2 fellows who worked with him. One would be the Hammer Driver and the other would be his assistant. He forged all the crankshafts particularly for the Model M tractors (of which I did not know much about in those days). I can remember these big crankshafts being forged. They were supported by an overhead gantry that swung down for heating and then it was swung  back under the hammer again.

The other hammer was at the top of the shop, this being operated by a fellow by the name of Mr Howell, who incidentally came from the same village that I did. Besides these two big Steam hammers there were a series of Drop Forged hammers. These were used for making spanners etc. which were supplied as a tool kit for each steamroller, tractor or what ever the machine was being built at that time. 

Each machine had a tool kit of spanners made by Marshalls with the Marshall name embossed on them. In the far top left hand corner of the Blacksmiths shop there was an oil hardening plant were these spanners were preheated in gas ovens and dropped into whale oil. 

When this happened you did not want to be around as the smell is one that I cannot describe and was terrible. You could just imagine these big tanks of black whale oil and then drop a basket full of red hot spanners into it and the smoke would come surging up, (Ugh). Down the shop was a circular saw, but this circular saw would cut iron bars. The iron bar would have to be heated up to blood red temperature. The Blacksmith would make a series of tools etc. Instead of making one at a

time, he would heat up and saw them off in lengths with the circular saw. I used to detest going past this thing if it was running because sparks would fly all over the place and you would be likely to get yourself burned.

Further down the shop was another machine that was called a Guillotine, run by a big electric motor onto flywheels approximately 5ft/6ft in diameter and it had 4 cutting stations that cut difference edges and shapes. This thing rumbled on all day whether it was in use of not. If the Blacksmith wanted to cut some cold metal he would just walk across to the Guillotine and put the metal in place and it would go off with a bang.

The office itself was situated in the bottom corner and you had to go up the spiral staircase to get to it. The Foreman was a fellow called Mr Fields. He only had one arm. He had received the injury in the Blacksmith’s Shop. Hew was a very quiet man and very easy to get on with. The other chaps in the office was a man named Mr Riley and an inspector called Mr Drake. I never really knew what he did. After 3 or 4 months in the office, I was called up to the Personnel Department and told that I could now go into the fitting shop and learn a trade.

I was detailed into the gallery of the fitting shop overlooking the big machine shop. All the shops had galleries round them in those days and there was a row of detailed benches. The bench was run by a charge-hand by the name of Mr Holbart. He was another grand chap who helped me a lot . He did a lot of items to do with oil lubricating systems and we used to make oil boxes for steam engines. 

We also did a lot of work for the Admiralty making lubricating systems for ships. On the same bench was another chappie called George Morris who did a lot of the light copper pipework for the machines that were being built. It was his job to shape, bend and fit into the components. And at his side was his son-in-law and as far as I can remember he helped George. In 1939 while I was working on this job war broke out, there was a lot of hustle and bustle and everyone was quite concerned about what it would mean to the workforce of Marshalls.

They then moved me further down this row of benches to another bench which did Admiralty work for parts of gun gearboxes etc., and there was one fitter who was an ex naval artificer. He had been called in because of his experience on navel equipment and the war effort. He taught me quite a lot and I enjoyed being with him and that is for some reason where the nick name Ben came from. He always called me Ben. I can not remember his name but the name Ben stuck with me all my working life, even my local newsagent calls me Ben as that is the only name he knows me by.

After several months there I was moved down to a Tractor dept. Now to put you in the picture, this firm was run as a navel concern, it was under Admiralty control and all the guns etc. were for the Admiralty . So naturally we had a naval man in charge and his name was Commander Thompson. He used to come in on a morning and to get to his office he had to walk right through the Fitting Shop and Machine shop, up the stairs and up to another gallery to where his office was.

He used to carry with him his gas mask and a holstered revolver, not strapped to him, just carried them in his hand. Us lads thought we had better be good or we would know what we would get. Commercial work was frowned on and regarded as not essential and the tractor job was still in its infancy since Wards had taken over and shown interest and Edward Burgess who was also interested in Marshalls still wanted to build these tractors but to do it on the quiet. This tractor bay was in the corner of the Fitting shop, which this Commander did not pass on his way to the office.

He never came that way so he didn't get to know what was happening. I should hate to know what would have happened if he had found out, or maybe he did know but turned a blind eye. We shall never know. 

We had two fitters, a charge-hand fitter, a fitter and 3 apprentice lads. The name of the charge-hand fitter was Syd Brundel and the other chap was Gammy Smith. Syd was a tobacco-chewing bloke and he used to give me 6d and I would go across to Nuttals in Trinity Street and buy him a chunk of chewing tobacco, which was wrapped in silver foil. He worked mostly at a bench while us lads were doing the rough work. All round him, the floor was jet black with tobacco stains. I used to feel as sick as a dog when I went to talk to him. Now back to the job of building tractors.

To Build a Tractor

All gears came to us in an unfinished state, all the teeth of very gear had to be chamfered and then the splines, (only 6 spline not surated)

Splines on the 1st motion shaft which you change gear with very often did not match but these had to be fitted. One of the reasons was that the machine we had was a Broaching machine, which pulled the tool through the centre boss of a blank gear, and it was tapered. As it got to the end it was supposed to be finished to a standard size, but naturally, this tool used to wear out in time and needed sharpening, so that last batch was very often a tight fit.

We had to file all these out by hand and fit them to the shaft as well and make up as match sets. They were not inter-changeable You made up a set of 1st motion gear and kept them together as you could not interchange them with anything else. We did the same with the 2nd motion shaft.

After we had done the filing, which was soft metal, they went for hardening. They had several methods of hardening. As soon as the ring was hardened it was seated on the wheel etc. and we then got them back and trimmed them up a bit more, making sure we kept the set together. Also bear in mind that all the parts that were machined, such as gearboxes, cylinders and radiators etc. were drilled but where a stud had to be fitted they were only tapped by a taper tap.

They did not use a plug tap very often because of breakage.  Actually there was one chappie whose full time job was digging out broken taps out of different parts of the castings. Anyway, we received these castings etc. and all the holes that were needed for thread studs we had to retap with a plug tap right to the bottom. Then any studs that we had to put in we put in by the 2 lock nut method. I am sure you could imagine how long it would take in certain places, the cylinder all had to be pulled in by hand.

The cylinder blocks were prepared and the pipework was put in and then it went to another Dept for a water test and they were tested so see that there were no leaks or blow holes, and then returned back to us. We then stood the gearbox on a couple of trestles, put the cylinder block on - put the front axle on which made it more stable - then we could commence to fit the gears in the gearbox which was usually the first thing that we did. The first gear in was the small reverse and 1st gear cog, which was dropped into the bottom and left loose. Then the brake shoes were put in and then on top of that went the 1st motion gear, which was a brake drum and a gear.

The 1st motion shaft which had the sliding gears went in next, making sure that they were nice and free for gear changing. Then we lifted the diff up, There was a small crane that lifted it up and dropped it into the rear. Usually we would try to put the two axle arms on, which lifted the gear up to its running position so that we could put the 2nd motion shaft in. This made it easier with the diff being lifted up on the axle arms. We then lifted reverse pinion up and put it in place. The gearbox was then completed and put together. 

The next job was to put the radiator header on - and usually it never fitted. I know that they were supposed to have been drilled, but they never did them right and we had to file and jiggle to get them to fit right. A rubber gasket was then fitted between them. We would then start to put cooling fins and fan on and the crankshaft and housing that held the timing mechanism.

The crankshaft and housing, governor housing complete with oil pump and pipework, which we had previously assembled, was pickup with a crane and the whole lot slid in as one piece. The clutch was then put on the other side. Incidentally the oil pumps which were the Bosch type were adjusted by adjusting the stroke of the little plunger, there was no strict method of adjustment. You just counted the number of turns that fed the oil station. In later years in the Series 1 and 2 they were properly calibrated in a special machine which gave a more accurate supply of oil. 

So that is why a lot of the Model M had a dirty exhaust. Perhaps some more than others. The gearbox was inspected to make sure that no foreign bodies were in as quite often you could loose a nut or bolt. Then the gearchange unit and then the lid. The fuel tank, superstructure - such as mudguards and platforms, piston and con rod. After an inspection of the crankcase the air filter was fitted. This was then fasten down and by the time we had done most of this it was ready to go on test.

The wheels we put on were not new wheels but old one. New ones were fitted before it was sold. It finally went out for test in No 1 yard. We only did about 2 tractors a week there was no mass production. The chap who did it was an old fellow by the name of Percy Cox. Another nice chap to work with. 

They were all nice to work with in those days. He would do a certain amount of testing and if he found any problems he would come in and ask us to rectify the fault. And then he would retest it. Before the first test, the engine was run on idle for several hours and then it would be put on the brake test and brought up to power.

If the engine passed, the pistons were always taken out and inspected for any hard spots or blemishes, checked and put back in. It then did its final load and tried to get it to hold its maximun load for several minutes. If satisfactory it was taken on its road run for approx. 5 miles. 

Its usual route was what was called Big Belt. This took you up Spital Terrace and Spital Hill - down Corringham Road - round Belt Road toward what is now the Golf Club, down the Avenue and back down Spital Hill and back to base. The chaps that usually took them on this run was a Mr Freddy Ford or Syd Hawkins

If the tractor was found to work satisfactorily it was delivered to the paint-shop. This was also at the top of No 1-Yard. The machine was painted by hand and the Marshall symbol was done by a sign-writer. The new wheels were put on and it was then ready for transport to its new customer. 

These test benches in No 1-Yard were actually built for Steam Engines/ Road rollers, Steam Traction Engines and portable engines and were not really suitable for testing tractors. There were only 2 test rigs for tractors the rest of the yard was for testing the other machines, which needed pits under them so that the fitter could work underneath. A water tank was in the pit so that the steamer could draw water through the pumps.

Occasion they built a dumper truck which were built specially for TW Ward. The testing could not be done on brakes; we just did a road run. Sometime in 1941 there was a shortage of fitters in No 1-Yard.

The production started on Government Work for Road Rollers for the Army and Airforce (for runways and roads). We built approx., (I am not quite sure of this) 1100 at £900 each or 900 at £1100 each, but these were a 6-ton to 9-ton rollers. Instead of having a diesel engine in it they had a Ford V8 30hp petrol engine but still kept the Marshall gearbox underneath. These were run quite a bit on idle.

They were not taken on the road, as it was a waste of time. The engine had been tested before and we had already tested the gearboxes. We also received an order from a Government Department now known as the Forest Commission for portable engines to drive saw-benches for timber for the war effort, I cannot really remember how many we built but something tells me it was round about 90. They were 10.5 hp. Single cylinder.

I volunteered for the Merchant Navy, my uniform came through, my travel warrant and train fare etc. and got to the stage of moving up to Hull, maybe in a couple of weeks time. I was working in one of the gearboxes and as you are engrossed in it, you don't see much happening around you. 

A figure came to me and cast a shadow over me and I looked up and it was the Personnel Manager, Mr Bee. He was the person who had set me on had one everything else to do with my career so far. He said "Now laddie, how are you getting on in with these jobs?" "Are your all right." I said "Oh yes Mr Bee. Yes I am all right. Great." " Do you enjoy your work?" said Mr Bee. "Yes Its great" I said. "Well why have you volunteered to go in the Merchant Navy?" he asked. Well I could have fell through the floor as no one was supposed to know. I stuttered and floundered about a bit. "I know," he said, "that you volunteered for the Merchant Navy.

They have been in contact with me to see about releasing you and I told them No. I returned the letter and said you would not be leaving this firm and that was it". So he said, "My advice is. Don't be awkward or nasty with us. Send your uniform, send everything back with the explanation that your firm has stopped you from going and that will be the end of that. Well there was nothing much I could do. So I did as I was told and from that day onwards I never heard a thing, call ups or anything. They never enquired about it one little bit. So I suppose I was lucky. Around that

they moved me off the Tractor line and asked me if I would like to go to No 1 Yard as a Test Fitter. I would get more experience with Steam Engines and petrol motors. This No 1-Yard was open at both ends so come winter you knew you were out there. There was no central heating; the only heat you got was from the boiler you were working on. We tested the odd tractor and not a lot of work was needed on the petrol rollers. The engines were no trouble at all.

Most of the hard work came on these portable engines which were built in the factory and were tested outside over these pits. Just bear in mind that these portable engines had no lagging on it was the neat boiler. The first thing was to fire them up and see that there was no leaks and then run the engine for a few hours till it warmed up and find out any faults with them. 

The faults could not be rectified there and then because of the heat, but could be rectified the next morning. So the next morning the fire was started up on the boilers and in that period of time you had to do the repairs, check the big end bearings and main bearings, water pump, plungers, and look for any leaks on the gauges etc.

All these things had to be done and gradually the thing was getting hotter and hotter and hotter. So by the time you had a couple of hours working you was really hot. In winter I always suffered with cold feet and I still do, and somebody suggested that I rub them with Slones linement, which I promptly did. But I didn't realise that I would be walking about on a hot boiler.

The first day found me sat on the end of the pit with my shoes and socks off with my feet in the cold water tank. Another job of the fitters on the test benches was maintenance of all steam-controlled plant, which included air compressors, generating plant, anything to do with steam.

They had maintenance fitters on the plant, but they did cranes and anything else, but they were not allowed to touch anything like an engine. During the period of holiday time, which was only 1 week, all the fitters off the test benches etc. were scattered about doing maintenance. The one I used to like going to and usually did end up with was the small power station up near the boiler shop which had 2 great big Class L Steam Engines. I could crawl through the cylinder quite comfortably so you can imagine how big they were. 

The con rods were about 12/15ft long, 400hp, flywheels had a 12/15ft diameter Directly coupled onto the cranks was a commentator and this was the part that generated electricity. The commentator would be 4ft in diameter and 18" wide with a row of brushes about every 6".

These steam engines had a method of valve gear, which were called poppet valves and worked on the trip system. It was all open and you could see it all working and when they were running all you could hear was this tick, tick, tick of the valves, There was no noise, rattle, bang or anything. Everything nice and smooth. 

The resident fitter up here was a man called Ozzie Johns who had a big moustache. He knew everything there was to know about Steam. A real character to work with, pleasant, no arguments as long as you worked with him. 

Also in this plant was a couple of steam air compressors and a so-called modern electric compressor. Terrific great big things, noisy as you could wish for. These were very hot to be near as you had the steam plus the heat generated from the compressed air. Also in there was a big diesel oil engine. Built by Marshalls it had 2 cylinders.

Again the cylinder were wide enough for me to slide down, no problem there. It ran about 150/200 rpm. It was not particularly fast but it was connected to a generator as well All this was to help the electricity to run the plant during the war. You had to start it with compressed air and to get it on stroke you had to bar it round, the first stroke and then

turn the compressed air on and away the old lass went. A bit further along was a diesel 6 cylinder. It just looked like a large box. Everything was totally enclosed and the draughtsman who had designed this was a gentleman by the name of Hi-Speed Smith. I don’t know how he got the name, but you can’t help but remember it. 

The cylinder did about 700/800 rpm. It was coupled to a dynamo, but the noise from it was indescribable. It was bolted down solid. No anti-vibration rubbers or anything like that. I just drove you mad all day long. Actually now I come to think of it, it was sabotaged a few time by the people that had to work near it. I don’t know what they actually did, but it would suddenly stop. 

Also in this team of fitters and testers in No 1 Yard was a chap called Ernest Wormell, who was the only one among us all that had any experience with diesel tractors. He gad worked on the Model 18/30 Tractor in their days and he did a bit of outside servicing.

Not an awful lot because there was not a lot to do. He also did a lot to experimenting. He had an experimental bay at the top of No 1 Yard with one of the fixed Marshall engines bolted down and was always trying new ideas on it. 

Occasionally I got the job of giving him a hand Very quiet fellow but very nice to work with. One day he came and we was talking about some dump trucks which were up near Dewsbury working for TW Ward on some kind of outcrop coal system.

There were several up there and they were getting a bit ancient and they wanted someone to go overhaul them. Ernie Wormell was asked to go but it was suggested that I go with him to learn and get a bit of experience. I was quite prepared to go and off I went with him.

We were lodging in one side of Leeds and had to catch trams to the city centre and then from city centre out to Dewsbury Road and then walk up a few roads to get to this particular site. Luckily it was pleasant weather and I think I had about 2 weeks with him up there But any way as the job was finishing off it was decided that I come back and Ernie wouldfinish the job off on his own. So I return and carried on with my work in the No 1-Yard with the Testing of Steam, Diesel, etc.

One day I was asked if I would like to go and do a job outside by himself. Now this job was again for T.W. Ward on a Dumper and this time at Mansfield in a sand quarry.

Now the story that I was told was that it had tipped over the side of the sand quarry and had landed upside down and would I go and inspect it to see what damage had been done and what spares were needed to repair it.

So the job was catch a bus from Gainsborough to Retford - Retford to Mansfied and don't forget that I had to carry my toolbox and suitcase. Finding some lodgings somewhere was the first thing to do and then I had to find my way to the sand quarry but by the time I got up to this quarry the workers had righted the dumper and put it back on its wheels. When it tipped upside down it had broken the radiator header tank. which would have been near the floor.

The chappie who was the Plant Manager was called Mr Shirt. I will always remember him, Dainty chap about 50 years old. He came to greet me and said he would show me the machine and the damages it had done. Unfortunately he had not been advised that the machine had been righted and put back on its wheels.

He was bent down, looking at the front axle trying to show me where the water was coming from. He still thought it was upside down. And I thought I am in a right crowd here. I got it put right and had some spares and radiator header tank sent through and put it on 

After returning to the works I carried on as usual. I was asked again to do some more service work on my own. Bare in mind I am still only 18 at the time. I said yes. I think I can deal with what they wanted.

Most of it was servicing tractors that operated threshing machines as a lot of the contractors with threshing had come off steam and gone on to the diesel tractors as they found them more successful and cheaper to run. The only thing was they did not know anything about them.

So they always asked that after the thrashing season finished, they would like the tractors overhauling and preparing for the next season thrashing. So I got the job of travelling round the country and carrying this out. Well, I travelled all over but it was by train and buses. 

On the odd occasion the customer could come to meet me, which was fair enough. Quite often they would put you up in their own home. I had some great times being looked after on these farms, you got well fed and had a nice old -fashioned type bed at night. They would take you round the farm and sometimes they would take you out.

I would like now to record other trips I made in this period before I had a motor van. Most of these where reached by trains, which were very crowded and also by the buses. I can't remember then all but a few sticks in my memory. 

I remember one job going to Boroughbridge, the usual thing going from Gainsborough to Doncaster - Doncaster to York then onto Boroughbridge and then being picked up from the station by the farmers. I can't remember what the job entailed but I think it was something to do with the winch, they were threshing contractors and farmers. 

I also remember that in the yard was an Austin tractor and I had never seen one of these before. I was there for a couple of days and as I was preparing to leave a stranger pulled into the yard. He enquired if there was a Marshall mechanic around, which obviously there was, and he came to see me. He had trouble with a machine at Ripon and it had run a big end out and would I be prepared to go and give him some assistance. 

I contacted the Gainsborough office and they gave me permission to go and do it. The only problem was that I had to get from Boroughbridge to Ripon and I had no transport. I mention this to him  "No problem" he said "I will leave you this car and I will get my wife to come over and pick me up and when you are ready just drive over. Will that suit you". "Fine that will be great" I said and he gave me the address. 

The car he left was a great big Vauxhall saloon, but the funny thing that struck me was to get it started you had to give the accelerator a certain amount of push. It energised the starter and then your engine started running. Anyway, after I had finished my job at Boroughbridge, I got in this car and drove over to Ripon. I found the farm, it was a modern farm, he was a business man as well as a farmer. 

I don't know what else he did, but the house was big, it hadn't been built that long, probably pre-war. It stood in its own grounds with garages etc. and was pretty modern for its time.

The tractor was brought to the service area which was near the house, I stripped the engine , squared the big end up and got it running. After I had finished the job he said that I could stay there. 

I had to get cleaned up and then went for my meal and then sat in this large lounge with the rest of the family. They commented on how young I was and to think that I was out servicing in my teens. They were very pleasant and then they gave me a room that had its own bathroom. After I had finished the job they took me back to nearest station and returned home.

Another job was at Pickering in Yorkshire. Again by train but I missed the station at Pickering and ended up at Scarborough. So I had to kick my heels in Scarborough until I could get another train back to Pickering. The farmer collected me from the station and took me out to his farm. I cannot remember what job it was I was sent to do. 

I was interested, I remember in the way he had his own generating station. He took me down under the farmhouse and he had some water wheels, turbines and it generated his electricity for the house. I was really interested in this.

Another job I went to was up at Hexham in Northumberland. I again was met at the station and for some reason this gentleman lived in a series of caravans. For 2 or 3 nights I slept in a gypsy caravan, it was quite comfortable really and it was the first time that I had seen a small Bristol Crawler. They were very small machines, just enough room for one man to sit on. 

Another trip was to go to a dump truck (T.W. Wards again) and it was on an aerodrome near Uttoxeter. I was working on the dump truck and they told me that in the hanger was a secret aeroplane, I found out that it was a mosquito being prepared for something special. Lodging were very difficult to come by and I ended up sleeping on a settee for a night or two.

Another one I used to go to was in Somerset, Threshing contractors again, they put you up and you couldn't wish for better accommodation. 

Another one in Worcester, a Threshing Contractor and he used to make his own cider. The tractor was used to crush the apples up. He had a cellar and that is where he used to store his cider. I stayed with him and of course after the evening meal out came the cider. I wasn't a drinking man and still aren't but this cider was not put in a glass but in a pint mug. It nearly blew my head off. They put me to bed but I was O.K. next morning.

Some local farmers that had Marshall tractors would often fetch me with there own vehicles. I can recall going to one on the back of a motor bike, then having to come back for spares on the same machine.

One farmer that used to fetch me was a Mr Warburton, he was mentioned in the Charles Quinn's article of Spring 2001

These tractors, Model M or 12/20 were sold locally and being partly experimental we kept an eye on them. We visited then now and again or got the customers to give us some reports on how they were performing.

Now in contrast to this, I was employed to do a job up north of Doncaster at a place called Skellow. The chappie up there wanted a winch fitting to his tractor. He collected all the parts with his pickup truck and myself and we went on a Saturday morning to his farm and I put this winch on and after it was finished he said he would take me home. But he didn't, he only took me as far as Doncaster bus station.

You can imagine what the bus station would be like on a Saturday night. Everybody ready to go out and the bus from Doncaster to Gainsborough was one that visited every village on its path. There I was with my tool box, overalls on this bus with all the kids dressed up for the night. Was I pleased when I got home. It was about 9 o'clock. And I said to myself I shall never go there again.

When I was not out servicing I was back in No 1 yard. I did a lot of work with Ernest Wormill on the experimental engine. We were trying to get more power out of it and the company engaged this fellow called Sanderson who was a combustion expert. He used to come every 2/3 weeks to see how we were getting on. He would give us some instructions on what to do and we would carry this out. 

He came in a Citroen car and in the car was his own designed engine and the air intake was the lefthand headlamp. He had a 3" to 4" pipe leading from the headlamp into his air intake.. We very often worked till 7 or 8 at night because he only came for a short time that day and we would do as much as we could for him while he was there. One of his little tricks was to ask

if we had we any diesel , and with the works being empty I would get him some diesel and put it in his car. He was quite pleased with this. But we tried different heads, different combustion chambers we even put a Rootes Blower on. It didn't do an awful lot of good. We did improve the engine in the combustion area and we came to the conclusion that we could not get anymore out of it. This was the Series 1 model

It was around this time that I was coming up to being 21 years of age and it those days when you were 21 it was the custom to present your mates with something. So I thought I would present them all with a cigar. So I bought several cigars and handed them round to my fitter mates etc. When I gave one to the foreman, he looked at it and then looked at me and asked what was this for. " Well" I said "'I'm 21 today. "Oh! does that mean I have to pay you some more money then. "That was the only comment I got from him. 

As with the apprentices any young girls that started at Marshalls, were given similar opportunities as the fitters. Obviously not in the works. They had now opened the main canteen and where serving meals etc., and they now decided to supply Horlicks to the workforce, and about 10 o'clock mid-morning some of these girls would come round with a trolley with Horlicks. 

I think it cost about 2d per cup. At the rear of this tractor bay there was a small kitchen with eating and washing up facilities, The Horlicks for that area and the Fitting Shop and Big Machine Shop were made in this little kitchen. The girls had a little trolley and went round and supplied anyone that wanted a drink. 

The other side of the works, the Big Boiler Shop, and the Smiths Shop were supplied directly from the canteen. Now I often used to have a tractor or a dump truck to repair back from Wards, I used to do them in the corner where the tractors were built and these girls always had to come pass me. If I was outside with Ernest Wormill, they still had to come past me. One day there was a new young girl started called Ethel Kirkby, I noticed here and was rather attracted to her. I spoke to her once or twice and then when I was inside the workshop repairing dump trucks I used to try and talk to her. 

She used to go into this little kitchen and I got to know here quite well after a time and I ended up getting a good cup of Horlicks. To try and stop her to talk to in a morning, and as it was a bit dull I used to leave something on the floor that she had to stop and go round or I had to move for her giving me a chance to talk to her. 

Things progressed as things do and we ended up going out together and eventually I married her. She did certain months in this job , then they came and asked her what type of job she wanted to do. She ended up in the Drawing Office until we got married and then she left.

We got married on December 21st 1946 and went to Blackpool for our honeymoon. It was great and when we came back we stopped for a while with Ethel's mum and dad. We got on very well. During this time there was a shortage of houses around and not much chance of getting one. 

The council were building a series of Prefabs on the uphill area. (Whites Wood Lane). Marshalls were allocated so many of these Prefabs and so to was Roses Engineering. For some reason unbeknown to me, I was top of the list and by late 1947 we were granted a Prefab and highly delighted we were as well. They were issued, someone told me later to key workers.

Anyway we had better get back to tractors.

I still had some awkward jobs down in the London area when the bombs were coming over. I was down in Essex when the first V2 came over and they frightened you to death. Some of the dump trucks where in that area and one instance was when they were working in a kind of air raid shelter and they decided they would stop the engine because of the smoke inside and start it up again.

As you Marshall men may know, you must not start them up again without the ignition paper in front of them. But these lads had a brainy idea that while it was still warm it would start. They never do. They always start wrong way on, and one of these laddies was killed with the handle because there was no way to run in a tunnel.

I heard that there was a big row about that later and I think they stopped using them in tunnels after that. If a handle ever does stick and starts to spin, the safest place is round the clutch. Don't run anywhere else and sure as eggs is eggs that handle will fly anywhere on the flywheel side, hit the rear wheel tyre and it can go forward, up in the air. So get round the clutch side and hope for the best. 

I have seen too many handles fly. Another instance, where we were doing a demonstration with the power start. I'm glad I wasn't doing the demonstration as it happens. The chap was demonstrating how to start it on the power start. He had a crowd of young farmers round him.

He put the ignition paper on and lit it, screwed it in, (you could leave it there for several minutes knowing it would work) then he did the demonstration with the cartridge. This is what he did. Bang! he hit it But unbeknown to him, one of these young farmers had undone the ignition holder and only partly screwed it back in. Of cause it came out and broke his arm so he did quite well on that one.

February 1944.  I had to go down to Mangers Salt Works in Stafford. They had a shunting tractor that was a Model M tractor with a big frame round it. It would push trucks up and down their yard and they had seized it up. Big end and small end etc. I went down there and we pushed the tractor into a shed, but before I could do anything we had to take off all the shunting superstructure, manhandle and crane if off with a jib. Then take the engine out and dismantle - put in new big and small ends etc. 

They were panicking as it was the only method of getting the trucks into the factory. So I worked a full day and then all night and all the following day. One of their chaps put me into local lodgings and the lady only charged me 10s. I never slept there, she just fed me.

The Model M had a paper joint between the oiling ring and the main big end journal. The problem was that if the big end got any heat on it the paper joint would burn out. So it was obvious that there was no paper joint between the oiling ring and the crankshaft.

So I had to strip all the side out, take the oiling ring out and put a new joint in. In later years they put in a proper joint that would stand quite a bit of heat, so that it wasn’t always necessary to take the oiling ring off. So if anyone one reading this article with an early Model, if you ever get trouble with a big end and it gets to the point that it has gone blue, its worth checking that the oiling ring in still sealed. 

I am reading the following information from books I used to keep when going out on servicing for the accounts side of it which I have kept for all these years. You never know when it may come in handy.

In March 1944 another trip down to Bristol to R.A. Lister & Co., diesel engine people who made engine very often for farms. They had a Marshall tractor on their farm, but none of there fitters where allowed to touch it if it went wrong. I went down there several times.

July 1944   Near Rotherham a place called Greasbrough. I can't remember what was wrong with it, but I will give you a run down of the cost of transport to repair a tractor

Gainsborough to Sheffield  2s 9d.

Sheffield to Rotherham    8d.

Rotherham to Greasbrough   5d.

Back to Gainsborough from Sheffield  5s 3d.

Cloak Room     4d

Whole bill came to 9s 6d. 

A trip to Northallerton which was repairs to Tractor again by train

Gainsborough toYork - York to Northallerton. Expenses £2. 9s.0d.

A lot of these tractors were Contractors tractors, with quite a number of young people starting up in contracting etc. They couldn't put you up as very often they were only just starting up as a company.

At this particular job I was put up with two elderly ladies, I think they were widowed sisters and it was across the road from where I was working.  The dining table was one of those steel tables that had been issued in the war as an air raid shelter inside the houses. 

You could get underneath if a bomb was likely to land nearby. There was no hot and cold water to get washed with, you had to wash outside in the wash-house. There was an outside toilet. I can always remember how cold it was, It was bitterly cold, I didn't take a lot of my clothes off when I went to bed and I even covered the bottom of my bed with my top coat

Some time later on the so -called secret weapon, the submarine, was starting to be built in Marshalls. They choose half of No 1 yard to erect it The submarine was in 3 sections and a big corrugated iron fence about 20 ft high was put round it so no-one could see what was happening.

But to us on the test benches we only had to go up the crane and look down and we would see what was happening. It was really a bit farcical. Later on, the testing which we were doing with the road rollers and portables and tractors in the yard were getting a bit cluttered up. I think it was then decided to move Tractor Testing over to the Trent Works Test place on Ropery Road. 

This was a very large area of land. It was a Saw Mill and it had its own steamers and boilers drying sheds, wetting tanks and Steam cranes on the wharf side. Incidentally we used to bring our timber, sand and gravel up the Trent in those days. One of my jobs as a fitter was to make sure this old steam crane would work. 

So I used to go down with Freddy Ford. He drove it and I use to get the fire going. The biggest fault was that if you weren't careful the rope would come off the jib end. It was my job to climb up the jib and put the rope back on again. I didn't know a lot of what was happening as regards to the building of test benches. I had heard about it but of course I was not too bothered as I was travelling about. 

Another story was that struck me as very weird was that after I had left the tractor assembly plant, I went into No 1 Yard and this chap called Syd Brundell seemed to have something against me for some reason. The only thing that I can think of was that he thought I was testing his work.

It was a job I never did as most of the time I was on Steamers. There were only 2 tractors or more made a week. He never spoke to me from when I left the assembly line until a year or two later. When the Trent Works was ready to be put operation they appointed Syd as Forman and he was asked whom he wanted to take with him.

He asked to take Percy Cox as he was a tester and Percy agreed, as it wasn't far from where he lived. I had just returned from a job out and was still in No 1 yard and thought no more about Trent Works, but I learnt later that Teddy Burgess, the Managing Director suggested that Syd took me as a fitter. He was overheard to say that Ben Barrow knows more about testing than you do. Then all of a sudden Syd began to talk to me again.

I ended up going down to Trent Works on the 18th December 1944, a week before Christmas. There were only 2 testing stations running with two sets of brakes. It was designed for 6. 

There was again no central heating, no doors on it and facing the north. When there was a north wind blowing and it was snowing, there was often thick snow on the workbenches that were 20/30 ft inside the shop. It would blow through the testing gaps in the walls and it really was cold. 

Eventually they decided to put some Tangye Coke stoves in, They put 3 in and the first job in the morning was to get these started up. Well you might know what coke stoves are like to start up. The chimney did not go outside, the exhaust went out into the workshop. 

So you got these stoves being stoked up at 7.30 in a morning, plus the fact that the tractors, what few we had, were pulled into the shop, and then started. With the smoke from the stoves and the exhaust from a newly started tractor you can imagine what the atmosphere was like. We put up with it; we managed to get through, Nobody complained. They had started to build a tractor shop at the top of the yard that lasted most the time the tractors were being built. We were getting a stead flow of tractors through the Trent Works. The end of the war was in sight and I think most of the commercial firms wanted to get in first and build the market up. Eventually we got going to about 20/30 tractors a week. But in those days before the power start was fitted, the tractors were driven down from the top works down to Trent Works.

It was about a 1 mile through the streets with one tractor pulling the other one, as they had to have trade plate on. They were stood in the yard and left running in for several hours until the time came to go on the brakes. During the winter the tractors were stopped at night and everybody went home. Come next morning you were faced with maybe starting 20 /30 tractors up.  You can imagine what it was like with a handle. We managed to get some semi-skilled labourers brought across. 

By the time 9 o'clock came you were flat on your back as you had had enough starting all these engine up.  This only happened when it was really cold. You also had to drain them off to stop them from freezing up.

We were asked if we would be willing to run them through the night. So we shared it out among us that we did a days work, carried on through the night and the next day and went home that night, did the following day and the following night to keep these machine running.

This was carried out until the frost and cold weather had gone which helped us quite a lot. The local residents complained and it got into the local news about the noise that the tractors made but it did not last long. 1945 came along and production increased and so one or two more fitters were sent down. Some of them had been in the air Force and allowed me to be spared a little bit. 

I still kept on with the servicing by train etc. all through 1945 until I was getting a bit fed up with the crowded trains and buses. A lot of the armed forces were moving about the country, so if you went down to Sussex or Essex you were stood all the way.

I eventually turned round and refused to do them any more because of the travelling situation. I had a steady job down at Trent Works and had a steady girlfriend. I didn't want to be on the go so much. The country was starting to look up now so I thought why couldn't I have a service vehicle, which would be more suitable.

So this was my argument, that if I had a service vehicle I would be prepared to carry on. No! cannot do that, Cannot afford to do that, the powers that be told me. So I stuck to my guns and carried on at the Trent Works until 1946. I had a call to go up to see the Sale manager, a chap called Harold Clayton who was partly my boss when I was doing the servicing. So I got on my bike and cycled up to the top works and went to see him. He said "About this service job"  he had tried it on once or twice before. 

"Well you know I am not interested. It is too much hard work with all the travelling; I don't mind the work when I get there. Just the travelling." I said  "Well" he said, "If you go up to the garage you will find a motor vehicle. I would like you to go up an look at it and see what you think about it." I think he saw my eyes light up a bit.  So I walked up to the garage and there was a brand new Ford 10 van, which in those days was something. Written on the side was Marshalls of Gainsborough and painted green. Right posh and I thought this is great.

On September 6th, 1949 was a happy day and sad day for me. My daughter, Carol Ann, was born at 2 o'clock on that Tuesday morning and my mother died at 8'oclock that same morning. Carol, by the way has written and edited this article for me and says that she has found out more about my life through this article than actually living with me for 25 years.

THE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE

During the mid 40's we started to change and got rid of most of the Model M 12/20 Tractors and had gone on to the Series I version. We built approximately 2000 of these and then they improved it and went on to the Series I, which I thought was a good tractor. The best of the bunch. 

Marshalls were now starting to ship machines abroad; there was 1 or 2 going to Australia and France etc. They received a big order from Canada. They appointed 6 agents from one side of Canada, Montreal right across to Vancouver. 

The Sales Manager came to me one day and asked me if I would you like to have a trip to Canada and give these boys over there a few instructions.  

I had a word with my wife Ethel and asked what she thought about it. She said it was a marvellous opportunity and as I had just lost my mother, it might be a good idea to take my mind of it. So I decided, fair enough I would go. All the arrangement were made. 

Incidentally the fare was a ticket that took me from London to Vancouver and all the intermediate stops and back again for £270. I wish you could do that today. Ethel was more concerned if I was insured if anything happened as we had a 6month old baby. I told her I was. 

So I went down to London. The London office met me and saw me to the airport. I was put onto a plane. A North Star, it was Trans -Canada Airline in those days. It was a DC6, which was a similar size to a Lancaster but wider bodied to carry passengers.

It still had Merlin engines and only carried out 40 people. None of this 100 seats crammed together. You sat very much like you do in a train today. 2 seats either side of a table which you had your meals on etc. We flew from London to Prestwick Airport where we fuelled up then on to Reykjavik and refuelled. The first place I had ever had tea made from warm water. In the reception while they were fuelling up, everybody had to leave the plane in case it blew up, you went into the airport café and a girl came round with refreshments and asked if you wanted tea of coffee.

She had a gallon jug of hot water and all she did was put a tea bag with string in a cup and poured the hot water in plus milk and sugar. Be gum that's a great idea not boiling the water on tea. I then flew across the Atlantic and down to Montreal and the exciting part about it was that I was at on the starboard, right hand side of the plane and there were the four Merlin engines and I could see one from my seat. 

All the way across the Atlantic that engine had an oil leak that came out the engine cowling and I kept thinking that is not doing that any good. The oil was running down the wing and dripping all in to the slipstream and before very long that is going to have no oil in it.

Anyway we survived all right so I presumed it was something that they did not bother about. I landed in Montreal and came down the gangway and a big burly chap obviously a salesman and he made himself known to me He took me outside and he had one of those big American cars, chrome and everything.

He said "Come on I have got a job for you, we are in am hurry". He piled me into the car and sped right round this airport to another North Star DC 6 on the end of the runway waiting to take off.

All the engines where running "Come on we are holding this plane up for you we want to get you down to Toronto" he said. Oh my god. I had been awake all night and this was 7.30 in the morning Canadian time. I had left England at 5 in the morning, English time. So by the time I had got seated and shut the doors the plane was off down the runway to Toronto. 

When I got to Toronto there was another car waiting and the job was of all things, they had got a VF Crawler and it wouldn't move. They had put it in gear an nothing happened and believe you me all that it wanted was the clutch adjusting. I adjusted the clutch and they were as pleased as punch that I could do it. I don't know what they thought I was going to do. 

They took me into town and found me a hotel, which was then run by the Railway. Lovely hotels. Big places and because they didn't have like the English have, a restaurant, it was a coffee room, coffee café. 

So I got up in the morning and this chap tells me to stop with him for breakfast in this hotel. We went down to this coffee bar and I was asked what do you want for your breakfast? Bacon, Eggs and whatever you have with it.  The chap behind the counter asked me how I wanted the eggs doing. I told him that I wanted them fried. Well it appears that down in Canada they fry the eggs but ask you if you want them sunny side up or turned I felt a proper "narna." 

While I was on one of these planes, I forget which one it was, Atlantic one or the internal one; we had to fly over the Niagara Falls where the Great Lakes are. The pilot came over the intercom and told us where we were and that he would show us the falls. 

So he did a right turn and went right round the falls and then did a left hand turn so that every one on the other side of the plane could see them. I thought that was great. You wouldn't get that type of service today, mind you the planes of today fly too high. In the plane when we were going across the Atlantic, you could nearly see the waves. There was no oxygen up there.

So you wouldn't have far to drop if you came down. It was the time that Toronto was putting in the underground. Now their method of putting in an underground is totally different for us. We use a boring machine, there idea was to dig all the soil out, build a tough wooden roof and work underneath and this was in a main street. They were just running up and down the planks, making a heck of a noise. They didn't bother that all that was underneath them was only a great big hole

 I then moved up to Regina to the agent there. They had quite a few tractors around and one or two were having trouble with main bearings. Never did fathom out why. I got a few main bearings fitted, back to work and running allright. They were blaming the oil pumps, but the oil pumps never went wrong as far as I was aware. 

But what amazed me was the mechanics. A mechanic was in there and he was like a western cowboy when he came in. He came in with a white Stetson hat a coloured shirt, cowboy boots. I thought surely you are not going to work like that but he would work in this outfit. It seemed queer but they were limited to what they could do. 

This agency was run by 2 brothers. Brought down from Saskatoon with was north of Saskatchewan. Elmer they called him and he was middle aged chap and he had a bit of brain about him, He was good. He told me that he had joined the Canadian Forces with the hope of seeing the sea. 

He had never seen the sea and as he was a mechanic and not a fighting soldier they put him on transport and his main job was transporting up the Alaskan Highway with stuff for Russia, though that was through the summer months and that is all he did. He never got to see the sea. . One of the brothers was the salesman and the other one was left in charge of the office. The younger one was a bit enthusiastic. He could sell sand to an Arab. 

There is a tale travels round England, among the Marshall men about tractors running on oil. Actually this story comes from me. The story goes that we got a report from a farmer that his tractor was slowly deteriorating. It worked and then it slowly got worse until it would hardly move, So, I was sent out with one of these mechanics. They had a vehicle to drive me and we get to the farm, the chap was excited and I had a go at starting it. It sounded muffled, nothing at all. I couldn't make head nor tale of it. I took the exhaust off and looked inside. Solid with soot.

So I then took the head off, the combustion chamber and vaporiser and they were solid carbon You could dig it out. I checked the filters and they were solid. I asked him what he was using in it.  He told me he was filling it with that oil. He pointed to several 45 drums of waste engine oil that he had stacked round his yard. 

This salesman had told him that it would run on anything. Waste engine oil was ideal. It didn't cost you anything. So he had gone round this little township and every garage he could find and collected all the waste engine oil. He then had it stacked in his yard and he was going to do all this farming for nothing. 

I had to strip all the parts out the engine, the piston etc., Everything was solid. Empty the fuel tank and wash it out, Wash out the filters and filled it with diesel and away the old tractor went. He wasn't very pleased with this salesman. I think he would have shot him if he had the chance. The salesman said it would run on anything so that was why he bought it.

I then moved over to Winnipeg. This was all by air. I flew from Regina and up to Edmonton, up the sides of the Rockies. I did that trip back and forth a few times. All this was done in the DC3 passenger plane and the pilot and crew always looked at the passenger list, as quite often there was only 3 or 4 passenger, to see if anyone came from England. 

I got to know these pilots real well and particularly one called Captain Orr. He was an RAF man during the war. They were all interested to know how England was, did I know this airfield and did I know that place? In the end, as soon as he knew I was onboard the plane. The co-pilot would come in the back and I would sit in his seat in the cockpit. 

It got that regular that the pilot said, "One day I will make a pilot out of you". I wish he had done really. They also run a mail service etc. similar to the one in the Australian outback.

They would land at isolated airfields, the only thing on it was a shed or hut and the cabin crew would have a parcel or two on the plane and they would run to the hut and back again. They never stopped the engines. The doors were shut and off we go again. I really enjoyed riding in the co-pilot seat you had a good view of Canada. These planes did not fly at a great altitude so when we flew over the oil wells in Alberta, you could actually smell the oil. Very strange!

The Series II's were doing quite well. They were doing the job that was required of them. They didn't plough with furrows; they ploughed with disc ploughs that had to go to a certain speed. 5 or 6 miles per hour to till the soil properly. Everybody was quite satisfied with it. 

I was up at Edmonton and Calgary was 200miles south and it was the time that the Calgary Stampede was going to be on, and I promised myself that I was going to see this spectacular. It was something out of this world for me. I was planning my workload and programme to time it to see the Calgary Stampede. In the meantime Marshalls had started to ship the Series III into Canada. 

I didn't have any trouble where I was but they were shipping them into Regina and Winnipeg and the farmers were trying to do the same thing as they did with the Series II. But of course the gear ration was wrong. They were either too slow in one gear and if they went in the other one the tractor just would not work.

It was too much for it. Of course it had added weight as well. I received a telegram asking for me to meet a team of fitters from Marshalls at Regina. On no! This had finished my Calgary job.  I flew down to Calgary and then on to Regina and went to meet this gang from Gainsborough. One was Syd Burrell one was Syd Hawkins, and the Service Manager called Dick Simons I picked them up and put them into a hotel, and we had a discussion about these Tractors and I told them what was happening. 

The gear ratio is wrong. The Series II will out-pull the Series III anywhere at that speed. Of course they could no see this. At the same time as this problem arose the rear axle bolt onto the gearbox had no joint and had started to leak a bit. The Canadians did not like that. Especially, if the Tractor was stood in a show room. 

They had to have drip tray underneath. So they where faced with this argument and I don't know what decision they came to. I kept out of the way but I knew what was wrong. Some of the fitters went up to Calgary. Syd Hawkins had to go with one of us as a demonstrator; I don't know what there was to demonstrate. The Canadians knew how to drive a tractor. 

I was moved over to Winnipeg, as they were having problems and they had come to a conclusion that we change the gear ration so I was in the Winnipeg depot which was a motor garage as well. They repaired motors etc.

After I took delivery of my little Green Van, I still worked down at Trent Works on the Test Benches. I took the van down and I garaged it in the Smith’s Shop.

I would like to give you a few more details of Trents Works, as I knew it and little stories that happened to us.

When I first went down there I did a little bit of exploring. The Saw Mill itself, a quarter of which had been boarded off as a food depot during the war, was now empty. There were a lot of partitions that we had to knock down to make room to store the tractors. Down one side there was a gallery and on this was stored wooden moulds for castings etc.

They were never collected, so how long they had been there, I never knew. At the far end of the Saw Mill was a little lean-to and a big surprise was waiting for me. There were 3 Horse drawn Merryweather Fire Engines. They were all complete with brass boilers and hosepipes etc.

There was also a handcart that carried extra hosepipes. In later years I understand that somebody vandalised the engines and removed a majority of the brass work. I think the person responsible was actually caught and sacked. 

Where the Fire Engines went to then I have no idea. Another point of interest was that all the rain water off all the buildings was drained into a large swimming pool size reservoir at the side of Bowling Green Lane and the Saw Mill. 

This water was used to feed the boilers in a dry spell. We could also pump water out of the Trent and fill this reservoir to settle the mud etc out of the water before being used. At the end of Bowling Green Lane was an open sewer and before they could suck any water up they had to wait until the sewer was cleared and the tide was high. 

The yard itself had not been covered in concrete, it was still gravel and very dusty. A section of concrete was done a bit at a time and eventually they built the ramp. This reminds me talking about open sewers. I have a nice little tail to tell you about No 1 Yard on Beaumont Street.

At the Top works near the Moulding Shop and Fitting Shop was an open yard and stored in it were moulding for the Moulding Shop. It was open to the elements apart from the far end, which had a gallery on it, and a small roof that covered it in. I was rather intrigued and I went to investigate and it turned out to be a public toilet for the workers. 

I went to have a closer look and went up a spiral staircase that did two or three turns and at the top was a little office with a chap seated in it with a book. His job was to record anybody that went up, taking their number and the time you went in and the time you came out. 

I would like to describe this toilet, but beware the faint-hearted. It was amazing. I only went up to look. I never had the courage to use it.  It was a trough that ran the full length down both sides of the building. 18 inches across, which was equal to half a pipe.

In front of that was a kind of wooden seat 4 x 4 and chamfered at one end Then positioned 2/3ft apart were partitions which if you were sat on the seat the partition would be about shoulder high. There was about 20 of these either side of the room. 

The theory was that you went up and sat on the so called wooden seat and did the necessary but every so often this chap would come out of his office, and walk down to the far end where there were two large valves.

He never gave any warning by shouting ‘All rise’. He opened the valves and flushed the effluent from this pipe down to the main sewer. Whoa betide you if you were still sitting on it at the time of flushing. Was that how the Bidet was invented? That was how Marshall’s had the toilets for the workers in those days. I hope you enjoyed that little story.

Back to Trent Works.

I garaged my van as I said in the Blacksmiths Shop and eventually made it into a proper little workshop of my own. I had an electric light and power plugs put in and I also kept my tools and equipment in there.

Next door to me was another building that housed the joiners and the plumber’s workshops when the Mill was running. Next to that was another building with odds and ends in and next to that was 2-story building, which had a stores underneath and up above was the woodworking classroom for local schools. Practically every morning they had some schoolchildren down to learn woodwork.

We did quite a bit of experimenting down there. We had Greg Sneddon who you may have heard of; he was an experimental engineer. We both travelled about a bit together, as he had never learnt how to drive. 

When we got to the Series 1 stage and the tractors were going through pretty reasonably and we were not getting many complaints, it was decided to test the hardness of the gears. So the theory was that we would lock it in second gear which was more or less ploughing speed and keep it going until the gear collapsed.

So we put it on a concrete base. We took the rear wheels off and put two brakes on which they could load up onto the axles. It was decided to do this in the doorway next to the Blacksmith Shop (my garage) with the nose of the tractor outside so that the gases etc would blow away.

The rig was built up and the tractor put on and started up. It was only running a few minutes when the end of the building started to fall down. The vibration on the solid concrete floor was so great that the end of my garage with the Little Green Van inside was starting to fall away. Later on someone came and braced it up. So they had to abandon that idea.

Across the yard was another building, no sides but a good roof on. So it was decided to move over to that location. A big hole was dug and filled with concrete, put the rig on it and the tractor started. It didn’t matter there (famous last words). There was nothing to fall down.

They ran the tractor for I think about 3 weeks locked into 2^nd gear until finally the gear did pack up. But it caused quite a few complaints with the adjoining housing estate, complaints were sent to the local papers, people were losing bits of ceilings etc and were being kept awake at night. We had finished what we had to do so that job more or less was also abandoned

Another little job I did in experimenting was with Greg Sneddon again. It was decided that the filter arrangement on the Model M and early Field Marshalls, which were of coconut fibre packed into an air filter, were not a great success, so we decided to go and try out different air cleaners. Burgess’s was one of them, Volks was another one and we decided to test them.

We already had a tractor down there and we obtained a big tea chest and made it a tight fit over the air intake, so the air had to go through the tea chest to get to the air filter. Then Greg’s idea was that we had to get some dust of some sort and put a cloth over the top of the open end of the tea chest.

We decided that dust would be no good so I got the job of going round the chemists in town and collecting as much industrial Talcum power as I could lay my hands on. 

I must have of got pounds (Kilograms for you youngsters) of the stuff. The tractor was started up and we kept feeding the talcum powder into the cloth and it acted as a flour sieve as the engine was sucking it through. We did this on several different types of air filters, cyclone filter, oil filters. I don’t know what conclusions we came to as we ended up with Burgess’s filter on it.

Charlie Quinn mentioned something about aeroplane gun turrets. I knew that they were there as I had a good look at them when I first saw them. They had come from Roses Engineering. 

They didn’t have much space and they would store quite a bit of their stuff in Trent Works. Alfie Rose of Roses had designed a gun turret, I think it was for the Hampdon, which I think was a light bomber. This gun turret was later incorporated in the Lancaster, Sterling and Wellingtons Bombers.

During the war we were losing a lot of Hampden bombers because they had no armament at the back. So Alfie Rose designed a gun turret. I seem to think that he received an award for it because the Hampden and Blenheim’s were stationed at Hemswell which is not too far away. So that was where the Gun Turrets came from. 

We first went down to Trent Works in December 1944 and in 1945 they had still not finished the great big silo. I remember that the foundation for it was half the size of the Silo itself. When it was in operation, they had to complete the road from the main gate up to the silo. The small farmers came in with lorries carrying 10 Ton at a time and they tipped it into these silos for drying, as they did not have their own drying facilities.

I still worked down at Trent Works when I was not out on service. I was down there at the time of 46/47 winter when the great flood arrived. It came through the Test Benches 6/7 bricks high and it was panic stations to get all the tractors away. 

The funny part about it was that the gateway onto Ropery Road was a lot lower than the Test Benches were. It was 6/7 bricks high in the Test Benches and it would be 12/15 bricks high by the time you came to the gate. 

We pulled tractors out one after the other and had them taken up to the Top works on Beaumont Street. I suddenly remembered that my Little Green Van was still down there. So I scoot off back with a tractor and trailer and lucky for me I had put the van on the ramp. I had put it on the ramp but had not expected the water to rise as much as it did. The Blacksmith Shop was low so it had surged in there.

Then I realised it was too deep to get the van out as it had come up well above the doors and into the engine compartment. So I took a tractor and a dray down there and backed it up to the loading ramp. I put my van on that and took it up to the Top Works and unloaded there.

As time went on we slowly got improvements with a boiler and central heating put in and doors for the tractor shed with a wicker door for the belt to come through. The yard was surrounded by a 12ft high corrugated fence, which helped to keep the wind out, and was also supposed to deaden the sound but I don’t think it did. 

We then started to get a few chappies from the Top Works coming down. Now when the War had more or less finished the people were looking for other jobs in the works and I will always remember that quite a number had their eye on my job and my Little Green Van. 

They had seen me coming in and out of the yard and going into the office etc., being away for days at a time. None of them had been engine men, most were working on guns but they came down to us and we had to school them a little. They were OK when they were asked to strip down an engine etc. but a problem always arose when they had to put it back together again.

We would talk to them and asked what they had done, they said they were ground staff and had worked on Aero engines. In one instance we had a chap that had come out of the RAF, he had stripped the engine down under supervision, knocked the air filter and head off, piston out etc.

He did all this, everything was found to be OK, so he was told to put it back together. After a while he came to me and said “I have got so far but something seems to be wrong”. “What do you mean?” I said “I’ve put the piston in the cylinder but the con rod is stuck out the end”, he replied. Believed this or believe it not but he had actually put the piston in back to front.

As we received the new influx of fitters coming down to Trent works; it was apparent that most of these had been on guns etc and on peace-work. 

Many of us who had done commercial work had never bothered much with peace-work. We just receive a bonus or something equivalent. We were not timed or anything like that. But these new guys were used to a time and motion system and they wanted the same on tractors.

There were a few disagreements, Union meetings etc and it was decided that they would put them on piecework. It was a difficult job as to what to do from a management point of view. Whom do they turn to, to work the times of jobs out? Anyway they turned and looked at me, as I was the only one on site that could remove and strip an engine down and put it back in again. So it was suggested that I do a lot of the time and motion work. 

As a majority of the repairs were completed outside, I could remove an engine that had seized up, repair it and put it back in again in about 8 hours. Of course I couldn’t do this in the works, as it would have taken these guys a fortnight. I found it very difficult to work as slow as I could and not be suspected of slow timing it as I had to give the new chaps a chance on making a bit of money. That part of my time at Trent Works was quite a performance, but we carried on until everyone was satisfied.

As time went on my outside work was filling my days up and it was decided that I would leave Trent Works and work directly from the Works/Sales Office and they decided to put me onto Staff. 

Previous to this I had been paid hourly. The great sum that I received (which wasn’t too bad in those days) was £7.5s.0d. (£7.25p). It also meant that I didn’t have to spend time booking hours or clocking in or out. It more or less meant that I was a Free Agent. 

In the early days of Field Marshall Tractors there were very few agents. The one that sold the most was George Thurlow down at Stowmarket, he seemed to sell all round the country, and everyone seemed to know of him.

Then there was Ben Burgess in Norfolk, Preston Farmers over in Lancashire and that was about all at the time. We had a Sales Manager call C.C. Nicholls and he said that he would like to be the agent for this area.

Previous to Mr Nicholls doing that we had always used Nottinghamshire as an experimental or test area, which I used to look after practically on my own. Most of the customers I knew personally because I visited them pretty regularly. It was a good job as it was nearer home and I could come home every night because they were only day runs. But after C.C. Nicholls got established he requested that he had the Nottinghamshire area as well, so it was taken from under my wing and I lost it altogether. 

I still went out there occasionally because he wasn’t fully staffed and if he had too much trouble on he would “borrow me”. I actually got on quite well with him.

Another customer that I used to go to in Nottingham was just outside Nottingham City. He was a gentleman farmer with a large house and the tractor was always stood in the garage at the side of a Rolls Royce. It was as clean as the Rolls Royce. When I used to go and service the tractor once a year, the chauffeur used to stop and watch me do it.

The jobs that I wasn’t to keen on were having to ask for payment of a previous account before I started the job, as we had one or two that were bad payers and they had to settle up before I was allowed to touch them. One of the worst jobs that I ever had, I will never forget it was during the winter of 1946/1947 before the floods came. 

All the snow was around and it was freezing and I had to go to Ben Burgess Tractors of Norwich. The reason was that the early Series I, the steering box, which was a bought in item, had a tapered pin that worked in the wormgear itself. It was proving not to be efficient, it was wearing badly. And so it was decided that I would go and strip these down on a number of these tractors. I would undo the steering box take the pin out and put a modified hardened pin in which did actually cure the problem. 

But can you imagine being in the north of agricultural Norfolk at that time of the year in 46/47, being one of the hardest winter of my lifetime. There were no café’s of anything; they were only on the main trunk road. I was frozen to the bone and it was a wonder that I was not ill after it. That was episode that I do not care to repeat

Another one was a tractor near Chester. The agent in this case was F.H. Burgess (no connection with Ben Burgess in Norfolk). The tractor was seized up and they requested for me, as they didn’t really have the knowledge of how to rectify it. So off I went to meet the customer and he was one of those people with DIY buffs.

The tractor had knocked the small end out. What had he done? He had only striped out the whole engine in a barn. In the barn whose floor was covered with straw, chaff and chickens etc,. He had laid it on a few sacks and he had undone every screw, nut and bolt and pipe etc that he could find.

I was faced with this all over the floor in bits. He said that he thought that he would help me by taking it all to bits. I shan’t repeat what went through my mind.

Please bear in mind that vehicles had no heaters or demisters what so ever but then again a Ford 10 2 door car would only set you back a mere £100, but if it had 4 doors it would be £125 with no luxuries. 

You couldn’t get warmed up at all; the cabs were terrible, sometimes with ice inside. I always tried to carry a small camping stove with me so I could make myself a hot drink. I tried several ways of heating the cab up. One of my experiments was to get one of the cooling fins off a tractor radiator and fit that into the cab and move hot water around from the engine. Bear in mind that the Fords didn’t have water pumps. There was no method of forcing the hot water through it. 

It certainly took the chill off but it wasn’t what you would call warm. Eventually I went to see the buyer in Marshall’s and asked him if he could get me a heater. He said he could but I would have to pay for it myself.

I agreed and he did get me one that was good. It was a Smiths heater 6v. and that included a water pump and a thermostat that you rammed down the top hose and then I directed the pipes, which were supposed to clean the windscreen down to the well, were my feet were and that worked quite well. To be honest with you I still have that heater in my possession in the loft. The water pump was a little small affair that was spring loaded on to the dynamo belt and it put quite an amount of water through.