Recommended Posts

LATE 60S EARLY 70 I WORKED AT BOOTS ON THE BEESTON SITE MAINLY D10 ONE OF THE FEW ORRIGINAL BUILDINGS STILL THERE ART DECO DESIGHN O WORKED ON THE FIRST FLOOR OWN GOODS FINISHED STOCK OR OGFS FOR SHORT THIS WAS WEAREHOUSE DISTROBUTION CENTRE FOR ALL BOOTS OWN PRODUCTS THIS INCLUDED MAKEUP NO 7 AND 17 SOAP PRODUCTS MEDICINESOUR DEPARTMENT WAS ABOVE SOAP PACKING DEPARTMENT WE COULD LOOK OVER A BALCOLNY AT THEM WORKING DOWNSTAIRS. I WAS AN ORDER PICKER PACKER YOU HAD WHEN I FIRST WENT THERE A METAL TROLLEY THAT CARRIED WOODEN BOXES THAT YOU PICKED WHAT WAS NEEDED FOR THE ORDER YOU WERE ONLY SURPOSED TO HAVE TWO BOXES ON IT AT ONCE BUT IN REALITY YOU COULD HAVE UP TO 6 ON IT AT ONE TIME ONCE THE ORDER BOX WAS READY YOU PUT THEM ON A CONVEYOR BELT WITH THE ORDER NUMBER CARD ON EACH CARD NUMBER RELATED TO A CERTAIN STORE THOUGH OUT THE COUNTRY.LATER WE STARTED USING THE LARGE CADGES YOU STILL SEE IN STORES TODAY. THE MAKEUP DEPARTMENT ALSO HAD ONE OF THE FIRST MOOVING SELVING SYSTEMS IN BOOTS WEARHOUSESIT CAME TO YOU RATHER THAN YOUR WALKING ALL ROUNDS THE PREVIOUS SHEVING SOME OF US MOVED TO STATION ST FOR AWHILE SO THIS SYSTEM COULD BE PUT IN.WE ALSO USED SOME WEARHOUSING AT ISLAND ST AND STATION ST WHEN ENTIRE RANGE OF 17 STARTED AND THE WHOLE RANGE HAD TO GO OUT TO ALL THE STORES THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH ROOM TO START WITH FOR THE AMOUNT OF STOCK NEEDED . I LEFT IN 1974 I THINK BUT HAD LOTS OF GOOD TIMES WORKING THERE..

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

Hi piggy & babs

My grandfather Hubert worked in D10 during the 60's and 70's retiring in the late 70's what a coincidence

Paul

Link to post
Share on other sites

I worked on Station Street from 1962 till 1972 first in the General Office block and then moved into the Head Office block when they moved to Beeston. ( both been demolised now) Went to Boots college one day a week on Mondays for the first 2 years.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 year later...
  • 5 years later...
On 4/20/2013 at 5:14 PM, Val said:

I worked on Station Street from 1962 till 1972 first in the General Office block and then moved into the Head Office block when they moved to Beeston. ( both been demolised now) Went to Boots college one day a week on Mondays for the first 2 years.

I am researching on behalf of my niece whose grandmother Georgina Raynor worked at the Station Street Location.She is looking to locate somebody called Max whom Georgina was associated with.Would you remember anybody by the name of Max and what his Surname is.Georgina would have been approx 17 years old at the time and was carrying my Niece's father.Thanks

Link to post
Share on other sites

This thread brings back memories as in the 1960s my mum worked at Beeston packing soap but the soap dust got onto her chest causing health problems and she had to leave.  My very good friend worked as secretary in Beeston in the 1970s and I remember her telling me that there was a no go area ie no unathorised personnel and not many knew about it she seemed to think that there were animals in that area for testing on.

Link to post
Share on other sites

There was a fire at Boots'  Island street factory in the very early seventies. One of their 'men in white coats' was very protective of a certain part of the building, clearly off limits. It turned out to be their research into steroids . What the chemicals were, unknown, but the cabs had a very strong sweet smell for a full week after. 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Way off topic I know but back in the 1950's I was a railway fireman at Nottingham, one of our weeks work was  the 5.20 pm'all stations' to Newark Castle. The 'rule book' said that the driver must platform the train but the 'brains' overlooked the fact that the train had 5 coaches whilst all the platforms except Rolleston (for the race course!) was only 4 coaches in length! Luckily the passengers, mostly from Head office Station St. helped us to almost to keep time by occupying the coaches nearest their exit. so at Carlton we ran the first coach past the platform knowing there were nobody for Carlton in it, Burton Joyce passengers were in the first two coaches so we stopped in the platform nearest the exit, ditto at Lowdham etc but even with this assistance we were always a minute or two lat at Newark.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 5 months later...

Boots Island Street, August 1964 My first employment after leaving school. The interview at Station Street consisted of "How many of your family or relatives work at Boots and for how long?" My Dad, Aunt and Uncle had clocked up about 60 odd years between them at the time.  OK, just need to sit a test to see what we can offer. Well done! we are offering a Chemical Plant Operators apprenticeship. Sounded OK.  All new recruits were assembled and assigned to various departments.

 

I was posted to E16 where they made an assortment of Chemical compounds.  As it turned out it was a good place to work or so I thought back then.   The assigned junior apprentice was the equivalent of the House Elf, Dobbie. Do as you are bid. First job. Transferring small bottles of mercury (The stuff science teacher put in the palm of your hand) into a bigger bottle. This was carried out in the Mercury shed, a small crumbling open front redbrick building ope to the elements well away from E16.  My very first task.  Dropped a bottle the shiny silver liquid ran along the floor down a crack in the floor disappeared for ever.  "No problem, don't worry about it, was going for waste" said the bloke looking after me .  No wonder the old site is still unoccupied.  Heath and Safety was not what it is today. Some names Joe Harrison, Frank Poyser, Bill Drain who used to have his comfey chair /table and tea pot in the cyanide store, and  George Stapleton, signed anyone who played football up for Thorneywood Athletic.

 

The inside of E16 had wooden floors and those outside the Formans Office were pristine (Foreman at the time was Mr Towlson and his assistant Bill Harvey(?}} Why were they pristine? the House Elf had to polish the floors, brass taps and copper. No one wanted to look after the new lad until they got to know you, so the only job was bulling up the fittings. The other side of the building was where the work was carried out and wasn't pristine.

 

The rest of Island Street Chemical works were gradually changing. Although there were the new Labs, canteen, changing rooms etc. The red brick E6 gradually closing down (there was an attractive Sister who worked in E6 Surgery at the time) E1 still working. E60. Boots chemical department was still their show piece of current chemical manufacture.  Then there was the "Tit Lab". The compound produced caused physical changes to the male operatives so it was Experienced personnel only allowed to do 2-3 week stints. Anymore and they would be well endowed with a pair of breasts.  Hence the department name.  

 

Some of the new lads who started with me went to work in the Insulin/Heparin building.  Insulin was/is produced from Cows intestine. The job of the apprentice was to walk down to the abattoir at the cattle market wait for the slaughter man to do is job, collect the fresh intestines in a bag, leg it back to Island Street and scrape out the contents of the intestines. That was the start of the process.  Bulling up floors wasn't so bad after all. E16 a good place to start never did get posted to Insulin dep't

 

 As part of the apprentice training Boots college was compulsory including night school. After 6 monthe  I was posted to D6 Powders.  Are there anymore Boots CPO apprentices out there?

  • Like 4
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 years later...

My first job after leaving school in 1968 was in the (new) insulin lab. I can only remember one name, Derek Wardle, who I bought my first motorbike from.

 

The insulin was extracted from the pancreas of cattle.  The pancreas was ground up in a very large mincer and dropped down into a vat which I think contained absolute alcohol to dissolve the insulin out.  There were a few stages of refinement.  The concentrate came into the lab to be further refined and filtered.

 

Pigs gut was processed, in another building that I only visited once, to extract heparin I think.  The guts were scraped out by hand afaik.

 

Edit. One of the other apprentices was Mark Oliver, he was on his third year I think.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 7 months later...
On 1/12/2020 at 6:18 AM, Phil Jennings said:

I am researching on behalf of my niece whose grandmother Georgina Raynor worked at the Station Street Location.She is looking to locate somebody called Max whom Georgina was associated with.Would you remember anybody by the name of Max and what his Surname is.Georgina would have been approx 17 years old at the time and was carrying my Niece's father.Thanks

I was at the Beeston site from 1968-72. I worked with a bloke called Max Higgs. He was a chemical analyst in the D10 Quality Assurance laboratories. He was quite tall and had a West Country accent (could have been Bristol). He was a really nice bloke and helped me a lot. He joined Fisons in Loughborough about a year or two before I left to go to Uni in October 1972.

I saw his obituary about 15 years ago.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Cliff Ton changed the title to boots co. station st island st and beeston sites

My wifes late uncle , Arthur Bales , worked in the Boots insulin labs I believe in Island Street. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

I joined Boots in their D10 Quality Assurance Labs in April 1968. It was original called the Standards Laboratory and looked out over the car parks. It was my second job after leaving school in October 1966. My first job was as a school laboratory technician but the prospects were poor so on the advice of a friend at People College I applied to Boots.

I was interviewed by Mr Sykes at Pennyfoot Street and was offered a job. I still have the offer letter with its beautifully gold embossed header signed by Mr Shipside. I was 17 when I joined and 22 when I left to go to Uni.

I was sent on day release to Peoples College and then Nottingham Technical College.

Boots was the making of me. I was drifting along until I joined them. The labs were very well equipped and I received some excellent training in analytical chemistry which served me well in my later career. It didn't pay well compared to the money my college mates at Players, Raleigh, The Coal Board and Rolls Royce Derby were earning but the social life was outstanding. There were many guys and girls like me doing day release and there were many weekend parties and romances.
I've since been in touch with several people I met there and they've told me how the various takeovers impacted the place and how the laboratory service changed. Such a shame. Nothing stays the same for ever but what a place to learn to be a chemist.

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Cliff Ton changed the title to Boots Co. various sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...