Royal Ordnance factory - Nottingham


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Just came across this conversation looking for some other information. Started my apprenticeship ithere n 1969. Ahh the joys of walking through the Meadows along Kirk White Street down to King

The day in 1986 when my dad retired from ROF after being there for 48 years, apart from 4 years in RAF during WW2.  He was still using that ‘long service’ watch when he passed away 5 years ago. 

50's apprentice pranks. My time on inspection was with Bob (Gypsy) Morris in south shop. A great bloke who wore his hair long, well before it became fashionable - hence the nickname Gypsy. Bob always

Is there anybody who worked at the ROF in Kings Meadows back in the day? I was apprenticed there from 1966 - 1970 and left in 1972.

My friend's ex hubby worked there in the 60's and 70;s before leaving to join the Police Force, he was called Paul Scrivens, you may know him.............

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My Dad worked there. He served his apprenticeship from 1938 to 1942, then went into the RAF til 1946 and back to the ROF until 1986 when he retired. He was a fitter but don't know which Shop he would have been it. I'll PM his name and other lads more your age who you might have known.

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I worked there from 1972 until about 1979. Served a four year apprenticeship, ending up as a Millwright.

Quite a strict regime in some ways. As a first year apprentice, if you did something wrong, they would make you cut through a piece of a 4 inch diameter steel bar with a hacksaw as punishment

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The foreman in the apprentice shop in 1966 was a looney. He'd make you scrap whatever it was you were doing/making if it wasn't 100% to his liking. He used to scream "SCRAPPIT!!" and that was all we ever called him. He used to go nuts with us :wacko:

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Think I was before you lot. Started Xmas 53 as messenger boy at 15. Then apprentice from 16 to 21 then redundant a year later.

As far as I know only one apprentice in my year stayed on and he became a foreman - Mo Edis. I called back there some years later to demonstrate a hi tech US end mill. It outperformed the usual Clarksons easily but if it went into use it would have shortened manufacturing times, at a time when they were short of work and stretching any available jobs out. So, no sale. Did OK at RR though.

Ernie Frake was apprentice shop manager when I was there. Mr Beacham (the Badger) was the superintendent.

My last job there as a skilled man was on the DeVlieg Jig mills in the North shop.

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I remember Grenville Turner, Basfordlad. A year or two older than me. If its the same one, i think he was in the TA as well.

Mo Edis was a "whitecoat" while i was there. Most who were promoted there quickly distanced themselves from their shop floor mates, but i seem to remember that Mo remained pretty much one of the lads.

As i said earlier, it always seemed a strange place to me. There were 'umpteen levels of staff grades, then assistant Managers, then Managers, then the Director. The Director always had a chauffeur, i would see him being picked up from his house in Ruddington most mornings in a Hillman car.

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I just remembered one of the apprentice shop foremen/supervisor was called Ernie Wragg, his sidekick was Scrappit.

Ernie drafted his useless son in law to the electricians department using his seniority or something, he went, more or less, straight on to the control/electronic side of things. There were three of us just out of our time gagging to get on there. Not being funny, but he had just finished an electrical installation apprenticeship at Blackburn & Starlings and not at all suited to life at the ROF. He hadn't been there long and they had him changing fluorescent tubes in the offices. He got a shock off one of the ballasts which put him in hospital for three days, pussy!! We laughed for months.

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The four instructors in the apprentice shop while i was there were- Tom Streets, Mr Williams, Joe Morrell and Fred Logan, a horrible little man who sounds like your scrappit man. Logans' nephew was in our year, and funnily enough he got a job in the tool room..

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I remember Ernie Wragg when he was on the shop floor. Wasn't e a shop steward? Tom Streets was our foreman on H&V boring North shop. He behaved a bit pompous but he was OK really. Don't know where his money came from but he had a brand new Ford Consul.

Of course the ROF was being run down and the government had a commitment to keep the established staff there. Hence the high level of management per worker. Apart from a few so called 'essential' staff the none established workers were laid off where possible. It was the rule in my time that once your apprenticeship was finished you had 12 months to find another job. No problem in those days. Offered the first 2 jobs I applied for. Turned the one at Brush down and went to Herbert Morris.

It was strange when I returned 10 or 12 years later to demonstrate milling cutters. Old apprentice mate Mo Edis was foreman on milling North shop and let me lose on a machine hogging out breach blocks. He tried to call my bluff in an attempt to break the cutter. I kept upping the cutting rate and eventually broke the machine but the cutter was OK. Saw old mates Pete Thorpe and 'Gypsy' Bob.

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The Director always had a chauffeur, i would see him being picked up from his house in Ruddington most mornings in a Hillman car.

That's a strange sign of the times - when a Hillman was considered upmarket director material. The equivalent today would be having a chauffeur to drive your Vauxhall Astra.

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Did you know Paul Scrivens ?............

Yes blondie' i knew Paul,Ist met him playing cricket schooldays 50s,then did'nt see him again until the 90s when we were both working in Town,he lived at Beeston then and cycled the canal to work,he has a son called Chris who worked in Security.

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He worked in the Maintenance section.

About what year was that? I lounged around the electrical department from 1967-1972. I remember when I first started working with the sparkies our 'compound' was on the right hand wall as you walked in the main door of the North shop. They used to feed a huge manky cat that then repaid them by slashing all over the option. Then they moved maintenance to where the rifle range was.

Edit: I just remembered that the sign over the rifle range which said "Rifle Range", strangely enough, was often edited by the apprentices. The best they could come up with was "tRifleoRange", which I thought was a bit childish! :laugh:

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I moved to the Maintenance section in 1975- the final year of your apprenticeship was when you moved to whatever department you had opted for.

Yes, the maintenance section was above the rifle range by then, opposite the medical centre ( that was always a great place to "rest" for a couple of hours, or get a ride home in that old Bedford ambulance- " i feel dizzy,nurse" usually did the trick)

While i was there, the engineering department Mechanical (EDM), and the engineering department electrical (EDE) were in the same area, having one half of the building each.

Did they have the separate compound on 14 bay as well while you were there ? It was next to the Milwaukie Matic, an automatic machine that would carry out all the machining operations on a breach ring in one go, well, it did when it was working.

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