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During the war when I was a Bevin Boy I knew several boys called David at Bagworth Colliery, Leicestershire, wrote Jack Hill. One who was very sensitive was given the job of undermanager's clerk, spending his time in the office at the pit bottom. He was very tall and had to walk with a crablike stance to avoid hitting his head on the roof. He also wore a hard hat which, raised his height just a little more. He too had to take the risqué jokes of the regular miners.
One day on the bus, Jack Smith and Victor were talking about the FETS project {further education and training scheme] and so I made an application and went for an interview in Leicester. I took along all my ICS papers and drawings produced over the two year period, but it seemed that technically I was outside the terms of reference. {The scheme having been set up to help people whose education had been interrupted by the war.}
However it was decided that I could be given help in view of my reluctance to go back to the bank and so was told to seek a place at a school of architecture. The list of schools included Liverpool and since this was noted as a good place to study I made an application. I can't remember travelling by train but I obviously arrived and had my interview with Prof. Budden, who agreed that I could start at the very next session in September.
Thus quite simply I was now about to embark on another new venture but for nine months I would need a job after leaving the pit. I could have stayed on I guess but didn't really give it serious thought. Madge heard from mum of my acceptance at Liverpool and her husband Len arranged for me to spend the time at Scunthorpe Council offices with the architect Mr Storey Moore.
I was to live with Madge and Len and the arrangement worked well, for I lived almost rent-free but had to agree to help with the washing up and other chores. The house was in Newlands Avenue and the front upper windows gave a panoramic view over the Trent plain. My room was at the rear and faced the nurses' home, so when I was shown to the room Len produced a pair of binoculars for me to get a better idea of life. Despite frequent searches I never managed to see anyone in a state of dress or even undress.
I remember one day not wearing my rimless glasses, which I had found it necessary to buy after getting eye strain with all my studying in the evenings and discovered that baby Jane had bent them double.
Something I forgot to insert in Letchworth Road period concerned the method of keeping warm when studying. Because we had fuel rationing and couldn't afford the high costs of electricity for heating,
I used to work in the bathroom with my back tucked into the airing cupboard and a blanket draped over my shoulders to keep the warmth where it was needed. The bathroom was separate from the loo so there was no problem with people wanting to spend a penny.
Being just a trainee I wasn't expected to do complicated drawings but I do remember the problems I had when taken out to a pumping station to take some dimensions for a proposed alteration. Being a bit green I managed to omit to take some vital measurements and so next day when I tried to make sense of them I realised that I had done a poor job. I became very quiet for the remainder of the week and then on the Saturday morning I cycled out to Barton to take the necessary measurements.
I remember doing a naffish design for a bandstand for the baths. The pool was covered with boards during the winter period and used as a dance floor, hence the need for a bandstand.
One big job was to take an overall specification and break it down into specifics for various different types of houses. I thought that I had done a good job on this but when I saw the older Liverpool student after we were at Liverpool he said Storey Moore is gunning for you. But as I never went back to Scunthorpe I never found the real truth.
The assistant Architect was a very happy fellow who loved playing cricket but one weekend he was knocked unconscious by a blow on the forehead and died soon afterwards.
The offices were utility buildings adjacent to the main offices and so had windows facing the steelworks at Appleby Frodingham. In front were some allotments and I took rent of one and grew a very good crop of carrots with not a carrot fly to be seen for miles. Therefore mounds of baby carrots were the order of the day. The ground was very easy to work being granular and so gardening was fun.
Whilst working at the drawing board, propped up on bricks to give angle, I would gaze out of the window to watch the charging of the furnaces. A trolley of ore or coke would be hauled up an incline to the top of the retort and then the doors would be opened to allow entry of the material.
When the doors were opened a huge cloud of black smoke would billow out and fill the sky. Fortunately for Scunthorpe the prevailing wind was invariably blowing from the west and so this cloud of heavy particles was blown away from the town and deposited on the few families living close to the works on the East Side.
They had fearful problems with ruined crops, filthy washing and generally blighted lives. One wonders why they persisted in staying in such a spot which was after all quite localised.
I managed at weekends to explore the countryside east of the works and there were many beautiful groves of silver birch trees on heathland. I was not too fond of the wide open spaces of the Trent plain as the roads were all below sea level, and so one had the chore of scrambling up the slope to see the water, which was kept free of planting and so was rather boring.
My fellow students loved these open spaces and the view to the horizon but it wasn't my idea of what a view should contain.
In the office was a young trainee who hailed from Brigg. He unfortunately stammered very badly and, being very prone to talking, took a long time to tell one something. I learned how important it was
to keep paying attention and also keep one's self in check when trying to help He was very supportive of his home town and always referred to the railway as being a main branch line. I guess that it is still there.
When I left the office at the end of August I was given an anglepoise lamp as farewell gift.
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