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After working at a Littlehampton boatyard during the 1950s, Tony Hammond, a marine engineer in his late twenties, diversified by joining the workforce of a London firm of heating engineers.
'My time was divided between the office in London, the works in Littlehampton, and on site work, which covered the whole of the UK. Travelling to London in the late fifties was quite a pleasant sedate affair: the trains left and arrived on time, they were clean, and if you joined the train at Arundel it was unusual not to get your favourite seat.
If I happened to motor to the London office which was in Vauxhall Bridge Road I just parked the car outside, left it there all day without it being touched, and then gently drove home in the evening. These were pre motorway days, and it was a joy to motor to any part of the country on empty roads; it was however quite difficult to find somewhere to eat.
British industry was on the up, new factories were being built all over the country and my job as a commissioning engineer brought me into contact with many household names, especially the car manufacturers. One particular incident that stands out in my mind occurred at the Hoover factory in Perivale.
I was busily engaged setting up a new piece of high temperature equipment when I was suddenly surrounded by fully equipped fire fighters, apparently I had triggered a fire alarm. Not only had the entire Hoover work force been evacuated to the sports field, but also several sets of traffic lights had been set to red in Western Avenue, and a number of fire engines were in attendance. At least I proved that their safety systems worked.
I got onto the M1 within a few days of it opening, it was almost deserted, and there were times when you could not see another vehicle. The hard shoulder was littered with large sections of lorry tyre, boiling cars were a familiar sight, and there was only one service area. Who says they weren't the good old days?'
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