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Reading Derek Lay’s experience on starting work at R and W Paul’s (Issue 228) has prompted me to put my own experience of early work day on paper and hope your readers will be able to associate them with their own early days at work.
I left school in 1951, aged 15, without any qualifications as ‘O’ level exams were not available at Tower Ramparts Secondary Modern School. I started work at Tollemache’s Breweries Ltd whose office was in Upper Brook Street. My first position was Junior Clerk in the Accounts Department and, like Derek, we sat on high stools in front of sloping desks and entered details of invoices for beer, wines and spirits supplied to our customers – mainly tenants of pubs owned by the company – into large leather-bound ledgers.
We worked 9.00am until 1.00pm and 2.30 until 5.00pm, Monday to Friday and 9.00 until noon on Saturdays with one Saturday off every four weeks. All for £1 10 shillings a week (I found that my fellow school leavers who got jobs in local government got £3.00 a week). After the first week I had to call in at the Post Office on the Old Cattle Market on my way to work to collect the company’s post which was in a rather large leather bag and return same on my way home.
Christmas was a busy time for the brewery and as we were a family firm it was usual for staff to receive a monetary gift. This entailed the widow of The Hon. Mr Douglas Tollemache coming into the office and each member of staff being presented to her, whereupon she would hand the recipient an envelope in which there was a bank note, mine was £5. Before this all happened, we had to donate a small amount of cash in order to buy the Hon. Lady a bouquet. This procedure had to stop after a few years as it was found to be untaxed income!
In 1955 I had to do my two years National Service after which I returned to the brewery as they were duty-bound to give me a job. For six months I worked in various offices covering for people on holiday and got various work experiences.
The office buildings are, I think, still there and are, in part, single storey. In hot weather the men in the brewery were instructed to hose down the building and passageway to cool down the offices and somebody would walk up to the milk bar further up the road to buy ice creams.
At this time, I was offered two jobs: one in the Transport Office and the other in the Surveyor’s Dept. I opted for the latter which entailed me attending college one day a week plus evening classes for at least three years. Throughout this time I continued to learn the building trade and passed the Ordinary National Certificate in Building exam.
By this time I was married and had moved into a newly built house with a mortgage of £8 16s 5p a month and I have a tax return dated March 1961 showing that my gross salary was £494 per year with a tax deduction of £20 11 shillings. I will leave your readers to compare with current days. By now the company had amalgamated with Cobbold & Co. and all employees moved to Cliff Quay.
It was normal practice to be informed of a yearly salary increase each September; this entailed being called into your boss’s office to be told your new salary. Two years on and, having passed the Higher National Certificate in Building, I anticipated a higher than normal salary increase. I was disappointed and made comments to the fact that I had completed my studies. The Company Surveyor said that ‘I was doing nicely, with my wife out at work as well’ and I had to explain that we were expecting a family and my wife would be leaving work shortly – I got a further increase in salary! I guess the policy was that you were paid what you needed not what you were worth to the company.
In 1963 I was able to buy a car, an Austin A30, and could use it for company business on occasions (9p a mile as expenses) and, after a while, I was regularly driving to London as I was responsible for a contract at the company’s brewery in Walthamstow. In 1965 I took delivery of a company car, a Ford Cortina Series 1.
Life continued and I must admit that I always enjoyed my varied work, sometimes dealing with architects on new pubs both locally and further afield, a large new depot in Norwich and many other projects. On one occasion I was responsible for a project which was commended by The Ipswich Society.
I had a connection with R. and W. Paul’s in that, in my final years at college, I and my classmates had a site visit to have a ride on the travelling formwork which was raised hydraulically whilst concrete was poured 24/7 to form the walls of the silo referred to in Derek’s Newsletter contribution.
So my work experience continued with the company being taken over on more than one occasion. Finally, with a management buyout which created Pubmaster, I became responsible for 900 public houses in the south of England assisted by eight Area Surveyors.
I retired early after forty three years service with many fond memories and occasionally meeting up with old colleagues to reminisce.
Ken Brock