Post Office: Life up the pole battling with the winter elements 60 years ago

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When Dennis Hardwick, of Mackworth, joined the Post Office as a telephone engineer after being demobbed in 1947, he found himself at war once more – this time with the elements. For it was one of the worst winters on record and Dennis’s job involved fighting his way through 12ft snow drifts to shin up ice-clad poles – as he recounts here.

Comrades: A group of Post Office telephone engineers at a Safe Driving awards presentation at the Rangeway depot in 1967. Dennis is second from left, second row back

The social side of the Post Office was very active. This was the telephone engineers’ soccer team. Dennis was the linesman

Mates: The wartime spirit of helping each other, especially in the bitter winters, continued in the 40s and 50s. Dennis took this snap of engineer Bob Stone, en ex-Japanese PoW, on the running step of an old Albion Post Office van in 1950

MY memories of being a Post Office engineer go back 60 years to when I had just been demobbed from the Army in 1947.

Prior to coming home, the country had experienced one of the worst winters on record. It had been ravaged by snow storms, creating horrendous damage to the telephone network.

A greater part of the telephone external network was carried by wooden poles in those days and many were blown down. It took more than three years to repair all the damage.

Working in the extreme cold and snow was a challenge to the engineers, most of whom were ex-Army.

The conditions created a comradeship similar to that we had experienced in the Army. Helping each other was the key to making a very hard working environment easier.

The years following the 1946-47 winter varied. Winters in the 1950s gave us a number of local floods. This meant the engineers had to work down manholes with water pumps going all the time under very wet conditions.

I can also recall the 1980s “ice age”. Many Derbyshire villages were cut off by blizzards with snow, in places, of 10 to 12ft deep.

Hulland Ward was cut off for more than two weeks. No phones were working. We had a report of an emergency in the village and were given the task of providing a relief cable.

We ran six miles of overground cable from Muggington to Hulland, sometimes digging our way through snow 12ft high with a bitter icy gale blowing. People came out and gave us hot soup and drinks to keep us going.

As I look back over the years, the change in the seasons is very noticeable. We have lost the gentle sign of spring. We now have extreme elements of weather – hurricanes, torrential rain storms, tornadoes, completely out of character with the English spring, summer and winter.

The working lifestyle of the British Post Office engineer, now known as British Telecom engineers, has changed almost as much. I retired in 1990 after 42 years of service, which I generally enjoyed.

I vividly recall the day I joined the Post Office telephone service. I was interviewed by Colonel Bish. Most of the staff at that time were ex-servicemen and women. I passed with flying colours.

Most new engineers joined a gang. I was with one which covered North Derbyshire (The Peak District). The foreman was called Sid Drennan. Foremen could generally be recognised by the black bowler hat they wore. Most also had a chained pocket watch in there waistcoat, wrapped in a silk handkerchief.

The foreman used the watch to time your work. Every gang had a controlling inspector. We had two inspectors – Bill Stokes and Vic Peacock. Both were fair in their dealings with the men.

In those days, the Post Office had a Home Guard left over from the war. Bill Stokes was the major of the Derby Home Guard until it was disbanded in January 1946.

One of hardest challenges to the engineers was the weather, especially in winter. Many a time, during the aftermath of a snow storm, you had to knock the ice and snow off the poles you had to climb.

During the summer months, holiday visitors to the Dales would often say to you: “What a lovely job you have, working in such beautiful surroundings.”

I would say: “Come and join me in winter.”

The winters were cruel. Summer could be difficult, too. You always had to keep an eye on pending storms. When you were working at the top of a telegraph pole, among copper wire, you were very vulnerable to being struck by lightning.

In those early days, whole families worked for the Post Office engineers. One such family was the Cravens – brothers Matthew, Dennis, Martin, Jim and John. Matthew was a field inspector.

I worked with Jim Craven for a while. He had been a Japanese prisoner-of-war and suffered greatly from after effects. He was continually attending Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

The social life of engineers in those days was good. The local social club used to be in Sadler Gate. The secretary was Bill lngram.

One of the nice features of the job was, because of the nature of our work, each month we were allocated extra rations of cheese, tea and sugar.

We all looked forward to our monthly rations from the Ministry of Food, which lasted until 1950. I still have my ration book.

I can remember a young man joining the Derby branch of telephone engineers who went on to become our local MP for Derby North – Bob Laxton. Bob still keeps a close relationship with the Derby engineers, never missing the annual branch dinner or other events.

A number of engineers lived out of Derby. Our HQ was at Markeaton Park. It was used in the war as an Army officer training camp.

Post Office Telephones took over the camp in 1951. Stores and transport were also based there. Public transport around the county was limited in those days.

You could get from Derby to Ashbourne by road and rail and that was about it. One of our gang foremen, George Kelsy, lived at Ellastone, North Staffordshire. To get to work in Derby, George had to walk 10 miles from Ellastone to Mayfield in all weathers, then catch the bus to Ashbourne and on to Derby.

In all the years he worked there, George was never a minute late. He was nick-named The Duke and spoke like a gentleman.

There were many characters who left a lasting impression on me, including the Post Office telephonists.

Many worked from small houses out in the villages, as well as working in Becketwell Lane telephone exchange. A number of the girls married Post Office engineers.

Ashbourne engineer Pete Beales married a Derby telephonist called Joy and Jim Craven also married local telephonist Margaret.

In the old days, most towns and villages had a local telephone engineer. Today, if you call for an engineer, he can come from as far a field as Burton or even Nottingham. There is no personal contact

My patch was Ashbourne and the surrounding villages, like Parwich, Thorpe Cloud, Brassington, Alstonefield and Hartington, covering the greater part of the Peak District National Park – quite a large area.

I got to know many farmers, so I always managed to obtain fresh farm eggs and a turkey at Christmas, plus an occasional side of salted pork. The job certainly had it perks.

Over the years, I dealt with many types of people in all walks of life. I learnt a lot about life. Many of my customers were elderly people who had retired into the country, sometimes in remote little cottages, miles from anywhere.

This was a dream come true, so it seemed. But life can be cruel. The dream cottage could become a nightmare when one partner died, usually the man, leaving the woman on her own.

I spent many an hour in conversation with some of these lonely ladies. It was called customer care.

Today, engineers have no time for this sort of thing. It’s all rush and timing, through no fault of theirs.

When I talk to present day engineers, they have a very different lifestyle at work compared to us 60 years ago.

They command higher wages but seem to work under greater pressure and have far less quality of life than we had. Sadly, it is a sign of the times. Although life was hard back then, I am glad I am not working in today’s conditions.

The pace of life gave you more time to communicate with each other, peace of mind, family life was mostly rich with love and affection and the elderly were respected for there knowledge, not like today.

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