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Back in 1980, Len Ball was one of more than 50 men to celebrate having clocked up 35 years’ service at the workshops of British Rail in Derby. Not long after, privatisation of the industry saw hundreds of skilled men forced to take redundancy or seek employment elsewhere. Here, Len, of Alvaston, recalls happier days and a tour of the Peak which failed to get past the Green Man.

Engineering workers in Derby certainly had a lot to concern them during the 1980s and many skilled men had to seek pastures new.

British Rail had decided to sell off their workshops and I believe Fletcher and Stewart were also in trouble at that time. A voluntary redundancy scheme had been set up at the Loco and Carriage and Wagon Works and many skilled men had accepted the offer and packed up their tools to walk through the works gates for the very last time.

Many of us wondered if we would ever build railway coaches in the Derby works again. Fine tradesmen were employed on menial tasks while the politicians decided their future, with only a few coaches coming in each week for repair to keep the works ticking over.

Thankfully, a buyer was found who still wanted to build coaches at the C&W Works but the Loco was not so lucky and eventually closed.

Derby railway workers celebrate 35 years’ service each with British Railways in 1980. Len Ball is seated front, far right, with his long service gift, a cutlery set

Prior to privatisation, everything required to make a railway coach was produced in the works. But that was to change as all the manufacturing shops were closed down, including the sawmill, reputed to be the largest and finest in the country. I have often wondered where all those sawyers, wood machinists, turners, millers, sheet metal workers, blacksmiths etc managed to find other jobs.

I can’t recall any demonstrations, marches or strikes; the lads just accepted it and looked for another job. Only a few years earlier, jobs in the railway workshops were considered a “job for life”. When you clocked up the magical sum of 35 years’ continuous service, you were given a choice of gifts and taken out by the management to celebrate the occasion. I well remember my special day in 1980. We were promised a Tour of the Peak but our tour did not get any further than the Green Man, at Ashbourne, where a super buffet lunch was laid on and the bar never closed!

Our manager at that time was a Mr Garratt and he came along to make sure that we enjoyed ourselves – and we certainly did.

Before we left to get the bus back home, he asked us all to join him and sing Swing Low Sweet Chariot, long before the song became the theme tune of England rugby fans. We were only too pleased to oblige.

I’m sure there were a few slurred voices but I know we also sent our works manager home a happy man.

The photograph here is of the occasion. Note the number of men who had served 35 years with the company during that year. I am on the right-hand side at the front, holding the cutlery set.

Thanks to the skilful management and dedicated workforce at Bombardier, we are still building railway coaches at the Derby works and long may it continue.

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County:  Derbyshire

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