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Westwood Works 1903-2003 |
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Although a bus service was laid on to transport employees to and from their homes at lunchtime, there were still plenty of mouths to feed in the Canteen. Lunch was provided for 250/300 workers and some 150 staff. The "Old" Canteen was built in 1941, next to the Plate Shop. It housed the Works canteen, with the Staff Canteen in an extension at the west end. A small Directors' Dining Room was accessed through the Staff Canteen. A kiosk in the passageway between the Canteen and the Plate shop sold meal tickets. Prior to building the "Old" Canteen, a canteen was housed in a building immediately to the right of the Main Works Yard Entrance (close to the Directors' Garage).
Jim Euston (from 1952 to 1971) and John Hawley-Smith (from 1970 to 1983) were among the Catering Managers in charge of this operation over time. It is understood that the catering function was outsourced from 1983.
The many hungry apprentices on site looked forward particularly to the huge helpings of chips which were served. It was not unknown for "sweet" tickets to be hoarded against the day when jelly was on the menu, thus enabling the still hungry apprentice to consume several helpings of this much anticipated treat. As well as the standard menu, "Special" dishes were available on certain days in the Staff Canteen at extra cost.
The token left created quite a bit of interest when it was handed over recently to BPHS for safe keeping. It is known that employees under the age of 18 enjoyed subsidised lunches at Westwood since at least the 1950s - the "Starting Instructions" sent to the parent/guardian of a pre-apprentice in 1957, stated:
"If your son/ward wishes to have his mid-day meal in our Works Canteen each day, this will be arranged immediately he starts work. Juvenile lunch tickets, which enable a full lunch to be purchased for 11d instead of the full price of 1/10d, are only issued to under 18 year old employees requiring lunch every day of the week. He should bring with him his own knife, fork and spoon. If he requires tea, which is served each morning from trolleys in the various shops, he should bring his own cup or mug".
[To put the prices referred to above in context, the starting wage was 49/8d per week, rising to 64/5d after one months service.]
It appears to be the general consensus that all tickets/tokens issued by Westwood Works Canteen were of cardboard and it is possible that this token originated from Willesden and if so, would have been issued some time between 1923 (when the Company was first named - "Baker Perkins") - and 1933 (the time of the "Great Trek" from Willesden to Peterborough). We do know something of the canteen arrangements at Willesden, courtesy of the evocative memoirs of Stanley Gibbs, who joined Joseph Baker & Sons in 1924. The full version of his recollections can be found here, but for convenience, an extract is reprinted here:
"The Canteen was a wooden structure rather like a cricket pavilion, divided into three sections. The Works Canteen on one side and the Staff room on the other with the kitchens in between. I imagined that it had been built during the war for the munitions workers. I went up the steps to the works section and gave my order over the counter. Being an office worker I was entitled to take my lunch in the Staff Canteen. The tables there were in groups, each for four people and complete with its own white table cloth. The menu though a bit restricted was good and plentiful and all cooked on the premises. Roast beef, cabbage and potatoes with rice pudding to follow for 9d (3½ pence). An alternative would be fish and chips followed by baked apples and custard. Of course a cup of coffee would be 2d. or 3d. extra; a luxury not to be indulged on ten shillings (50p) a week".
Now, back to Westwood:
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Sent in to "Contact" magazine (see here) in 1979 by Harry Botterill - Maintenance Department Assistant Superintendent - this card was found by Ivan Pilgrim whilst repairing one of the clocking card racks in the Works. It was thought to have been used by 'young persons' during WW2 to obtain cut price meals in the Works Canteen |
At Christmas, it was the custom for the Personnel Manager and his male senior managers to serve the Canteen Staff with their Christmas Lunch. On one occasion, Jim Deboo had been given responsibility for serving the meat. All went well until Jim handed round the gravy only to find, after it had been poured over several meals, that it was black coffee!
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Canteen Staff preparing food for the Children's Christmas Party - Late 1950s. Granny Snape, Bert Culpin, Noreen Godden, Joan Shepperd, Joyce Willis, Florrie Lester, Phil Vessey, Jim Euston, Kitty Vines, Eva Howsam. |
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Canteen Staff all ready for the Children's Christmas Party - late 1950s. Bert Culpin, Eva Howsam, Joyce Willis, Shirley Digling, Phil Vessey, Jim Euston, Joan Shepperd, Kitty Vines, Florrie lester, ? Healy, Nora Godden. |
"Tea ladies" with trolleys brought tea and snacks to all parts of the Works and offices at morning and afternoon breaks. The fare included crusty cheese or plain rolls in the morning with cakes in the afternoon. Woe betide any tea lady who did not stick to the "rule" of daily alternate clockwise/anti-clockwise circulation of the drawing offices - to ensure a fair choice of rolls/cakes.
Alex McGlashan, an ex-Bedewell student apprentice who worked in the D/O at
Westwood form 1958 to 1961 puts a slightly different slant on the story:
"One daily event that is etched in my mind is the morning and afternoon
tea-break. A startlingly good looking, well-upholstered girl - I think her name
was Carol - pushed the tea trolley form board to board. Needless to say it took
some time to complete the circuit with chaps asking after her health and enquiring
as to whether or not she was lonely and could they help her in any way! It took
so long to complete the circuit that she alternated - clockwise one day, anti-clockwise
the next - to keep everyone happy. The lucky ones half way round the circuit
got their tea-break at roughly the same time each day!"
Phil Vessey writes: "It was my job from 1955 to 1960, as Pastry Cook/Confectioner, to supply some form of confection for the afternoon trolley service - Vanilla Slices, Sausage Rolls, Chelsea Buns, Spiced Currant Buns and Meringues - to name but a few. These had to be prepared as well as the sweets for lunch - Apple Tart and Custard or Steamed Spotted Dick being particular favourites. There was always an alternative Milk Pudding which was prepared by the kitchen staff".
Only tea was available, served from a large urn. One day, in the second floor Drawing Office, the tea "tasted funny". The Tea-lady returned the urn to the Canteen where, it was claimed, a Brillo pad was found inside the urn.
Phil Harnett informs us that around 1990, the EU introduced some new legislation governing the serving of hot and cold food. Cold food had to be served from a cooled counter at less than 6ºC and hot food from a hot counter at more than 35ºC. The trolleys did not meet this specification and they were replaced by vending machines in both the Works and Offices.
Catering facilities moved to the newly-built multi-storey office block in 1975, the Main Dining Room, Management Dining Room and Directors' Dining Room being on "M" floor, with a Snack Bar on the Ground Floor. After this, the "Old" Canteen was used for Cylinder Assembly and as a FED Store.
In 1985, the Main Dining Room and Snack Bar in the 1975 building were closed - the Ground floor being used to house Data Control and the Computer Department, "M" floor housing the Technology Centre - and a Canteen opened in the Tarslag building next to the Personnel/Medical block. In 1992, this was described as a Snack bar.
Eileen Hopkins, who worked in the Canteen for many years, recalls some of her colleagues prior to the move from the "old" Canteen to the 1975 Multi-storey Office Building - John Hawley-Smith, Peggy Burton, Beryl Hogan, Rita Pick, Gary Spencer, Chris Hardiment, Lulu, June Martin, Peter Smallwood, Kitty Vines, Martha Brown, Sybil ?, Joyce ?, Hilda ?, Marjorie Abbott, Jean ?, Irene Custance, Lorna ?, Florrie Wood, Eileen Musson, Ella Elmore, Ena ?, Dora ? and sister Anne ?, Eleanor ?, Joan Cross (previously Bentley), Olive ?.
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| The "Old" Canteen and "Tarslag" Building | Layout of Dining Rooms in the 1975 Office Block |
Yes, the company had a "Cat Man". It was not a recognized "trade or profession" and neither would you have found it among the company's many and varied "job descriptions". To John Codaccioni, however, who worked in the Fitting Shop, it was a very important and necessary duty that he carried out with great kindness and enthusiasm.
A considerable number of wild cats roamed the factory area. These were looked upon as necessary as they helped to keep any vermin under control. The cats lived, predominantly, at the North End of the factory, at the back of the Pattern Shop Store where the area was somewhat wild and overgrown with grass.
For many years it was John who looked after the welfare of these animals and he devoted a great deal of his private and personal time to feeding and caring for them. He would know where their hides were and kept a close eye on these for any signs of new kittens being born. They all knew John and at feeding times he would call out to them and they would come to see him. He could even pick them up and stroke them. No one else could get anywhere near the cats and if anyone tried they would be greeted with glaring eyes and angry snarls.
Every day and every weekend he provided them with food and also checked that the cats were safe and well. Even during holiday times, which included Christmas and New Year and other bank holidays, he would visit the factory to feed and water them twice a day. Whenever this was not possible (which was very rare), his work mate Mick Winham, or one of the Security Patrolmen would put food and drink out for them.
The Canteen would provide some of the food but John would supplement this with tinned cat food that he bought himself. Although the company was more than willing to cover this cost John was quite happy to fund this and indeed seemed to want to do this. He was eventually persuaded to allow the company to help with his feeding costs, the company also covering the cost of any medical treatment that the cats required.
John had no form of transport and walked all the way from his home in Newark Avenue, Peterborough to the factory, smoking and chewing on his pipe, He did this irrespective of the weather conditions, be it rain, wind or snow, and he hardly ever missed an appointment! Over the years he must have walked many, many miles for the well being of his beloved cats.
"Huey was part of a litter of kittens produced by one of the cats living in the Experimental Department in the autumn of 1990. Those of us working there would take any left-overs from working lunches and cat food to them regularly to give them something other to eat than the resident mice. One Saturday Mark Sheffield and Paul Farrow noticed that one of the black kittens was looking very poorly and was being sick every few minutes. They took him to the vets who diagnosed that he'd tucked into some mouse poison.
After a spell on the critical list, Huey (as he was known from then on)
made a full recovery and went to live with Mark and his wife. He was never a
very affectionate cat, but Mark was very fond of him despite his lifelong habit
of biting anyone who tried to stroke him. Sadly Huey contracted Feline AIDS
in 1998 and he ended up using his one-way ticket to the vets."
James Preston
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