A photograph showing Aerex Fans workers at Phoenix Works. Pictured are Jack Haycock and Norman Toulson c1947. Can anyone name the others?
Jack can also be seen on the photograph entitled ‘Victory’s Children, Barnard Street, Thornaby c1945‘
Details courtesy of Derek Smith.
Talk of Norman Toulson not only was he a first class boilermaker he was a top cricketer with Thornaby for many years, being a wonderful off spin bowler, Norman had hands like a buckets which helped in in his cricketing career catching and bowling, his batting was nothing flash but he made up with all the wickets he took. Norman was also one of the top Darts players on Teesside and if he had been playing today I am sure he would have made a lot of money starring on our TV screens in the World Championship of Darts, and earning a very lucrative living from the Pro Darts League. Norman is in his eighties now and not as mobile as he used to be (Join the Club), after a stroke about three years ago but still manages to have a pint down the Thornaby Cricket Club with old mates on a weekly basis.
Norman Toulson was also a keen photographer when he got older & in his younger days was a keen follower of Primrose Hill Football Team.
George Short is now in his 90th year and lives in Bridport, Dorset. He is still going strong (despite having a hip replacement in June 2015). He is very interested to hear news of this site and will be very pleased to see the photo of the Aerex Fans workers above.
Hi I think that I can identify the man on the far right of the back row. I believe that it’s my father Joe Armstrong! He served his apprenticeship at Head Wrightsons as a boilermaker. He then had a short stint in the navy. After the navy, he had several jobs before joining I.C.I., where he became an estimator and work study officer. He stayed at I.C.I. until May of 1963, when we left England to live in Western Australia.
Joe died in 1997 of a smoking related illness.
George Short centre back row, George was a part time teacher at the Stockton Billingham College, also a senior Estimator Ashmore Benson Pease and Co South Works . Eventually being Team Leader Estimating Braun Heat Exchangers for Ashmores, also Manager of the Successful Braun Departmental Football, Cricket, and Athletics teams, who won all the Departmental Competition 1960. George I believe has moved down South to be near to his Daughter. His hobbies are Ballroom Dancing, Hope he is still active in this hobby.
And that is what Stockton lost Benny the small factories and workshops as well as the large works that made men of us boys and put a lot of those men into high positions in the Fabrication business. They were hard places where you pulled your weight or failed and now they are all gone apart from Browns still going strong after Harkers went under a few years back. The Casting firms machine shops and just about every type of fabrication shop you can think of that had H&S been around would not have existed for long. Prince Regent Street had at least three small workshops as well as Browns Sheet Iron and Wire Works, Bousefield lane was one long road of Factories, Portrack the same, the riverside had various shops as well as the Ship building we could have been called Iron Town and it certainly made Stockton a busy place.
Change happens, our children and grand-children’s wants are different to ours no point in regretting the changes which by the way my grandchildren love though I do wonder where the young boys and girls will get the training we got that allowed us to progress through life with a reasonable living and in my case a good retirement.
Everyone these days seems to be in IT whatever that is, a bit different from swinging a 14 pound hammer onto a flat face as we swaged a plate edge for riveting at sixteen and woe betide you if you missed the head of the flat face as the man holding it got a pain in the arm.
Trying to tell the youngsters how it was is difficult they cannot imagine people leaving school at 13 or in our case sixteen, we were the lucky ones, our parents could afford the uniforms and books. Now they go to school forever yet leave to be fast food servers or bar workers, I actually feel sorry for them.
Hats off to those small firms and the men who came out of them, if only we still had them.
The lad wearing the spectacles could be Ken Little who later became chief estimator with Whaley Welding / Whaley engineering. I served my time with Whaley’s and had a wonderful apprenticeship with some highly skilled workers.
Back row, second from left, next to George Short, was Ken Little, my dad. He served his apprenticeship at Aerex, then moved to Francis Brown’s in Church Road, and was then head hunted back to the same site by Eddie Whaley.
George’s daughter tells me that he is well and still dancing.