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Ekco Electronics
Mike Poole
My time at EKCO Malmesbury
The notes of Michael G. Poole - June 2006
I left school in the summer of 1955 at 15 and started work at EKCO Malmesbury in September of that year as a junior in the assembly department. My brother (David C. Poole) also started the same day as a trainee. My father (William George Poole) was already working there.
I was first introduced to Mr Spaul (he had fled from the Nazi's apparently) who was the Assembly Superintendent and had as his secretary a Mrs Argyle who's husband was one of the Security Officers who worked for Mr Norris the head of Security.
My Foreman was Bert Alexander and the charge-hands were Myra Shingles, Bernard Berry and Mrs Giles.
After the introductions, I was taken to the Tool Stores and issued with a fairly substantial Soldering Iron (not the lightweight ones you see today), Number's 2, 4, and 6 BA flat spanners, a similar set of Box spanners, Pliers, Wire cutters and a medium Screwdriver.
I was then shown how to solder various thickness and types of 'Tags', removing solder and how to re-solder. I had to continue practising soldering for a couple of weeks until I was deemed proficient.
Once I was trained I was paid £2-4s-8d (£2.24p) for a 44-hour week (this was 1955 remember). I later received a 1d per hour merit increase taking my wages to £2-8s-4d (£2.41p).
I was put with a great chap called Jack Morrisey who was disabled and in a wheel chair. Here I was taught to build tuning units for the TX/RX 1998 radio sets, which were destined for both the Vampire and Meteor aircraft.
Jack was assisted by a Mrs Turnbull who built the 'cam stacks', which entailed a lot of polishing of small discs and washers with 'emery paper' and then assembling them in 'stacks' onto a shaft, which had 3 groves as well as ball bearings, a knurled knob and lock nuts, which were sealed with red varnish. There were two of these 'cam stacks' per tuning unit. Also working with Jack was Katie Mxx? She did the wiring for the Crystal plug board and contacts wires. Jack built the main part, fitting the 2 cam stacks into place as the assembly progressed. I was taught to do all the procedures so that we could interchange if needed, but I mainly did the first stage build -- assembling the 10 sliders on xxx pins and brass bushes on the front panel. Jack then took over and finished the units off, putting them on a 'running in' motor. We made 12 of these a day. The tuning unit, when completed and 'run in' was passed down the line to the girls who were a lovely bunch of ladies albeit that they teased me relentlessly (well I was a green as grass 15 year old boy then). One team built up the chassis and put the tuning units on the front, others built the TX and RX.
Inside view of 1998 unit with a cam stack visible
Click to enlarge
Photo Courtesy of Colin Guy G4 DDI
Polish Refugees built the amplifiers and modulators at Daglingworth refugee camp (Nr. Cirencester) where they had a small 'sub factory' built in a hut at the camp.
EKCO delivered all the components to them, which when assembled were also brought back by EKCO's own transport on a weekly basis.
The transport section at Malmesbury used to do all their own maintenance of vehicles at that time. One mechanic I remember was Bill Maskell He and his wife originally came from Southend. Another driver was Glyn Farmer, who today runs his own successful garage business near Castle Combe.
After a time, the 1998 contract ran down, and the tuning unit sub assembly team broke up with Jack Morrisey moving over to the Inspection team working under Dickie Granger who was then the Forman with Larry Cooley, the Chargehand.
I went to the end of the line and put the TX, RX, amplifier and modulator into the chassis with a motor to drive the tuning unit that had been fixed to the chassis front at an earlier stage on the assembly line. The team also made up the wiring looms that were fed in as the chassis build-up progressed.
1998 set made by EKCO Malmesbury
(serial number EKCM-1275) Click to enlarge
Photo Courtesy of Colin Guy G4 DDI
Having fitted all the sub assemblies into the chassis, the valves were fitted complete with their safety cans after which the unit went via inspection to the test department where after all the tests were completed the unit was finally cased up with all the side covers etc. and placed in a custom made carton, which was then sent for despatch.
Thinking of the test department, I remember one occasion when one of the test people came towards me carrying a valve in his hand and to my amazement when he got close to me the valve lit up in his hand. It was quite some time after this that I was told this was because we were near the long-term test bench for the Radar Ranging dish unit and the nearness of the emitted signal had caused the valve to light up.
Later, another order was received for the 1998 set and this time I did all the mechanical part of the tuning unit with one of the Reed sisters from Hullavington doing the cam units.
Our daily build target was 5 units a day (compared to 12 units for 4 people). Aside from the 1998 set, we also did parts for some other sets, one being the WS-88 set.
One person I remember well was Frank Hawes who was an ex serviceman blinded when his tank was shot up in WW2. He came into the assembly hall and worked for a while assembling the 1998 front panels at which he was very good. Despite his impairment (or maybe because of it) he helped a lot of people on welfare issues.
Of other jobs I remember working on at that time were some small units said to be going into a rocket to be fired from the Woomera rocket range in Australia. What I particularly remember about these was the fact that the panels were so thin that when I tightened the 6BA Countersink screws up, I cracked several panels.
There was also a Geiger counter on the line although I did not work on it. I remember this unit was in a Grey Enamel box with a black handle and a meter on top. When assembly was complete, these were sent down to an underground test room via a small lift installed in the floor to be tested against a radioactive source.
Geiger Counter
Click to enlarge
Sketch of proposed Geiger Counter by Eric Alden
Click to enlarge
On the line next to the 1998 set, there was the A40 line, while I did not have anything to do with this line, I remember a chap called Ken Barker working on this set. Ken later left and went to work at 'Westinghouse' in Chippenham.
When the 1998 line closed, I went to a newly set up line for Car Radio's. This line was an all power-track with piecework targets. I was on the end of the line packing with a woman (who came from Cirencester) and an Inspector neither of whose names I remember.
Some of the sets had the 'EKCO' logo, while others had the 'Ford' logo.
The sets were built, tested and packed minus the cases as they were to be built into the cars on the assembly line (possibly the Ford Consul). The speakers, (and boxes for fitting these into the panel behind the rear seats) leads and fixings were made up into boxed kits of 24 units with each layer being checked and passed off by the inspector.
Later I was asked to check my own kits and sign them off on the paperwork that went with each boxed set. To do this I was trained by a chap who came down from Southend to show me what was required. The thing I remember was that the boxes were marked with an 'E' for EKCO sets, 'F' for Ford sets and 'X' for export sets. For the EKCO and export sets the boxes contained a fitting kit complete with an EKCO dashboard panel (the Ford sets having their own Ford dashboard panel). I'm told all of these sets went to a holding store located under Wembley Stadium.
Resulting from this, I was asked to move to Inspection and join the inspectors in the 'Thermo-tube Shop', helping lift the tubes up onto the test benches.
The girl working there showed me the whole job and taught me how to test and inspect the tubes. She recommended me for the job but because I was not 17 then, I could not be issued with a 'stamp'. While I can't remember her name, she got married and left to run a pub 'The George' at South Cerney. She was replaced by Ada Barker (the wife of Ken Barker on the A40 line), unfortunately she and I did not always see 'eye to eye' so I got transferred to 'Development Inspection' where I was very much the junior running errands, fetching gauges and drawings etc. delivering inspected parts to the production stores, plating or test labs and booking all things 'in and out'.
In the Development Inspection team at that time, I remember: -
Jerry Taylor (the foremen) who came from Swindon
Tony Welch (Chargehand) from Sherston (later moved to Dowty's at Cheltenham)
Eddie Brown from Malmesbury
Ken Page from Chippenham - Tool Inspector
Sometime later we were joined by Mike Hayes and 'Nobby' Clark (who were transferred over from Goods Inward) both living in Malmesbury at that time, additionally we were joined by Frank Chamberlain who had once run his own garage business.
At that time, the Development Inspection was located in the rooms that had once been the 'saddle and tack rooms', which was located on the ground floor across the lobby from the machine shop.
Across the yard from us was a new building known as 'the short run shop'. In here most of the sheet metal forming took place albeit punching or forming etc.
The frames for the scanner units were made up here as was the original work on the 'German toy construction' method (slotted punched holes with mating tags on the mating piece), which were then assembled together with an Aluminium paste and the tags twisted to form a solid joint. The whole assembly was then sent to a company called Delaney Galley in London where it was dipped in a heated (very hot) salt batch, which effectively welded the joint. After the assembly was returned all that was left to do was machine off the protruding tags.
In this shop were 2 inspectors under the supervision of Gerry Taylor, one was Bill Poole (no relation) and the other was a Vic Hemus, Vic was an interesting character who had been something to do with 'sound' during the war and he was a very keen 'bell ringer'. He also taught me how to play chess.
When I was 17 Jerry Taylor asked me if I wanted to become an Inspector in Development Inspection' (which of course I did) and while my maths was not very good at that time, I was taught all I needed to know and I was awarded a viewers stamp 'EKCM-V185'. I was assigned to work under the patronage of Tony Welch and he showed me what to do which included checking screw threads with 'go/no go' thread gauges, using a micrometer and a vernier gauge to check diameters and lengths etc. I was also put onto 'pressure testing' all of the 'wave-guide parts'. Later I went onto checking castings and chassis work using a height gauge and a surface plate all the time under the supervision of Tony who would review my work over-checking my decision to pass or reject parts. I would initial the movement slip (docket) and Tony would stamp over my initials. Later of course when I got my own full stamp I stamped off my own work although I had to start on simpler jobs.
At the time, the main production item for us was the E121 scanner unit, which was used in the Bristol Britannia and later the DH Comets. These were assembled upstairs from us in what had been the dormitory of the stable lads, which were two big rooms.
Several of the people working there were retained firemen and if the siren went on the top of the town hall (where the fire engine was kept) it also set off the hooters in the works. I soon learnt to keep out of the way as 3 or 4 people rushed down the stairs and dashed to their cars through the main gate in order to drive the 1-mile to the fire station in the Cross Hayes. Needless to say production dipped if it took them away for any time but this was always accepted with good grace.
I must mention some people who stick in my mind. The first is a chap called 'Gordon Chinn', he was a man of short stature of Chinese origin and I if remember correctly lived in Tetbury at that time. One day he was asked to take a completed scanner unit up the radar tower set in the gardens.
Now the normal route up to the tower was via a ramp in the gardens but he had been told there were steps up to the top of the tower. Anyway seeing the 'fire escape ladders' he assumed this was the way up so without much more ado he strapped the scanner unit to his back and climbed the fire escape ladder and when he got to the top hopped over the balcony and knocked on the glass window, which understandably frightened the life out of the person working there with his back to the window. Incidentally in his spare time he was a 'special constable' in the Gloucestershire police.
The second person is Dave Gealer, he developed a method of 'friction welding' the polythene (tubing) shroud covering the Antenna wave-guide and horn, which was highly successful. In simple terms he fitted the tubing into a pillar drill and brought this down onto a piece for polythene sheet fitted to a base-plate. The friction generated by the spinning tube welded it to the flat sheet.
It was one of my jobs to pressure test this welded tube to 30-psi, which was done on a special test rig, which required the tube to be assembled using an 'o-ring' to ensure a pressure tight seal.
One day Dave himself decided to pressure test some tube assemblies however he forgot the 'o-ring', which needless to say meant that when he pumped the pressure up to about 5-psi the polythene tube blew off the rig and flew across the room hitting Ken Page (another inspector) on the back of the head. Needless to say Ken was not amused.
The third person was Mr Norris, the Security Officer. He had a marvellous memory for names and faces. One story of him was when on one occasion he was watching the stewards checking the tickets of over 100 people who were attending a dance in the canteen. Later he went into the canteen and looking around called a steward over and asked him to check the ticket stubs of two people. It transpired that these two people never came through the gate but had climbed over the fence to get it.
Finally I've already mentioned that my father (William George Poole) was already working at Malmesbury having been severely wounded fighting in Italy during WW2 where he lost an eye and was disabled by a bullet wound through his right shoulder damaging nerves, which meant that he did not have proper use of his right arm.
He could grip with his right arm but not let go easily nor could he write with his right hand.
He was given an artificial glass eye to wear, which looked very real however I'm told that one morning he completely forgot to put his eye in with the result that one of his co-workers in the stores fainted. The result of this was that the medical centre gave him a black eye patch to wear at work.
He first worked in the stores and had worked in both the 'Stores' and 'Goods Inwards'. When I started work, he was a storekeeper for the 'Test Apparatus' and 'Test Engineering Department' (TAD & TED). His boss at that time was Arthur Bowers.**
TAD & TED were housed in large wooden huts built adjacent to the kitchen garden. Here they built all the test equipment and benches as well as maintaining them.
Sheds used by TAD & TED still in Cowbridge grounds circa 2004
Photo Courtesy of Bob Browning
My father's store had a large window and on the windowsill he used to grow plants from seeds or orange pips etc. and it was always interesting to see what would come up. When he was taken ill in the late 50's the gardeners kindly looked after the plants for him (he died in 1960).
Editors Note** While the Chief Storekeeper at that time was Tommy Williams; operationally Arthur Bowers was in overall charge of TAD & TED.
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