My Working Life.

I left school at the age of 14 ready to embark on my "adult" working life (I had my 15th birthday 4 days later on 25 December 1960).

Before we left Fisher Moore school, Mrs Vickers (the Careers Officer for Widnes school leavers) asked us all what we wanted to do when we left school - the easy option I decided at the time was to "work in an office"........... so many of us asked for office jobs.

After a failed interview at McKechnie Brothers Chemicals in Ditton Road I attended for an interview at Bowmans Chemicals in Gorsey Lane, Moss Bank and to my relief I was offered the job of "office boy" at a wage of

£3-5s-0d a week ( £3.25p in "new" money) - 44 years 11 months and 2 weeks later I retired as Works Manager of the Moss Bank site to take up my new career as a part time pensioner...... and that's a story in itself !!

The Office Boy years. - 1961-1963

On the 9th January 1961, I reported to the offices at Moss Bank to start my job as the new office boy at Bowmans Chemicals at Moss Bank. I was nervous and excited at the same time but was made welcome by the staff. I was taking over the position from Graham Beesley who was moving up into the commercial side of the business and so I began my induction and introduction to the world of international commerce and the chemical industry. The office boy was a very important role as I later found - he was the centre of the organisation as he was involved, to some degree, in all the aspects of the business (apart from "making" the products which was to come later for me....)

I was interviewed and later offered the job by John Bibby who was the Sales Office Manager and a long serving employee having (like me)started at Bowmans from school as his first job - he worked for the company until his retirement in 1986. ( I still meet with Tom Reid and several of the Moss Bankers occasionally for a "reunion"beer and a chat about old times and memories of people we worked with over the years).

I was quickly thrown into the deep end of learning the ropes of the many duties that the office boy undertook. Looking back I think it was probably the most complex and wide ranging job on the site while being at the "bottom of the ladder" in terms of recognition. It was this variety and involvement in the many administrative operations of the company that was most enjoyable - and during the times when I was not busy with office duties, I would go into the factory, especially with the Yard Labourers (who offloaded raw material and moved all the chemicals around the site, loaded wagons and generally did a variety of other jobs - like me in the office) and while I was dressed in shirt and tie would grab a sack truck at times and "give a hand" to offload wagons into the storage area with "the lads". Winter months would find them "working" in the cooperage with Ted O'Niell and Bill Dixon, where there was always a "roaring fire" and a billy-can of tea being kept warm, or up in the boilerhouse above the Lancashire Boilers where it was always warm. The Yard Foreman (Tommy Murray) would tell the lads to go there when they had a "break" and he always knew where to find them when needed - it was a very easy going and very friendly and civilised way of working - and this was reflected throughout the whole factory and set the tone of my working life at Moss Bank for the next 44+ years............................

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My first “company” vehicle