And I walked in there, and I felt a little bit out of place ‘cos there’s all these big men in there, you know. The first tea break they all sat down, we all sat down and we had our tea together.
And I remember this to this day, this old boy said to me, ‘I don’t know what you are doing in here, nipper, we’re closing in a couple of months'. That was in 1979. How wrong was he!
Russ M
When I came into the plant, I can remember tool makers, the people saying to me at the time, ‘Don’t get your foot under the table, nipper, we are closing soon’. Now that was 36 years ago, you know. [laughs] I think, well, then I haven’t done bad then, have I?
David C
When I first came here in 1976 they said to me, ‘Don’t get too comfy, lad’ he said, ‘we’ll be shutting down soon’. That was 37 years ago. It came true in the end, they weren’t lying. It was just a little bit premature.
Steve B
There’s always been rumours that this plant was going to close. Especially when the motorway was coming through because originally it was intended to go right through Central Road. It was diverted round, eventually, because of the plant.
Len H
We all knew it was coming because we always got told they’re closing it down, closing it down, could be next year, it could be the year after and I’ve been there for thirty odd years and heard it from day one.
Then all of a sudden, like you say, we got told on a Monday at a mass meeting. And I thought ‘Oh it’s happened then’.
John B