Category: Employment

Employment history in Ham and Petersham

Using the services of the District Nurse – by MG

I had, I think it was chicken pox and the first time I remember, I was about sixteen, before I ever saw a doctor, we never had a doctor.  Granny Sanders, she used to have sort of natural remedies and we used to have those and I can remember Mum calling in the District Nurse just to look at me, that I’d got chickenpox.  I don’t know if it was […]

Working at Eckett & Ellis – by MG

My Dad, he worked for a time with Eckett & Ellis, the builders on Ham Common.  They had a yard opposite Vine Cottage, that looks onto the pond and that was the local builders and my Dad worked for them for a time.  They were great friends as well… and then my Dad, he was called up – the Second World War – he went in quite late, because he […]

Working at the Star and Garter – by VG

They’d just that moment had a request for somebody to be secretary to one of the officers so they sent along and …that’s another story about the Star and Garter Home, incredible place and I gotthe job and I worked there for eight years. The Heads of Department were all officers, Major, Colonel, General, Admiral – mine were Admiral (laughter).  There was this lovely little woman, Mary Stocks, who’d employed me to […]

Working at the remand home – by VG

I was totally unqualified for anything actually including the guitar completely unqualified, and they said they wanted somebody to do music with the boys at the Remand Home, 15-19 they were and she said oh yes I’ve got the person, so I worked at the Remand Home for a few years.

Working at Teddington Studios – by MW

Then I saw an advertisement in the paper for ABC television, that was going to open in Teddington.  I started there on 4th May ’59, but I gave my notice in, because I thought they were going to open a bit earlier, but they didn’t, or they didn’t need us, so I did get myself a little job in Bayers, which was in Eden Street, next to what is Heal’s […]

Impact of British Aerospace Closure – by David Williams

The one other thing I would say about local history which did have a very strong impact on Ham and Petersham was theclosure of British Aerospace.  The factory there had started at the end of the first World War where Ham Urban District Council had very reluctantly said that if the Government really had to have this big emergency aircraft factory that they couldn’t really stand in the way but […]

Becoming a fully fleged carpenter – by GS

They’d just started building the flats on Ham Close and the Wates Estate and I would have been about 22 I think, I’d been to night school in between, so I had a little bit of experience in reading drawings and things and I thought I’m going to take agamble and go as fully fledged carpenter.

Becoming a joiner apprentince at Cellon’s at 16 – by GS

I went to a local factory, where British Aerospace used to be, right opposite there is anindustrial estate, well in my day that was a great big paint factory called Cellon’s Paints and they did all sort of marine finishes and that sort of thing and they had a big maintenance staff there, maintenance mechanics for their lorries and maintenance brick layers and maintenance everything to keep the whole factory […]

Shift work – by GS

I didn’t mind the early shift because I’d always been used to getting up early for morning paper round, so I didn’t mind that, so I was finished by half past two and I’d be home just before three o’clock and that would give me early evening and afternoon to go out on the Common and play football with my mates and just sort of mess around in general on […]