Reminiscences of Westwood Works and RAF Peterborough

by a local schoolboy

I grew up in Westwood, Peterborough, and my everyday life was very much influenced by Baker Perkins and Westwood Works, and several members of my family worked there (2 grandfathers, 3 uncles and 2 cousins: is this a record? See below).

I was born in 1941 in my maternal grandparents' house in Cavendish Street, Eastfield, Peterborough. My mother, Dorothy, worked in my grandmother’s (Sally Garey) grocery shop in Priory Road, Westwood, and my father, Cyril, was in the RAF. So I spent the war days between Eastfield and Westwood. My paternal grandfather, Marcus Garey, Sally’s husband, was a pattern maker with what was then Werners. He was born in 1882, and I have a photograph of him with the pattern for a giant mixer blade: the date on the back is 1912, so he was about 30 years old. Maybe someone can identify just where the picture was taken.

On the Baker Perkins website are photographs of the pattern shop in 1923 and 1927. I understand it was constructed in 1922, after the “great fire”.

http://www.westwoodworks.net/HowItWas/WestwoodWorksIn1923/images/1923Works51.jpg

http://www.westwoodworks.net/HowItWas/WestwoodWorksIn1923/images/1923Works52.jpg

http://www.westwoodworks.net/HowItWas/LifeAtWestwoodWorks/images/1927InsidePatternShop.jpg

It is quite possible that Marcus is on those photos, but everyone looked the same in those days (moustache, collar and tie, and often a nice white apron) so I cannot recognise him. He was 65 in 1947, and he was with Baker Perkins until he retired. He died in 1957.

My mother told me that he was involved in some way with “a fire”, and was even slightly injured. I presume this was the “great” fire of 1922.

As I cast my mind back to those days during or just after the war, I recall making fires at home with what, I presume, were old or broken wooden patterns. I still have visions of these brightly coloured (mainly red I think) wheels and things. I hope it was all above board!

At the end of the war, my father took over the grocery shop and ran it with my mother until we left a few years later. I went to West Town School in Williamson Avenue from 1946 and later to St Mark’s in Gladstone Street until 1952. I walked across Westwood bridge four times a day, and so past Westwood Works. I remember the field guns parked in the car park near the end of Grange Road. They figure on photos on the web site, for example http://www.westwoodworks.net/HowItWas/WestwoodWorksInWW2/images/1940Gun3.jpg

but I am not sure until when there were guns parked there. It must have been after the war, unless I have a very good memory from when I was 4 years old!

The web site is really top class with so many photos of the Works and Westwood, and the airfield. One that really struck me was the Luftwaffe map of the Works and the surrounding area, on which you can easily see my house in Priory Road! (Just to the right of the “58” in “GB 82 58”) http://www.westwoodworks.net/HowItWas/WestwoodWorksInWW2/images/1941GermanAerialBombingMap.jpg

I remember having to go to the air-raid shelter a few times during the war. Wasn't there a minor bombing attack on the works or the railway sidings at one stage? We got a cracked upstairs wall, which was supposedly linked to that incident. Our family tradition has it that B-P was not bombed seriously because it had been Werners, but I never swallowed that one. Odd though, isn't it?

I recall the walk back to school after lunch when we (I used to walk with a friend most days) used to exchange greetings with some of the men returning to work. Two of them were particularly entertaining: a big man and a little man. We called them Laurel and Hardy. The ritual was that we called out, “What’s your name today?” and they replied with some funny name or other. Who were they, and what happened to them, I wonder?

Other contacts with the workmen were when they came into our shop, mainly to buy cigarettes I fear. I think Garey’s shop must have been quite well known at the Works.

In the 1950s, my other grandfather, John Henry Price (“Harry”) went to work at B-P as a fitter. Also, my uncle, Alec Garey, worked there, but I am not sure of the dates until I ask him. Yet another uncle was Eddie (“Ted”) Fleming who came down from South Shields to take up a position with B-P, and met his wife, Lily, my mother’s sister. Ted was with B-P from 1934 until he retired in 1972 as a foreman in the sheet metal shop. Their son, Peter Fleming, my cousin, joined in 1965 at age 18 when he left school with A levels and did not want to go to university. He was there until 1970 and praises an excellent student apprenticeship and says B-P were known country-wide for their progressive apprentice training schemes. My uncle Reg Savage, the husband of Ada, my mother’s other sister, was a charge hand in the pattern shop, and his son, David Savage (my cousin) also worked for B-P. He took a degree and was a Project Engineer in the Chemical Division. Peter reminds me that Baker Perkins produced a super book of their history, which was issued in 1968 and every employee received a free copy. He still has his. He tells me: “It's really great that people have taken so much trouble to prepare it (the web site). Everybody was proud to work for such a super company. I was privileged to undertake an apprenticeship with them which gave me invaluable experience in all parts of the factory production areas and offices together with an excellent formal engineering qualification from a 'thin' sandwich course. The social club amenities were first class and I also spent many happy hours in the Motoring Section garage which was fully kitted out as a service centre. I well remember the large book 'Baker Perkins - the War Years' with pictures and articles of their wartime arms production. Alas, this has disappeared.” Peter later worked for British Aerospace in Stevenage, later grew macadamia nuts in Australia and is now in New Zealand!

I saw the apprentice school being built in 1952, at the end of Grange Road.

http://www.westwoodworks.net/HowItWas/TrainingAtWestwoodWorks/TrainingFacilities/index.htm

I have been interested in aviation and aeroplanes as long as I can remember. I used to watch the, mainly ex World War II, planes flying around in the early 1950s. From 1954 to 1959 I belonged to 115 Squadron Air Training Corps (ATC) on Westwood airfield, that was formally called RAF Peterborough.

http://l.garey.googlepages.com/115sqdairtrainingcorps

A very interesting photograph on the web site shows the entrance the RAF Peterborough in 1955. http://www.westwoodworks.net/HowItWas/OutsideViews/images/1955ViewOfFactory.jpg

It shows at the bottom the Officers’ Mess, that still exists, with three huts above it, then the main gate, with the tiny guard post. Above that are four more huts, with to their left a solitary hut, which was our ATC headquarters. I think the white sign you can just see on this hut is the one saying “115 Squadron ATC”. Further up the white road on the right are the buildings of Hartley’s canning and jam factory where I use to work during school holidays. The entrance to the airfield at that level is watched over by the real guard house, just visible. After that is the new apprentice school followed by the main office tower. What memories! Even the abrupt change from the tarmac of Westfield Road to the white concrete of the RAF road that leads on towards Horrell’s farm and the virgin countryside. What a picture!

Another superb picture is at: http://www.westwoodworks.net/HowItWas/OutsideViews/images/1939BakerPerkinspre1939.jpg showing, in the distance, the aircraft at the Flying Training School on the airfield. At that time, 1939, the resident unit was 7 FTS equipped with Hawker Harts and Audaxes, and those are the aircraft that can be seen on the flight line as far as I can make out.

Even before joining the ATC I used to spend a lot of time on the airfield. There was quite a lot of civil activity going on. I took some photographs in 1952 (see here:) https://sites.google.com/site/lgarey/aviationphotos . In the first one, you can see Westwood Works in the background. The aircraft is an Auster Autocrat belonging to Jack Bancroft, owner of the Embassy theatre in Peterborough.

But closer to home, from 1960 Baker Perkins based their company aircraft there. Not the multimillion executive jet that they would have today, but a very modest Piper Aztec that I used to see landing at Westwood, as well as a Dove and another Aztec both belonging to Mitchell Engineering. I even saw the B-P Aztec just before it was delivered to the company, while it was still at Kidlington, at the Piper dealers’. http://www.westwoodworks.net/HowItWas/TheCompanyAeroplane/index.htm

Also related to flying, I note on the web site the section about gliding. There is a photograph of Slingsby Sedburgh T21B registered BGA765. http://www.westwoodworks.net/SportsAndPastimes/Activities/Gliding/images/1965GlidingSectionReadyToGo.jpg. I actually flew that glider in 1958 at the Perkins (not Baker Perkins) Gliding Club at Polebrook. I think the pictures on your web site must have been in or after 1960. I recall seeing Tiger Moth G-AHUE towing gliders at Westwood in 1960. There was an arrangement between the Perkins and Baker Perkins clubs that equipment would be shared, but the new Skylark 2 glider was B-P’s own. http://www.westwoodworks.net/SportsAndPastimes/Activities/Gliding/images/1966WWGlidingSectionFirstGl.jpg

https://www.psgc.co.uk/airfield/club-history/

I hope someone will recognise the events that I describe and will want to correspond about them. I also salute the enormous work achieved by Dick, Margaret and James Preston, the web site creators. Thanks to them for such great memories.

Laurence Garey,

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