Perkins heritage exhibition, on display in the North Offices, is opening its doors to retired employees. The project, opened by former Perkins president Mike Baunton, aims to illustrate to employees and visitors the company's fascinating past through memorabilia, video footage and a display of historical products.

The enthusiasm of a group of retired and present employees, eager to preserve the company's history is giving the project momentum and bringing it alive.

"One of the key aims is to bring to life the company's roots and the exhibition gives us a glimpse of the story of Perkins over the past 70 years, from its creation in 1932 up to the 1990's and the purchase of Perkins by Caterpillar." said David Boulton, retired employee and a member of the project.

Jill Afford, retired employee and longest serving employee at Perkins Engines, tells us how things have changed:

"I started working at Perkins in 1953, with a weekly wage of £1.18s 6d, in the Postal department under the watchful eye of Miss Leach. I later moved in to the finance department where I worked until retirement. We think that the traffic is bad when we leave work these days, but then we had to contend with a herd of cows that a local farmer drove to the milking shed. This nearly always coincided with the end of our working day - I don't think he appreciated the factory being in the agricultural area!

In 1959 we were taken over by Massey-Ferguson, which meant having two year ends that year - anyone in finance will appreciate what that means. It used to take us from October to Christmas to close the financial books for the year - now it can be achieved in 4 days.

In 1962 Perkins employed more than a 10th of the population of Peterborough and celebrated its 30th anniversary. At this time I worked in the wages department, in those days we had to make the wage packet by hand and then deliver them to the shop floor. Now it is done via an electronic payment straight in to your bank account - how times have changed!

By 1967 the 5 Storey office block was complete and some of the finance department were the first to work in there.

1971 brought with it decimalisation, so all of the systems had to change, another major task for the finance areas. By pulling together we managed the changes as best we could and came out triumphant.

The 1980's saw the opening of the Queensgate shopping center, the Frank Perkins parkway and the 50th anniversary of Perkins.

Perkins has seen many changes and developments over the years, but the history can live on through the Heritage project - giving the future generations a chance to see the past."