Wally - Apprenticeship

Wally Bowes

Like most of the employees at the factory, Wally started at MidWood when he left school. He was first introduced to the company through the secretary of the Carnival band he played for. Althought when Wally first started at the factory, he was not an apprentice but a charge hand.

Wally's describes what he had to do in his first job at MidWood

Once he was old enough, Wallydecided that he wanted to work in the 'wood yard', so he went to see the Managing Director, Mr Bailey.

Edward remembers going to see Mr Bailey, who offered him an apprenticeship as a joiner and describes Mr Bayley's characteristics

All the apprectices at Midwood would be put with a joiner. Wally describes the work he did helping the joiner make sash windows

As an apprentice, wally was supervised by an experienced joiner who would show him what to with all the tools and how to sharpen them.

Wally remembers the older joiners helping the apprentices

A typical day for the apprentices and joiners at Midland Woodworking Company would start at 7.30am and finish at 5pm. They were given 1 hour for lunch, when Wally would cycle home to be fed.

Wally recalls lunch time at MidWood

During Wally's time at MidWood he also took on the job as 'Charge-hand' from 1952 - 1970. This involved him inspecting the work done by the joiners and assuring the quality of anything produced. This was before quality control inspectors were introduced in the mid 1950s.

Wally describes his work as a Charge-hand

He was also promoted to Foreman where he had to deal with a lot of paper work and overtime request. Wally stayed as a foreman from 1970 until 1990 when he retired.

Wally talks about his work as a foreman