Eventually, after about a couple of years, I would think, an apprentice was taken on. He was seventeen years old. He was actually old to start but he had been working with the quarries and he had shown an interest. We took him on as a trainee. He had only a very basic education, he left school at fifteen as most people did in those days. He came into the quarry and I took him on as an apprentice and he turned out to be a very good lad in actual fact. We arranged for him to go to technical college in Grantham to do a Baths Course and he decided on his own that he wanted to do electronics so he took that on as well. And he eventually got to city and Guilds ordinary level and eventually he finished up with an HND in electrical enginnering. And we used to spend every spare moment we could doing maths and things like that, you know, in the office we had a blackboard, and do the job properly if you know what I mean, and I must admit that I learnt quite a bit as well through this because I had to keep one week ahead and I think it did us both good. And he turned out to be a very good lad but he finished up teahing at the technical college he had been training at and he eventually went to Avon and Bath which I think ultimately after the quarries closed, but I left him actually in charge of the electrical work at ? quarry when I left and went to Holwell.

(Maurice Bailey)