大象传媒

52b - (concluding from part One)

So then as I say I went to Josephs as I mentioned before, and then to Eagle. And at Eagle we built trailers and bodies for all sorts of uses, war uses. In fact at Eagle I think they built about over 27,000 trailers and they were like platform trailers carrying aircraft parts, very little trailers which were used by the marines, but I presume they were marine commandos 鈥榗os these little trailers came apart and each individual part was quite light to carry. I mean an axle, wheels, the side of a body and so on, and I imagine they could get behind the lines with these trailers. Then there were trailers for carrying searchlight equipment, trailers for carrying gun barrels, and hydraulic tippers for the Navy for carrying coal, of course a lot of ships were on coal in those days. Trailers for generating sets, other trailers for bigger generating sets, and then the largest quantity of trailers we built were for carrying gas cylinders for balloons, and the winches for balloons, and Haslar smoke generators, 鈥榗os they鈥檇 put those round a city and set them going and cover a city in smoke. And fuel tanks so you could fuel an aircraft.

Neville Usher: Did you have difficulty in getting materials, or 鈥�

John Edkins: Materials weren鈥檛 easy. But the stuff we were doing was of such high priority that we got through Ministry sources we got. But it was rather interesting to note that we had a lot of offcuts of material, big offcuts. So we had a friendly roller in the Black County, we could send all these short pieces and have them re-rolled into smaller sections which economized on material rather than put all that material into scrap you had it re-rolled, and used all the materials for ourselves.

Neville Usher: How did you despatch the trailers, did they go by road or rail?

John Edkins: They nearly all went by road. Some went by rail, but the trailers, the bulk of the trailers went to the balloon section at Cardington, because those old aircraft hangers at Cardington were the headquarters of the balloon section, and they would come up with lorries every morning and they鈥檇 tow these trailers two at a time. The ones that went to Haslar, went up to Leith which is by Edinburgh where the Britannia is today, where the company there put the smoke generators on and girls took those up, they came with Bedford lorries, they had two trailers behind, and you imagine in the winter, girls taking those with two trailers on, and all over that notorious Shap Fell and so on, and on up to Scotland.

Neville Usher: Amazing isn鈥檛 it. And of course there was the black out.

John Edkins: The black out, raids, all sorts of things.
And in addition we built a lot of trailers for carrying timber, how I mention the 鈥淭imber Jills鈥�, 鈥榗os sometimes girls came to pick them up. We built about 500 trailers for timber use, but the one we built most of, we built the first 100 and then there were a lot more wanted, and the ministry gave the job to a railway wagon manufacturer up in the north east, only 鈥榗os we couldn鈥檛 cope with everything. So much so that some of the biggest trailers we built, but not big in capacity but big in size, they took up such a lot of room in our own shop, and Jaguar at that time; or rather it was SS Cars in those days, they鈥檇 got a shop spare and the Ministry said go up to SS cars, they鈥檙e going to build them. And of course our type of production was very elementary, and SS Cars were very very sophisticated, and you know the sort of thing, they couldn鈥檛 work without a part number, well, all we could work from a description.

Neville Usher: Did you get any air raids in Warwick at all?

John Edkins: One or two. And actually I only saw one enemy aircraft you know in the sky, and one came over Warwick Race Course. I would suspect he was reconnoitring, I don鈥檛 think it would have been a serious combat plane.

Incidentally, I didn鈥檛 go into the armed forces. I registered in the normal way when I became of the age to be called up. Very quickly I was called for a medical which was very early, I mean just after 8 o鈥檆lock on a Monday morning in a church hall in Aston and it was cold, it was cold and we got to this church hall and they were telling us six at a time to get undressed, there were several lots of sixes, it鈥檚 rather amusing there was a great big fat ATS sergeant wandering around and we were starkers which didn鈥檛 amuse us very much, and cold, and we had the preliminaries and you know measured for height and weight and so on. And a doctor type fellow came in after a bit, come on you lads you know you want to get some clothes on, you鈥檒l catch cold you know with nothing on, so we immediately put some clothes on and another one comes along, come on get your clothes off we can鈥檛 examine you with clothes on! So we went through, and of the six that I was in, I was one of the first six, four of them were graded for military service, one had got something wrong with his feet, and I had got ear trouble which I have got now. And I was sent to presumably an ear specialist in Newhall Street, and I went up 鈥�, they even gave me a few coppers for a tram fare. And I went up and I didn鈥檛 hear anything for a while, and I thought I think I will ask the boss for a rise, so I went and saw my boss for a rise, and he said what do you want a rise for he said, you will be going soon. I said shall I? By this time I had heard I had been graded 4 you see, and I assume from being graded 4 I wouldn鈥檛 be going.
I was disappointed, 鈥榗os I wanted to be with friends and that, and he showed me a letter were apparently as they did, when people registered for military service, they had an opportunity then to ask for reservation, and he鈥檇 asked for reservation for me 鈥榗os I was doing those spares at that time, and he鈥檇 got a reply which he gave me, and I can鈥檛 tell you the exact thing it said, with reference to your application for deferment of the above named man, please note deferment will not be granted, and the man will in due course receive X days notice prior to call up - and I never heard another word from that day to this!

And I travelled backwards and forwards on the train for some time, as I say I caught a train at 7 in the morning, and I left Warwick probably half past six or sometimes later in the evening, and sometimes there was no train, only it was delayed. I mean I have known the time when perhaps I have been still hanging around Warwick station at nine o鈥檆lock at night waiting to get home from work.
But, we had to go on Sundays as well, well there鈥檚 no trains ran on Sundays in those days you know, so I had to cycle from Wilmcote to Warwick, it was just 10 miles. It鈥檚 not a bad ride from Wilmcote to Warwick, but it鈥檚 a hard ride coming back! You imagine when you drop out of Warwick, down the hill out of Warwick, you鈥檙e climbing all the way up hill till you get to Gospel Oak and Pathlow, you are really, all the way up.

Neville Usher: What about in the winter in the dark on a Sunday night?

John Edkins: Well we wouldn鈥檛 be late. I mean Sunday working wasn鈥檛 that hard, when I say, probably finished at 4 o鈥檆lock on a Sunday afternoon.

The trains were delayed quite frequently. Sometimes just a few minutes, depending on what was going on. Because you see you would get perhaps a raid in London, and so the train was late leaving London but some of these trains 鈥�, when they got to Leamington people got out at Leamington to get on a local train to come to Stratford. Well some of those connexions had to be made. Sometimes they鈥檇 let the train go, and say if they鈥檙e late they will have to go on the next one, but some connexions had to be made.

Neville Usher: And did you get many evacuees round Wilmcote way?

John Edkins: I don鈥檛 know. And certainly there were no organized evacuees I would say, a lot of people evacuated themselves. For instance the bungalow where we lived, and one became empty and a Birmingham dentist took it, and he put a brass plate on the door and I presume for that he can set himself up as a dentist in Wilmcote, and I suppose he was hoping to get a drop of petrol for his car.
My father was a small haulier at Wilmcote, he used to go and collect prisoners of war from Ettington and places like that, and take them out on to the farms. Or another job he did a lot of, was taking Home Guard supplies out, he would pick them up from (I can鈥檛 remember now).

Neville Usher: When he took the prisoners of war round, did they have guards?

John Edkins: No, no. All very relaxed. The first prisoners of war I saw, were at Snitterfield - do you know Snitterfield?

Neville Usher: Not very well.

John Edkins: You know the road, the by-pass area. Well when you get - You know where the war memorial is in Snitterfield, when you pass the war memorial there鈥檚 quite big fields on the right, they belonged to Clyde Higgs and of course they had to plant what they were told. The first time I saw prisoners of war, were in a big field there picking potatoes, and they were Italian prisoners of war with the brown battledress on with coloured patches on, and they had an armed guard with them; I noticed the armed guard wandering along the end of the road. Where they were billeted and that I don鈥檛 know.
Incidentally my wife was a landgirl, but not in the Land Army. 鈥楥os her father was the farm manager at Billesley Manor, Sir Martin Melvin and so she worked at home you see, on the farm at home, that was all right.

Neville Usher: Essential work again.
Could you say you enjoyed it? It must have been very busy at Eagle.

John Edkins: Oh I have always enjoyed my work. I have had a wonderful working life, wonderful working life, I have enjoyed every minute of it.
Oh I have had a fascinating life.

Neville Usher: And then when you got married, where did you start married life?

John Edkins: At Billesley. Which is rather interesting. Holidays weren鈥檛 easy, and in 1944 I took a train from Stratford to Abergavenny, South Wales. Oh, incidentally I joined the Youth Hostels Association, and the night before I went, I cycled to Shipston to get the local secretary for the Youth Hostels who lived there, and the Friday night I cycled over there, beautiful ride over, and just after I left this secretary鈥檚 house, the heavens opened and I had to cycle from Shipston to Wilmcote in torrential rain, but I had got my bit of paper, that was what I wanted. And the next morning I got a train from Stratford down to Abergavenny, and then a bus to Crickhowell, and I had my first night in a youth hostel at Crickhowell, and I walked all round there, did a week鈥檚 walk round. In fact in those days the Ordnance Survey maps had got a grid on them, and they were 6d. and they were printed on paper. And it鈥檚 only recently that I have given those maps to one of my grandsons.
But anyway I came back the next Saturday night, and I walked into the village hall at Wilmcote, and I sat next to this girl which I knew lived at Billesley and talked to her, and agreed to see her the next night, and that so happened the night I was talking to her, little did I know 鈥�, oh no the Sunday night when I went to see her, little did I know that it was her 19th birthday, so I met her when she was 18. We got engaged the following year on her birthday, and we got married the next year on the 31st of August, so we celebrate 60 years of marriage next year.

Neville Usher: That鈥檚 great isn鈥檛 it. And do your children and grandchildren live anywhere in the area?

John Edkins: My son lives in Stratford, in Shottery and he鈥檚 the manager/ a director at Kingston Engineering. The elder of my twin daughters, she lives in Welford and her husband has a joinery business at Dodwell. My younger daughter, she鈥檚 been a nurse all her life, although she went to Sheffield University and she wanted to go into personnel management, she couldn鈥檛 get a job so she changed to nursing, she trained at St. George鈥檚 in London when St. George鈥檚 was on Hyde Park Corner, so she joined quite a prestigious hospital. After she finished her training, she carried on for a little while with St. Georges, and then she went to the Royal Marsden London, a big cancer hospital, and then when she got married, she married a lad from Taunton in Somerset where she lives today, and she still works today at the Musgrove Hospital at Taunton, which to Somerset is like Warwick is to Warwickshire, the hospital. And our grandsons have all done well, I feel they鈥檝e done well, they are 鈥�, the eldest one he was a bit of a tearaway, but today he鈥檚 the general manager of one of the biggest computer firms in Europe, and he had no formal training, no formal training but he can talk, he can talk! The next one, he went to Loughborough, and today he鈥檚 a First Officer flying with British Airways, those are my son鈥檚 two sons.
Now my daughter at Welford, she had three sons, the eldest one went to the Royal Veterinary College, and he鈥檚 now been practising as a vet down in Dorchester for a year, of course he had a 5 year university course at the Royal College, longer training than for a doctor. The next one, he went to Plymouth and he did leisure studies and he鈥檚 somewhere out in Greece teaching and training people in water sports. The third one, he鈥檚 at Norwich, at the University of East Anglia at Norwich, he鈥檚 doing American studies - I don鈥檛 know what he鈥檚 going to do with that at all. And the youngest one, which is my daughter鈥檚 son at Taunton, he goes into sixth form college this year, I don鈥檛 know what he鈥檒l do; I have a feeling he wants to go into one of the media.
We have two great grandchildren now.

Neville Usher: Not doing very much yet! How interesting, and thank you very much for talking to us.

John Edkins: And the family links have been interesting too, you know, going back so far. And it鈥檚 interesting to note also that I believe, I shall have to check this again, but I believe I am 11th generation from a Shakespeare connexion.

Neville Usher: Well, from the Edkins.

John Edkins: Yes, yes. And my great grandchildren are 14 generations, but what intrigues me is number of generations of my family that I have lived through. I was alive when grandfather, father, myself, my son, my grandsons and great grandchildren. Seven generations.

Neville Usher: Amazing isn鈥檛 it. And time, an aunt of mine has just died, and she was 108, so she was born in 1896, she saw the whole of the 20th century out, and then into the 21st century, and what a different world. I mean from when you started work, amazing really.

John Edkins: And I am going to try and write things up, I would like to get someone in who could put me right on a few things.

Neville Usher: When I have transcribed this, which will be in 2 or 3 months, because at the moment I have got a build up of it, I can send you a copy if you like because that might be useful. But formally thank you very much.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.