Here are some pictures of the track in the 1970s. I took these during the holiday fortnight, when me and a friend went into the building when it was empty to get some shots.
I started working at Triumph in 1972 in the printing department, where I printed all the internal documents for parts forms, wages slips and all that was required. There were about 12 people who worked in that department.
I remember there was a big upheaval when Michael Edwardes started to transform BL, it was the start of mass closures and there was a strike because of these changes. I wasn’t really involved, they were mostly shop floor strikes. We did do some picket work on a gate once I remember – we tried to stop a lorry coming in by putting our backs against it… which didn’t work! We’d have got run over if we’d have stayed there, a futile effort!
Stock taking
Once a year, they would ask the office staff if they would do some extra overtime at weekends, to do stock taking, and we had to count every car that had been built, in the storage areas around Warwickshire (there was one in Griff Hollow, Nuneaton, around there, and Baginton round the airport, and one other somewhere). So a minibus would pick us up, take us to the storage area, and we’d have a pad with the cars on that had been built, and we had to find the registration number on this sheet, and we had to lift the bonnet, check the engine number with the pad, tick it off, lower the hood, and on to the next – there was thousands! We’d go round in twos, one to lift the hood, one to read the number.
Just occasionally the keys would be in the ignition, and it wasn’t unheard of that people would start it up, go up the compound and go back and park it.
Social
They had a yearly golf tournament as well, Triumph, which was held at the Belfry, it was semi-professional, and we had to print the programmes for that. We were let out to see the Queen go past, on Fletchamstead Highway. She waved as she went past… and we went back to work then.
I left in 1980, so not that long before it closed. It was a really good place to work, you were looked after very well. There was a surgery there, and if there was something wrong with you you didn’t go to your doctor, you went down there. There was recreation stuff – football, cricket, a social club. There was very good holiday too, and good pay.
Comments
Great pictures Graham – would you mind me sharing these with Rob Orlands Historic Coventry Forum
Hi Neil, thanks for your message. Just passing by to say that yep, that’s fine to share (our copyright statement can be found here, if you could credit us/Graham that would be great).
Cheers,
Ben
Forgot to say, there’ll be a couple more pictures from Graham and his Triumph days on their way shortly, too… so watch this space 🙂
Passing my way via a similar source to the VE Day paper in this article, the Coventry Evening Telegraph of August 8th 1969 backs up the view of strikes happening at Triumph in the mid-late 20th century. The front page mentions 900 on strike, with production halted on all bar the TR6.
Hi
This – “Just occasionally the keys would be in the ignition, and it wasn’t unheard of that people would start it up, go up the compound and go back and park it”. Reminded me of the time an apprentice drove a TR6 around the Engineering Block and overcooked it on the bend leaving the car suspended on the railings facing Tile Hill Lane.
Bernard
Very interesting article on the Triumph works and the photos of the cars – I still own a GT6 Mk 3 built in November 1973 – one of the last.
Fantastic photographs, thanks for sharing.
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