Like most Meltonians I was born into a railway family, my father Sydney, was a chargehand boilersmith, my grandfather, Walter, a signal inspector; my uncle Horace, after serving his apprenticeship left Melton Constable to go to London Kings Cross depot; and my uncle Mathew, after serving his apprenticeship left to enter the Royal Navy.
As I approached school-leaving age I sat the entrance examination to enter the M&GN works and having been informed I had passed went for an interview and was accepted for as fitter and turner apprenticeship. As my birthday was on Boxing Day I was to start in January 1934. When the big day came I was kitted out in a boiler suit and work boots, at this stage I do not know who was worried the most, my mother or I. So after a "cheerio" off I went up the hill at Melton with my father.
Having been shewn where and how to clock-on, I was taken into the machine shop and taken to a centre lathe and over the next week was shewn how to operate it. The overhead shafting and drive belts were so noisy compared with the classrooms at school that I began to wonder if I could stand it, but after a few weeks it became natural and very little notice was taken of it. In the machine shop was an outstanding machine, a fairly new capstan lathe operated by Jack Anderson and we as new boys would look and marvel at his operating of such a magnificent piece of machinery.
At the end of the year, I was transferred into the fitting shop into a gang headed by Fred Bell, the two senior fitters being Bert Frosdick and Wilf Rayner with the odd job man being Joe Horne of Salvation Army fame. My teacher was Wilf Rayner who taught me very well and I shall always remember stripping all the things like injectors, gauges, etc. from the cab end of the boiler, then as was usual, some studs were broken, so we got out the drill post and the pneumatic drill to put a hole through the centre of the studs and then with a hammer and chisel very carefully break out the stud shell leaving the hole ready for re-tapping. A great sense of achievement was felt after bedding in my first regulator valve and first axle box.
When the boilers were finished and all of the gauges, etc. were fitted they were put outside the boiler shop for steam testing. My biggest day was due as a boiler to which I had fitted the various parts on to the cab end, as usual lots of eyes were on every boiler under test to see if any steam leaks shewed. The night before the test I did not sleep too good as I wanted everything to go well so that my father would not be disappointed in me. Came the day and I am pleased to say no steam leaks and the "Well done son" from my father made me feel on top of the world.
The fitting shop foreman was Charlie Dyer. In the summer time when weather permitted the windows near the roof over the overhead crane rails were opened and birds used to fly in and out. One day a pigeon came in and sat on the crane rail and several people tried scaring it off and I remember picking up an old nut and shying at it, missing of course, and the nut sailed through one of the panes, this was just before the lunch break. After lunch Mr Dyer came and tapped me on the shoulder saying "See that broken pane up there laddie?", I replied "Yes, Sir", then he said "Do you know how it happened?". I was so scared I am afraid I lied and said, "No, Sir", whereupon he said "Well if you do laddie make sure you come and tell me", and as he walked off a grin came on his face, and I realised that he knew I had done it.
Leisure time activities were good, tennis and cricket in the summer with football and gymnastics also boxing in the Railway Institute in the winter. I remember the football team called "Melton Swifts" being formed with fixtures being organised by that "genial giant" Stanley Barsted. We won one of the local leagues in our second season. I played at right halfback, other team members spring to mind such as Harry Grint, Eric Barrett, Billy Mays, Albert Williamson and Arthur Bunkel. During the winter months we had evening classes at the Railway Institute under such good teachers as "Paddy" Lloyd and Mr Barrett. As an employee of the M&GN I was entitled to join the Railway Institute which was managed under the eagle eye of Bob Wilson. For the first two years we were restricted to the three-quarter sized snooker table in the small room, I think it was adjoining the library room. Then came the great day when I was able to go into the two rooms that had full-sized tables. I remember the big nights were on Fridays when with my pals Harry Grint, Eric Warner and Jack Shepherd we used to walk to Briston to see the films in the Oddfellows Hall, I wonder where they are now?
When the Melton works was closed in December 1936 my father was transferred to the New England depot at Peterborough but for some reason or other, I do not remember what, I was not given the chance to finish my apprenticeship with the railway so I joined a gauge and machine tool company to finish my apprenticeship. It was here that I had my eyes opened as far as threads were concerned with such things as effective diameters, crest and root radii, etc., in my early days at Melton on the centre lathe we had a standard nut and a vee tool and we threaded the bolt until the nut screwed on.
Early in 1940 I volunteered for flying duties in the RAF and after two days of physical, written and oral tests was accepted. After eight weeks of initial training in the UK I went to North America for flying training in the USA and Canada. Upon finishing my training I was commissioned as a pilot officer and returned to the UK to be crewed-up on twin-engined bombers B.25s known as "Mitchells". Based in East Anglia we used for practice the bombing range in the "Wash", as our route out to the range passed Melton Constable we deviated slightly from our track so I had a birds-eye view of Melton Hall, railway station, railway institute, Hastings Arms, and the two schools I attended, one in Melton Constable and the other halfway between Melton and Briston. Later on I moved to four engined bombers so flew at night and did not get a chance to see Melton again from the air.
After leaving the RAF I returned to the same machine tool company and worked through various departments and eventually ending up on the technical scales side. These duties took me around the world, from Chicago in the west to Peking in the east, Stockholm in the north to Capetown in the south. I first visited the USSR in 1960 and in the following ten years visited the USSR about forty times and all the eastern bloc countries except Hungary. All in all I visited twenty-one countries in doing my work. In 1979 I received a letter/saying I had been recommended for the MBE for my services on export sales. With my wife and son we went to Buckingham Palace in July 1979 to the Investiture. It was one of the proudest days in my life since my first boiler test. When we arrived back home that night I looked at the medal with my wife and said "That's not too bad for a man who started his engineering life in a railway workshop in a small village called Melton Constable in Norfolk."
Now back to what I call the sights, scents and sounds of Melton Constable. Firstly, the sights of the school dentist in his horse-drawn surgery entering the school playground and the dentist complete with leather buckins, school children gathered at the railway station to go on a Sunday School outing to Sheringham or Cromer. Secondly the scents like the aroma coming from the coffee, ham, bacon and cheese from Mr Colman's grocery shop and from the bakery of Mr Rose. Lastly the sounds of people talking in the hairdressing shops of Mr Eke and Mr Clitheroe, the crack of ball against bat echoing in the trees surrounding Melton Hall Park cricket ground and the works hooter at the end of the day.
I realise things have changed in Melton Constable and what I have referred to as the Railway Institute is now known as the Melton Country Club and I apologise if I have not spelt any person's name correctly.
Len Bussey MBE - M&GN Circle