Toms Sites.
I started working on the Tuesday after Easter on the
16th April at the tender age of 15 years old in 1968. I worked in
the construction industry for just over fifty years until I retied on New
Year’s Day 2019. It is not the easiest industry to work in, but as I look back
I am glad I done it. I learnt and saw a lot, it can be a real eye opener.
I have listed below all of the sites, I remember, I don’t think I have missed any. I will try to give a short write up on some, it may get a bit boring near the end as I was a housing site manager for almost the last 20 years, and as a lot of lads would say, “you’ve built one house, you’ve built them all!
The numbers at the end of some write ups (1) (2) etc is the amount of site that one is with that company.
1. Cargo area – Heathrow airport – 1968. WC French.
I started as a chain boy/chain lad, I am sure many girls do it these days. The role is to assist a site engineer in their duties of setting out the work areas etc. The lads I was working with nearly all came from London, that’s where they lived as they were nearly all Irish.
Two weeks before I started a BOAC Boeing 707 had crashed off the end of the runway, it caught fire and five died, it was left very close to where we were working. BOAC and BEA joined in 1974 to become BA.
2. Multi storey carpark – Hatton Cross Heathrow.1969 – 1970. WCF. (2).
When the work was complete on the last site I was
transferred to here which was not far away, I used to cycle everywhere in those
day, as a lot of kids did. This was a massive multi storey carpark with two
floors of large workshops for airplane engine repairs etc, on the ground and
first floor then four floors of carpark. It had a large approach ramp at the front and a exit spiral ramp at the rear.
This
was a reinforced concrete frame. It was the first site I worked on that had a
tower crane on it. I also played a “stunt” part in a film while I was there.
This can be looked up these days, it was in a series of films called ‘The
magnificent six and ½ ‘it was called the ‘Astronauts.’ If you get the chance to watch the film I
was the young one walking on the edge of the building. They paid me £5 for the
day which was more then I earned in week in those days
While I
went there as a chain boy and did a lot of work on the concrete testing as
they had their own laboratory there as they had on the other site. I went on to
carpentry for the first time there also.
This site was not far from Hatton Cross in Faggs Road which is just outside the airport itself. I had been moved there to work with the carpenters on this refurb. It was an old warehouse that had been brought by one of the airline companies for food storage for the airplanes. I had all my carpentry tools that I was building up all stolen there.
4. Joinery workshop Hanworth Middx.
I got this job after I had a fall out with my foreman on the job above and jacked. It was okay to start with but it became brain numbing doing the same thing all the time. I had been promised a bench joiners job but it never happed so I jacked and worked with mates on the one below.
5. Laundry – Feltham.
I thought I would like working with mates, but I totally hated it, another brain numbing job. So, after a short while away from the buildings I was back below.
6. BEA hanger Heathrow 1970 – 1971. John Laing. (1)
This was the start of my on off relationship with John Laing Construction which would last until the mid-1980’s. I went back to working as a chain boy here but later went back carpentry. We also built a lot of concrete aprons here but the main contract was to build a hanger for BEA.
This was a new form of construction where four very large steel corner columns were concreted into the ground and then the roof built on the ground and then ‘jacked’ into the air. The remainder of the building, including the floor slab was built when the roof was in place.
I was 18 while on this site, the adult age of 21 had just been moved to 18. As I started work at 15 it had seemed a very long time coming to get an adults wage.
7. Sugar silos Spalding – Lincolnshire. 1971. JL. (2)
This was my first time working away from home. An engineer I had worked with, a Welshman, Roger Clifford was going there as site manager and he asked me and a ganger man, Ted Duran (who I will come on to later) to go with him.
I went up there on Sunday the 2nd January 1971, which was the day after the Ibrox stadium disaster, where 66 people died. The train I was on was full of Scotch people going back to Glasgow, not knowing what happened to family and friends. It was in the days before mobile phones and emails, it was very sad.
I worked there on the silos for nine months, from the start to finish. There was already two soils and a lift shaft there, (very much like the ones above) we were building another two. The structures were 220-foot-high and 80-foot across. The round shutters were built on the ground, then jacked into the air concreting as we went. We worked 24 hours a day, 2, 12-hour shifts, and finished them each within a week. We lived in a pub The White Swan for most of the time we were there, which of course meant a lot of drinking. I went on holiday aboard for the first time to Majorca while I was there, a week cost £32.00p. I meet a friend who I with for some years on this site, Jock, (George) Coutts. He was older than me but we got on well.
I earnt some very big money for those days there. I got £36 bonus one week, bearing mind I used to take home just over £25 per week. The silos have now been demolished and I believe there is now a power station on the site.
8. Water treatment plant at the Anchor Steel Plant Scunthorpe Lincolnshire. 1971 – 1972. JL (3)
The site we were working on was The Anchor Steel Plant, which was being built by McAlpine. It was a massive site, it was worth about £47 million and ours about two and a half, which was a lot of money in those days. We built very large concrete water tanks, for treating water.
I worked with some lads there, two carpenters from Derby. They were always on about me going there for the weekend but I didn’t fancy it. One Saturday I had a fall out a work, which I did a lot in my younger days and left work at lunch time and not 4/00 and went to the local pub and got very drunk. I met John and Robbie at tea time then the next thing I remember was waking up in the back of the car on my way to Derby. I met my ex-wife that night in club, and as they say the rest is history. The industry had its first week’s holiday at Christmas while I was on this site. I also supervised for the first time on there.
Above is a photo of the camp I lived in which was next to the Anchor Steel Plant.
9. Reservoir South Wales. JL. 1972 (4)
I got moved there because the two lads I used to go Derby with had been moved and as I did not drive it suited me to go with them. I had been living with my ex-wife for a while in Scunthorpe so I was now staying Wales with the lads, I did not like it very much there and jacked after eight weeks.
Again, we were shuttering and pouring a lot of concrete. I can’t remember of the area we were working in, it was a small village between Newport near the sea. I know why they grass is so green in Wales, because in the eight weeks I was there it rained every day at some point, a good place to have a reservoir!
The underground line was between Hounslow West and Heathrow Central, the section I worked on was from Hounslow West to Hatton Cross, this runs along the Great South West Road (A30). A lot of it runs at road level, I was mainly working on the tunnel. This was in areas only just below ground level. We built concrete walls then laid concrete beams between the walls which were then concreted, at a later point the ground was dug out under this.
While I working there a BEA fight to Brussels crashed near Staines on a Sunday 18th June killing all 118 people on board. I was in Derby that weekend and came back on the Sunday afternoon and was stuck on the bus for ages, not knowing what had happened.
11. Factory – Burton-upon-Trent Staffordshire.1972. JL. (5)
At this point there was a national building worker strike on in the UK, and the site I was working on was about to stop work. My mates Ted and Jock were working on this site which was not far from Derby. While I was backing the strike I just got married and my ex-wife was a widow with two young children so I needed to work, dare I say we were “blacklegs” but it got us through.
This was a new build factory just outside of Burton, it was nearly finished when we got there. I was on the list for the next site and as soon as the strike was over I got the call.
12. Eagle Shopping Centre – Derby. 1972 – 1974. Taylor Woodrow. (1.
The strike went on for most of the summer and after it was over we saw a lot of sub-contractors come into the industry, the bosses did not want this to happen again. We had not had a pay raise for many years.
This was the job I had been after for some time, it would give me work for a couple of years. It was a very large site and covered a large area of the town centre. There were some big stores there, one was C&A which are not in the UK anymore but are in other countries. We used to work seven days most weeks which of course was good for money.
I met another good friend there, Joe McCabe who had come over from Belfast with his family because of the troubles there. I used to travel in on the bus, it was a handy job for me. My daughter Claire was born while I worked there. This is where I first started to learn to use a power-float on concrete.
14. Castle Donnington (East Midlands) Airport. 1974. Tarmac Construction.
This job was sorted out for us a gang of concreters, there was four of us, me Joe, Ray, he set it up and another who’s name I can’t remember. It was a 12-mile drive. We were concreting a new apron at the airport (almost back to where I started from) it only lasted six months but was a good job and we made some good money while we were there.
15. National Exhibition Centre -Birmingham. 1974.
I have put this in as I did work there, all be it for one day. We had finished at the last site and there was nothing around much at the time. So again, as a gang we went looking for work and ended up in Birmingham. It was over 40 miles and apart from Ray none of us liked the job, the second day we didn’t get the until gone 9/00 because of the traffic, so we called it a day.
16. Office block – Derby city centre. 1974 – 1976. TW. (3)
This was a 12-story high and shaped like a ‘T’ office block near the town centre in Derby, I was out of work for a little while between these sites but not too long, but of course that is the down side to our industry.
This was a good job for me, I was on it “from start to finish.” The there was Irishman I had worked with on the Eagle Centre, Paul Matthews, I got Joe the start there also.
We had a lot of Indian carpenters there who had just been kicked out of Uganda by Idi Amin. This was one of those sites a person can look back on and say, “yes that was a good job.” We had nearly the same gang all the way through and over all we all got on well.
17. Telephone exchange – Derby. 1976 – 1976. Ford & Weston.
After saying all that I did above this one was the other way. The company was a small local firm, and had some very funny ideas. Their management had been with them since they were young and this was the biggest site they had ever had, I got Joe the start here also.
I was there from the start and was a ganger man, we did all the concreting and when we started going up in floors, they had us erecting the ‘Quick-Stage’ scaffolding for the decking. They refused to pay us any extra money for doing it, so after a while we refused to do it, they sacked us. It was the only time I got the sack. We took them to a tribunal, but lost. That was my last job in Derby.
18. Housing site Wooden Hill Bracknell. 1977. Sub-con.
I worked on a housing site for an Irish sub-con ground worker, who was banned from driving. He had a driver and seemed to be drunk every time he turned up. I done one week for him as the that was the amount of work left on the site. I wouldn’t go to another site with him, the next week in Southampton, as I needed to be working in Bracknell to get the house. He wanted to fight me about that on my last day. But I did get a letter signed by him, which is what I needed for my housing application to go forward.
19. Housing site, Birch Hill, Bracknell. 1977. Brick workers.
20. Housing site Bracknell and Ascot. 1977 – 1979. Brick workers. Chaney Brothers (1).
I took another hod carrying job later that year, it was almost on the next site, I was given a tip off about it, it was more money. While I was there over two years I have to say the people, I worked with and for, were “miserable toe rags.” Mainly there about nine of us, a six and three (6 brickie’s + 3 hoddie’s). Two brothers run the company, they were in their 60’s
Frank who was the main boss brought a wheelbarrow in from home for us to use. Late one Friday afternoon not long before we went home I was driving the dumper and another hoddie Mick left the barrow in the road, I ran it over, totally flattened it, dead! We had words about it, but decide not to tell Frank then as we didn’t need to take home a bollocking for the weekend. On the Monday I had forgot all about it, until I passed Frank who said, “why didn’t you tell me about the wheelbarrow on Friday?” Before I could say a word, he said, “did you think it was going to get fucking better over the weekend?” It was funny, but no one was laughing.
21. Housing site in Ascot. (CB) (2).
This site was for the two brothers again. It was a pain for me as the first site I worked on for them was near my home. Frank had a fall out with the site manager on the site, he didn’t come until the afternoon the next day, then said, “we are off to a new site in Ascot tomorrow!” I didn’t have a car in those days, but one of the lads used to give me a lift. I left because of bad weather, but I was not sorry to leave this lot at all.
22. BMW site Bracknell. 1979. Sub-con.
This was only a week’s work before I got the next job which was on the site next door. It was a bad winter and we had stopped bricklaying as it was freezing every day or snowing. When I told Frank, I was leaving (on the phone) he went mad, and would not pay me my holiday pay, I got a solicitor involved and got the money.
I worked for an Irish ground work sub-contractor, again here. When I got paid on the Friday, I was called into a caravan the subbie had there, by the foreman. The foreman opened the door, the subbie another bloke who was an older well over weight chap, he had a case in front of him which was full of money. The foreman told him what hours I had worked and he paid me. I turned to leave then saw for the first time a very large chap behind the door with a pickaxe handle in in hand, held across his chest. I am pleased I did not complain.
23. Boehringer Ingelheim drugs factory Bracknell. 1979 -1981. JL (6).
Back with John Laing, I was over two years on this site and got some money when I was made redundant, not the last time got money for being laid off, but it was the first time for me. My daughter Jean was born while I was on this site.
Again, not far from where I lived. This was a new phase to the existing complex, the new area did in fact make drugs, unlike the rest of it. It had a very large ground floor where the drugs would be made, and a technical floor which was totally covered in machines that mainly vented the floor below.
I had an accident there where I fell and broke both of my wrists and put 10 stiches in my forehead. I was in hospital a few days and off work for over three months. We had four children at home and next too no money, not good. This was the first time I worked with a chap called Dave Dier, we worked together from sometime after that. While I was working there the industry had its first week’s holiday at Easter.
24. A329 by-pass – Bracknell to Wokingham. 1981 – 1982. French Kier.
I was not back at work long before the job above finished. Dave and I got finished at the same time, we got a job together on this site. There was a lot of concreting on this site and while it was a separate contract the company had another site nearby at a place in Bracknell called the Twin Bridges round-about. This was a series of underpasses at the round-about, we used to do the concrete on this as well.
While I left this job just over mid-way through it was a good job. The road covered some miles between the two towns. We put in other underpasses, a storm/surface water culvert, but the main work was on a bridge across the railway. We did a lot of work on this, from concreting the very large bases, both of which had a large amount of concrete in. Very large abutment walls, they were so big we used to climb inside the shutters to vibrate them. We also laid the beams that crossed the railway. This was all night work, we used one of the largest cranes in the country to reach across.
French Kier was two companies who had joined together a few years before. The French was from WC French who I had worked for before and met a few chaps I had worked with on other sites. I think this was the first time this had happened to me, but it happened many times after that, as that is the nature of our industry.
25. Warehouse complex – Bracknell refuse tip. 1982. Buxton Construction.
It was in an area of ground facing the rubbish tip which had been used as a tip over the years. This was reconstituted for us to build on. There was a complex of units that of varying sizes that are let to local businesses. As there was gases in the ground below where we were working, under the concrete floors which we were laying was sheeting and pipes to vent the gases off externally.
26. Princess Square Bracknell. 1982 – 1983. Balfour Beatty. (1)
It a fair size shopping centre, again I was concreting and there was a lot. We were in fact concreting from morning until night, and when I say night we had many late ones of them, and most weekends. But I have always worked long hours, and of course when a person is on an hourly rate, it’s all good money, plus loads of tax. It was found out at one point that regarding steel reinforcement (Rebar) in the concrete slabs, that they did not have the correct amount in them, and many slabs had to be broken out and replaced.
Both Dave and I went there together, we flew on the 5th December 1983. The war with Argentina was about 18 months before, and the British government was having an airfield built at Mount Pleasant to defend the islands.
To get there we flew over night to Joburg, South Africa, then on to Cape Town for two weeks on an old North Sea ferry, the MV England, photo above. We went at the start of the project and spent the first few months in port-a-cabins on the beach about 7 miles from the airfield.
The first seven months I was there I worked on the new contractor’s camp near the airfield, which of course was for us and others to live in. There was always a rush there, as there were always rooms needed for the next lot of new workforce on their way.
I spent the rest of my time there on a few different sections. In all, that includes travelling, of which there was a lot I spent just over seventeen months in all involved in the project. The reader can read more about the project in the fact/fiction account of the project: The Lads from the Pleasant ‘B’ Team, by this author.
28. Office block /Warehouses, Bracknell. 1985.
This was a McAlpine’s site, not far from where I lived. I worked for a subcontractor, Keltbury. While I was working on their ground division they are very well known for their demolition works.
I was a fair size office block/warehouse and I was doing the power floating of the ground floor slabs, which would be warehouse areas, with offices on the floors above. Again, with it being local it was good for me to stay and do the late nights. The others lads lived in Reading and wanted to get home. I was there a few months, but the Mc’s foreman did not like me very much, as I told him what I thought of him one day. So, when the power floating was complete, I jacked. This was the first time my son Paul worked with me.
29. Office block, Bracknell. 1985. John Newby. (1)
Dave Dier had finished in the Falkland Islands before me and he got me the “start” on this site, again not far from home. Again, another large office block, a bit nearer home for me. We were with a ground works sub-contractor, we concreted the large bases, then the floor slab before moving on to the site below.
30. AWRE. Aldermaston 1985 – 1986. JN – on a John Laing site. (2)
A person needed passes to go everywhere on the site. The Christmas I was there, when we got back from the holiday break, one of our diggers was gone. A low loader lorry had turned up the day after we broke up and they said they were there to take it to another site; the police then took them in to get it. They had nicked it!
31. Tizi Ouzou. Gendarmeries in Algeria. 1986 – 1988. Baxter Fell. (1)
This was me working overseas again. I was there in all just over twenty months on four different sites. The company was British and part of the Tarmac group. We were building gendarmeries for the government all over the country. These are like forts that house gendarmes, which are like the police.
I spent most of my time on this site, I went at the end of July 1988, it was red hot at the time, and of course 85% of our work was outside. We built very large sites, down to smaller ones in small towns. This was a large one. It had barracks, offices, canteens, sports hall, sports fields, weapon stores and much more. All of this was surround by high pre-cast concrete walls and watch towers.
On every site here I was power floating and concrete finishing, which meant for some very long days, but like the Falklands it was all tax-free so that was really good.
32. Reghaia. As above. (2)
We again worked lots of hours because of the rush. They had a Scots chap Willie who was over all the concrete there, no one liked him, but I was okay with him. After four weeks we got everything done and were leaving on the Thursday night to go back to Tizi, when I was told by the project manager that I had to stay another week as Willie had asked for me to stay!
33. Blida. As above. (3)
34. Batna. As above. (4)
I was at Blida until Christmas 1987 then went home for two weeks, then got moved to another “stream” there was three in all. The new stream was Constantine to where we had a two-hour flight from Algiers then it was another two drive down to the site which was near the desert.
Again, it was one of the larger sites. Is was only when I got there that I found out that one of the site managers and the project manager who I had worked for at Tizi, both Scotchmen, like many of the workers out there, were running the site and had asked for me to be moved there, I had always thought they didn’t like me? I was here until my second contract finished in the April, I was asked so many times to come back for another six months but had just had enough.
35. Panasonic Bracknell. Shephard Construction. 1988 – 1989. (1)
Apart from a small break of about six-months this was the start of an eight-year run with Shepherds. They are a northern firm; their head office is in York. When I look back my time with them, it changed my career in the industry.
The office staff I worked with were from the North West office in Manchester, and would travelled down by plane each week, at the start I used to take them on Friday and pick them up on Monday from Heathrow. I got on well with all those lads.
I was on the site for over a year, and at one point had about 10 men working for my own company, including son Paul. We built a large office block and warehouse there, and again it was close to home. I met a chap there called Brian whom I had worked with in Algeria. He got me fixed with my next job.
36. The Point – Bracknell. Tom English – 1989. (1)
The Panasonic site was nearly finished and Shepherds had no work nearby at that point, so I took a power floating for a ground works subbie at a shopping centre not far from home. We concreted all the floors in the units there and power floated the sloping floors in the cinema, which while I had concreted sloping areas before I had not power floated them, it’s not easy.
37. M&S – Tesco Sandhurst, Berkshire. 1989. As above. (2)
This site with the subbie above when that job was finished. Not far away from home, we put in all the concrete parking bays, lorry delivery bays and floor slabs in the stores. I jacked as I had been offered a job back with Shepherds at the site below.
38. Gatwick Airport. Shephard's. 1989 1991. (2)
This is probably the best single site/job I ever had. We built ‘Pier 4’ at the North Terminal at Gatwick Airport. I was there from the very start and not only to the finish but I also went back there a year later supervising the first year’s maintenance.
As I said I was offered the job by the project manager, John Bowman, I didn’t know John but was recommended to him by the contracts manager I had been involved with at Panasonic. I got on really well with John and while I went there as a ganger he made me up to general foreman.
While it was 30 years ago the rules were very tough with-it being airside at the airport. It took me nearly an hour each way, but like I said I really enjoyed the job. If you know Gatwick it is the pier from the North Terminal that takes the passengers to the ‘gates.’ It cost £40 million
39. Old Baily London. Shephard's. 1991 1992. (3)
This was in a very large office block facing the law courts. Gatwick was ending and I was asked to supervise the weekend work, I shall explain. As I said it was a large office block, it had eight floors and on each floor was eight large toilets, male and female in each corner. The toilets were built in the Far East in pod’s which came here on a deck of a ship which went through storms coming here and got wet. When the heating went on, all the wall tiles started popping as the plywood they were fixed to dried out and expanded.
The stripping out of the pod’s could only be done at weekends because of noise and dust etc. To start with I went there on every other Friday night to set up the protection, then we did the work (stripping out the tiles and plywood) on the Saturday's and Sunday's. It had to be complete before the Monday morning when the offices opened again.
40. Guinness factory Park Royal London. As above. (4)
This was the second time I had worked with the project manager Paul Murray, the first was Panasonic, and it was him who put me forward for the Gatwick job.
I was on this site for almost two years. Shepherds got a few contracts while I was there and through a lot of input by Paul. We firstly built a new kegging plant, and then a new storage and transport area and lastly a new brewing house. This was all during a recession, so I was very pleased to have kept working. I believe it is now a housing estate.
While I was on this site I started my ‘First Line Supervisors Course’ which was run by the company which lasted two years in which I went to the head office in York for different courses I also did my first ‘Health & Safety’ certificate during that time. Before that with Shepherds I also went to Reading collage to complete my carpentry ‘City & Guilds’ which I should have finished many years before.
41. Farnborough Airbase, Surrey. 1994/1996. As above. (5)
This at the time was a massive contract, over £90 million, but unfortunately it ended in tears for Paul and myself.
The contract was a rationalization project by the government to bring together a lot of sectors and sell off other sites. Paul moved on there with a few months to go at Guinness at which point I was left to finish the site, which I had done a few times for them. As I said this was a very large site, I was over all of our employed labour, materials, plant and a lot more. I was also in charge of organizing all the on-site training, and every course we had I also did it, giving me a lot of certificates. Which came in very handy later on.
Paul was a very hard ‘task master’ which I and the other lads, those of us who had been together for a while were used to. But it was not liked by other who came from other sites, namely the safety and security managers who went out of their way to try and drop Paul in it. He resigned over this and so did I a little later on. There was a lot of back stabbing there which I was pleased to get away from. I took them to an industrial tribunal for constructive dismissal, but the paid up before the hearing. I did in fact start wearing glass while I was on this site, as I kept getting bad headaches.
42. Warehouse in Wokingham. January 1996 – June 1996.
When that was finished I got a week's work with a builder who was doing a strip out on the warehouse, that was only a week’s work. I then got a job in the warehouse repairing and assembling pump up forklift trucks, another “brain dead job,” but again it kept the money coming in until I got the job below. Between the last two jobs I took a week’s working with a chap fitting office furniture. I will say it again, “it kept the money coming in!!!”
43. Army & Navy Store – Guilford Surrey. June 1996 – December 1996. BB. (2)
We built a large extension on to the store. It was difficult in a lot of ways as it was a very small area we had for storage etc, and had to use the parking bays in the street outside. This was also used as a market at the weekend, so we seemed to be forever moving things, from Thursday night until Sunday. I spent as much time on a forklift as I did supervising there as I was the only person on for BB with a forklift licence. But it was a good job for me, and of course kept me working. The Army and Navy Stores are now House of Fraser.
I did split up with my wife of 25 years while on this site.
44. Warehouse refurbishment West London. 1996 – 1997.
Paul Murray started his own company shortly after leaving Shepherds. The job above was coming to an end near Christmas time 1996. I had kept in contact with Paul and he took me on for this site. A book packaging and distribution company had a fire at their warehouse nearby. Our job was to get this disused warehouse up and running as quickly as possible. It made for very hard work as they moved the packers in as soon as we had a small area ready in this very large warehouse. So, I was spending a lot of time coordinating their movements. Paul didn’t have much on at the end of this so I moved on, again!
46.Warehouse site – Reading, Berkshire. As above. (2)
This was the main site I was on with them, it was a large warehouse just outside of Reading, just along the M4 for me. The main contractor went out of business while we were on this site and our boss didn’t lay us off but to be fair to him he said that he probably would have sooner or later so that brought me to number 48.
47. Housing site – Hindhead Surry. As above. (3)
While I spent very little time on this job, but there is a story I want to tell from it. The site was nearly complete and we were finishing off some footpaths out the front by the main road, I had brought the gear in the lorry and was helping the one chap left there. It was mid-morning and we were approached by two chaps, one of whom showed us a police warrant card and said, “can we help you for a few minutes please?” We agreed and gave one a shovel and one a pick axe, they played with the ground for a few minutes until a chap came out of a house facing. They then thanked us and went after him? Lots of questions in that?
Les and the site manager Ken wanted to take me on for the company, but the construction manager Colin Sillvy wouldn’t let it happen. He and the site manager didn’t get on very well and I don’t think Colin liked me very much. But I was on site well over a year, and I was working 12 hours a day 7 days a week which was really good as I was getting devoiced at the time so the job came at just the right time.
49. Office block – Slough. As above. (4)
50. Housing estate – Greenwich, London. As above. (5)
I took this job to keep working and because Ken wanted me to go there but I only did it for two weeks for a couple of reasons. I went by train and was getting the first one, leaving home at 5/45 and getting back at 19/30. I have always done the long hours but I didn’t like being on the train all the time. The other reason was the construction manager, (another one) wouldn’t pay my rail fare.
I did in fact like the job, it was right beside the River Thames and close to the Cutty Sark (photo above). It was refurbishing a large housing estate mainly flat, internally and external.
51. Houses and apartments – Woking, Surrey. 1999 – 2008. Premier Properties. 1999/2000. (1)
This job changed my pathway in work, I shall explain. While I had supervised many times before Shepard’s, they changed my direction a lot, i.e. getting the certificates etc. Balfour Beatty had done well for me and got me through a very tough period of my life, but I did feel ground down after I had finished with them, and never wanted to supervise again. I came across this job by chance and found the site by taking the “wrong turning,” but when I told that to a friend some time later, she said, “you took the right turning Tom, you just didn’t know it at the time.” Which is very right.
I took a job as a forklift driver and was happy doing that and turned down the GF’s job when it was offered the first time. They took a GF on who was worse than “useless” and was sacked after a couple of months, I was then told in no uncertain terms by the manager Malcom that I would take the GF’s job, which I did.
It was a large site with 11 town houses, 9 smaller houses and two apartment blocks. I was on site for over a year and when Malcom moved onto the next site below, I finished this one which included all the snagging and handovers.
52. Two Apartment blocks – Lightwater, Surrey. 2000. PP. 2000. (2)
These were ‘timber frame’ which was the first of what would be many for me. I enjoy learning new things and this one thing I was very pleased to get into and did do a course on this later on. These were retirement 2 apartments blocks which PP did a lot of.
Malcom was literally sacked overnight, or to be correct early one Monday morning. A chap who had not been there long and who I had never meet before, Mick, came to site to tell me and to say, “would I run the site until they get a new manager?” I said, “yes,” the new manager never appeared! I was given a van by PP at this site.
53. 12 Apartments and 4 Houses. West End Surrey. PP. 2000/01 (3)
This was my first site as the site manager, running the site on my own that is. Again, not far for me, about two miles further on for me from the last site, which was handy as I had them both on the go at one point. Again, timber frame, I was starting to get my head around it a lot more at this point. I was given a company car at this site from PP.
I will say at this point that I had never wanted to be a site manager. I had seen so too many over the years, “crack up,” be totally “stressed out” get ill, have break downs, I even knew a manger years ago that took his own life. So, like when I left BB I didn’t want to supervise and got told I would, it was just about the same with this. I kept doing the job and it was on the site below I officially got made up and got paid managers money. After pushing them that is!
54. 6 Houses and 12 apartments – Farnborough, Surrey. PP. 2001. (4)
This site ran on from the one above, and again I had them both on the go at the same time. We had our own forklift and we needed it at this site for the bricklayers, so instead of paying for a lorry, I drove it to site at 5/00 in the morning, it was 15 miles. Maurice one of our team lived near this site and took me back to West End, to pick my car up.
This was the worst site we ever had for getting broken into, it was a nightmare. I was taken on the monthly staff while on this site. Before that I was being paid fortnightly, which I had never had before.
I started a two year ‘Site Managers Diploma’ course while I was on this site.
55. Apartment block – Frimley, Surrey. PP. (5)
This and the last site were about 3 miles apart, so again not bad for distance, again I started this one with the other coming to the end. I was told, by Mick on the Friday that I would be starting it the following Monday. He took me down there to show me where it was, I went there later in the day to have a look. There were two, large houses at the bottom of a longish lane. In one house was a woman with a young child who said I could have a look around.
The lady had lots to do and she said, that next door had their house up for sale, and our company had approached her and her husband the week before, and if they wanted the deal they had to be out by this weekend. I said I would have told them to poke it! She didn’t tell me how much but said the offer was so good they couldn’t turn it down. This was ten apartments, timber frame. We started this on the 26th November 2001 and finished it at the end of June the next year.
56. Two classrooms + store. Onkani, Namibia – Raleigh International June to September 2002.
I will put this one in as when all is said and done it was a site. I went to Africa for three months with the above charity. I had seen it in the Construction News, I had to have the time off work which PP gave me, with pay. I put all my holidays in for the year and said to put my bonus in also to help pay for it. But fair play to them because the site above went so well they gave me a £1,000 bonus also.
We had a base camp just outside the capital, Windhoek. But to our site was a 3-day trip. The charity is for youth development, 18 to 26-year olds, from all walks of life and from all over the world. The site was nearly three hours from a main town, it had a community of about 2,000 people and one water tank for everyone, which we all took turns in getting water from.
We did the work in three phases, with different young people (ventures) each time. The first phase was the ground works and blockwork walls. The second we put the roof on and fitted the windows. While we were on “change-over” this time we hired locals to render the external walls, then on the third phase we did the decorating and finishes, and of course the grand opening. I enjoyed it very much, and I was 50 while I was out there.
57. Two apartment blocks – Camberley, Surrey. PP. (6)
The site was on a slope, which proved a problem regarding a lot of the ground works, one block was in front of the another as the site was longer than it was wide. Because of the "fall" of the site we put a pumping station in to remove the sewage. This packed up one Saturday morning shortly after all the the residents moved in. Lets say, this was, "a mess!"
58. Six house – Fleet, Hampshire. PP. (7)
I finished these houses at the same time as the site above. The site manager, I am going to call him Albert just wasn’t up to the job. I got a message off Mick one morning asking me to meet him on site there at 9/00 am. When I got there, he said he had sacked Albert and that I would be finishing them.
The site was close to the end but there were a fair few problems to sort out before it could be passed with the NHBC to get the completion certificate. There was just so many thing Albert had not done correctly, I don’t know how he ever became a manager, well I do, they didn’t have anyone else at the time. He had down pipes that were not connected to the drainage, along with a lot more things, but we got it sorted!
Above is a photo of Fleet High Street. It is a really nice town.
59. Two apartment blocks – Church Crookham, Fleet Hampshire. PP. (8)
This site was not far from the one above and on this one the site manager jacked, I ended up finishing it, as I did many times for PP. Going back to when I returned from Namibia, I had it in my head that I was going to get “laid off.” I was mainly because Mick could be a right funny bugger at times, and he and I had fallen out, let’s say, more than once.
I had a plan, it was then September when I got back, I would get an agency job until the New Year then I would do another three months with Raleigh, somewhere in the world. I got home about 9/00 in the morning, got sorted and got a cab to our office in Bagshot. I went in expecting for, “your off!” Instead Mick said, “okay, when are you starting back? Your new site is in Camberley, here’s your car keys, I’ll take you over there. As Robbie Burns would say: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men!”
Above was a well known near-by pub.
60. Five houses – North Warnborough Hampshire. PP (9)
This site was near Basingstoke, but still handy for me as we are not far from the M3 (and the M4) and the site was a few minutes from J5. These were traditional (brick and block) built. They were nice big houses and went for "nice big money." I started a lad from Basingstoke on this site, Joey I shall call for reasons the reader will understand later.
Like a lot of sites, neighbours who were there before us, didn’t like us being there, not sure how they think their houses got built? Anyway, there was one chap who was forever moaning at me. One dark morning while I was opening the gates I heard a noise near the pick up I was driving, I turned around and saw a figure disappear in the gate beside the chap’s house. It was only later that I saw the cracked back window on the truck. I think I was shot at by an air rifle!
61. Apartment block – Bagshot, Surrey. PP. (10)
This site was just off the high street Bagshot which was less than a 10-minute drive for me. This was a block of ten which I had on the go with the one above and the next one. I went in on the Monday morning of the Christmas week, to find that metal fencing laying on the ground and our forklift gone. I contacted the police straight way. I was about to leave in the afternoon when I got a phone call to say it had been found. It was in a lay-by in the country, not far from Windsor which was about fifteen miles away. The police said that they leave them in lay-bys and a lorry would pick them up later, I will say more about that kind of thing later.
62. 5 houses West End Surrey. PP. (11)
This site was not far from the other site I did in West End, mind you it is not a very big place. I did in fact and then finish this site. A new manager came in after I had stated it then he jacked before it was finished. I shall come on to him on the next site.
While I was on here just a small amount of time, I got reported to the HSE and the local authority by the same person, a builder who was an assistant manager and lived across the road. One was for the drainage of a portable toilet, which nothing was wrong with it, and the other was for starting work 10 minutes early on a Saturday morning. I don’t know what the bloke’s problem was? I knew the chap who came out regarding the second one. I said to him, “ok, yes we did start early, we needed to move the forklift, I am sorry. But when I was off work over Christmas and had a lay in, the dustman was around before 7/30.” He’s answer to that was, “Tom, don’t talk to me about dustmen!” Yeah, they get away with it because they are employed by the local authority!!!
63. Two apartment blocks and six houses Camberley Surrey. PP. (12)
The manager I was talking about above had the last job on the go and had started this one, when he jacked, I had 5 sites on at this point. These were all timber frame, two blocks of 12 apartments at the front. With a road in the middle to 5 houses at the rear.
The manager went on the Friday, I took over on the Monday and on that afternoon the HSE turned up. We had just started the first timber frame and they needed airbags for the lads working above. I got it sorted then when I went to the office and told Mick he said, “yes, that would have been Gary, the last manager because I refused to give him £500 bonus he said we owed him” I said, “for God’s sake Mick, I would have paid the £500 for all the hassle it has caused!”
64. Apartment block Camberley Surrey. PP. (13)
This was a really tight site, number 54 was also, but I would say this was tighter. It was a block of 8 apartments. After we set the site up we had my small office on the left of the gates an equally small canteen and toilets to the left and room to park the forklift in front of the gates.
It was timber frame, when we had a crane in I had to park the forklift away from site. Near the end of this site I had a point where I just had that site on its own, but that didn’t last long, I shall explain below.
Near the end of this site and we were doing the landscaping outside the fence we had to grass an area, which as always, we grassed turf it. When I arrived the next morning, it had all been nicked, they took the lot!!
65. Ten houses Camberley Surrey. PP. (14)
This site was about two-minute drive around the corner from the one above. We were having an opening at the site above and I needed some metal fencing, I thought I could get some from this site. I hadn’t been there since the beginning as it was nothing to do with me. The manager had started not long before and had spent some time on site (at 62) with me until he got this site. I thought he was lazy but had said nothing.
It was a Friday afternoon when I went to his site. It was a large site with ten detected houses that were meant to be close to finished. Well, two things struck me as I drove in, the first being there was no one on site, the second being, the site was in such an awful state, I mean tribal. Rubbish everywhere, dangerous and filthy.
I went into his office, which was in a house, he was sat at his deck with his feet on it, with loads of lads (workers) in there. When I walked in he said, “oh I didn’t think you would be here until Monday.” I said “what?” He said, “I’ve been sacked and you are taking over.” While I was totally confused, I said “I knew nothing about it,” and left.
The telephone signals were rubbish there, in fact, it was zero! So, I thought I would go to the office which was not far away. On the way I got a message from Mick asking me to come and see him. In the meeting room with just the two of us, he said, “as you are nearly finished at Upper Park Road and I knew you would be bored, I thought you would like to take over this site.” I told him what had just happened and he said. “Tom, every time I go down there the site has just never moved on, and when I talk to him he just gives me a load of crap. So, you are taking over from Monday.” And so, I did!
66. Apartment block Sandhurst, Berkshire. PP. (15)
When I first started with PP there was a site manager called Jeremy, I met him a few times but never worked for him. He left sometime before, but at this point he had come back as a contract’s director the same as Mick. I got to know Jeremy at this point and got on well with him, it was around this time that Mick left and Jeremy took over completely from him.
This site was a bit nearer for me, it was 12 apartments just outside the town, not far from the army collage, they were timber frame. I did in fact have this job just on its own at one point.
67. Two apartment blocks Wokingham, Berkshire. PP. (16)
I just finished these when the manager jacked near the end. They would have been good for me to have done all the way though as it about a ten-minute drive from home. These were brick and block.
Anne and I was on holiday in Cyprus in 2019 and got friendly with a couple which it worked out lived almost next door to these, and were there when we built them.
68. Two apartment blocks – Windlesham, Surrey. PP. (17)
I had this one and the one below running just about at the same time. They were about ten minutes apart and not far from home for me. Two timber frame apartment blocks each of ten apartments.
We ended up having a big problem with ‘bats’ on this site. We didn’t even know we had them, until an official turned just before the demolition. Our land buyer had “turned over” the chap we brought the land off for some money and he reported us. We had to build a bat loft in one of the roofs and do a lot of extra work, I was told all-in-all it cost us over £100,000 extra. It would have been at the time that Gary Lineker the ex-footballer lived close by and I saw him in the local garage etc a few times.
69. Apartment block – Camberley, Surrey. PP. (18)
These two sites ended being the last site I did for PP in the Surrey Heath area. That was because of the bird the Dartford Warbler. Because of the amount of developments in the area and nesting problems for the bird they stopped giving planning for a while hence we moved out of the area.
This was 12 apartments, timber frame. While I had these two sites on the go my daughter Jean was in hospital at Ascot for about a week. It was a short diversion between the sites, so I used to go and visit and have afternoon tea with her.
70. Two apartment blocks – Croydon Surrey. PP. (19)
While I had a good run of work in the areas near us, this was over an hour each way, around the M25. Two blocks of ten apartments, brick and block.
This was next to a private nursery school, owned by a husband and wife who gave us nothing but trouble from the start. I went out of my to keep them happy but they just wanted money off us, “for the inconvenience of us being there.” Which they asked me for in a meeting one day. I said “put it in writing and I will pass it on to the office,” which they did. We had sent them a letter saying “no.” I was in a meeting with our QS when the HSE came to site.
They had reported us as a few weeks before we had a small scaffold tube fall in the playground. But I had already identified this as a risk and had fenced the area off, and had the risk assessment and method statement (RAMS) which I had made out. The officer asked for copies of everything which I gave her and she said her boss would not be happy with them as we had done everything correctly. Funny enough, we never heard another thing from them.
I had this on the go almost at the same time as the one above. This was a very modern looking building with a lot of coloured glass in it. This was fourteen apartments, ten were brick and block. At one end there was a reinforced concrete frame which had a large carparking area on the ground floor with another four brickwork clad apartments above it.
72. 28 apartments – Dorking, Surrey. PP. (21)
This was a large site on different levels. It was all reinforced concrete frame with brickwork cladding. This site started in November 2007 and was complete in October 2008, which was really good going, unfortunately as you may know by the dates, this was the time of the banks crash, and PP went out of business at the end of this site. I will tell more about this on the next sites.
Shortly after the Christmas, one night we had the back gates disc cut off and one of our groundworkers diggers was nicked. I reported it to the police the next day. Fast forward to the summer and I turned my phone on one morning and I had a message on it from the Portsmouth Port Police who asked me to contact them, which I did. It had been picked it up on a lorry the day before heading for Holland. We got it back.
73. Two apartment blocks (20 flats) – Reigate, Surrey. PP. (22)
I run this and the next site from the one above, with an assistant manager on each. This was two blocks of ten brick and block apartments. We had another site near by which we would have been starting soon. It had a old apartment block on it, which was full of copper pipes which were fixed.
I went over to the other site one day with Joey in the pick-up truck to drop off some metal fencing. When we got there, four blokes were there, I asked them what they were doing? They said they were waiting for Kevin the assistant, who had rung in sick that day. He said they had come to strip the copper out. I tried to ring Kevin, who didn’t answer, he had been tipped off. I left him a message and said I would see him about it soon. I didn’t see him again as that was a Friday and PP went out of business on the Monday morning. They came back another time and nicked all the cooper.
These were two very expensive houses which I had on with the two sites above. They were brick and block. The brickwork was just about finished when PP went, the bank sold the site. I had been to the office on the Friday afternoon to see Jeremy as I had sent all the lad’s home and was told to get the lads in the office for the Monday morning, that was when we all got laid off. I had been with them 9 years 7 months, the longest I had been with anyone. I had been told at my appraisal with Jeremy in the December (it was now October the next year 2008) that I was going to be made up to construction manager that year, it never happened. I got redundancy off the government. I was told later that they could have survived but the Bank (who will remain nameless) were in far more trouble called in all the debts. Very disappointing!
75. Two apartment blocks – Reigate, Surrey. TG Construction 2008 - 2011. (1)
Well, this is the same site as 22. I was out of work for 6 weeks. Mick joined Amir an Arab chap who had worked for me as assistant at one point. His father had put money into PP and was owed over four million pounds when they went. They waited for them to go then brought some sites off the bank to get their money back.
When I took the site over there was a security guard from the administrator there. When I opened everything up a lot of the “white goods” were gone. I asked the guard who said that a van turn up and said they had not been paid for, so he let them take them. I looked at the CCTV and it was Kevin.
We had booked a holiday a year before for the end of January for a Caribbean cruise. I was given notice by Mick the night before I went. I had words with Mick and Amid about how I had been treated by them, so I did not leave on good terms.
76. 4 apartments – Beckenham, Kent. As above. (2)
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I was out of work for five months at this point, which was the longest I had ever been out of work. Out of the blue Mick rang me one day and asked me if I wanted to run it, which I jumped at. One of the ex-PP site managers Adam, had talked Mick into giving him this site, that is why I got laid off. It was a long way for him also, so he got a new job, I was called upon then.
It was a long journey each way, and in the end, I started leaving home at 5/00 in the morning to beat the traffic on the M25. I had a good assistant a Brazilian lad, Silva, who locked up for me so I could leave at 4/00 but it was always 6/00 pm before got home.
I did enjoy this site and was there about ten months. It was brick and block and this was all complete when I got there, so it was almost like a fit-out. I worked with a lot of subbies I knew from before here, and it was here that they told me that my ex-assistant manager, Joey, had been stealing from our sites, they all knew and I didn’t, and no one told me. It all fell in place when I found out, I have got to say I was really hurt when I found out as I had always looked after him. I had kept contact with him to that point, but didn’t take any calls from him after that.
77. Loft extensions x 2 – Guildford, Surrey. As above. (3)
This was in fact for Amir’s house and his sister and brother in-law next door. I took over from Mick when I had finished the site above. A lot nearer for me and I had worked in Guildford before. They were two large houses and had the people living in them. While the work was to do the loft extensions with access by a new staircase from the top landings, we also refitted bathrooms, and while both families went to Turkey for six weeks in the summer we also decorated both houses from top to bottom.
Amir got a phone call from his Dad one and was told that his sister was coming over to go to Guildford University in the September and the extension in his house had to be finished for then. There was still a lot to do, but I would have got it done for him, but he said if you get it done on time I will give you £2000 bonus. Well, extra money is always nice. We got it done on time, but he did not give me the bonus!
I had this on the go at the same time as one above. As the housing market had “fallen off a cliff,” properties were just not selling at all. So, Amir’s company had the Beckenham, Reigate and Dorking apartments all let out, they also brought this one and one on the south coast off the bank as the builder had gone bust.
The two houses were about a ten minutes’ drive outside the town centre, but this one was in the town. While it was complete, it had no completion certificates on it, and there were people living in there, so I had to get building control signed off, electric’s, plumbing etc.
There was five apartments’ on each of two floors, the ones on the second floor had lofts in each which we needed access to inspect the eclectics. We went to one flat and did everything in there I then told the chap, an eastern European who was renting the flat that we needed to get in the loft. He stood under the loft hatch with his arms out and said, “the loft is not available today.” We all looked at each other, I then asked when. He said come back next week. We did so, and there was nothing up there apart from empty boxes, but he had been up to something.
79. Apartment block – Ascot Berkshire. Compton Homes. 2011 – 2017. (1)
I got laid-off from above at the end of October 2010, with no bonus! I had two months off, this time I did in fact want a break, and was going to start looking in the new year., but there was still very little about. Jeremy and Mark Turner who was a land buyer for PP had started this site which had been one of PP’s and with another company were now building it.
Jeremy was running it on site, I had in fact looked after it a couple of time while he had a break so I knew the site. Jeremy had not been well for sometime and Mark asked me to finish it so Jeremy could have a break, which I did. In a good run, it was just over ten minutes for me which is always good.
These were 12 luxury apartments behind the race course, I had about 3 months there, then it was on to the next site which Jeremy had started.
80. Two houses – Fleet, Hampshire. As above. (2)
When I started here the groundworks were almost complete. They were two very large five-bedroom brick and block-built houses, at the end of a very long narrow lane, the main road. The lane caused so many problems, as only one vehicle could pass along it at any one time, it was over 100 metres long with a bend in the middle.
I had a labour on the site above but on this one it was just me and the subies, to keep the cost down. So, between me and the brickie’s hoddie, we did all the forklift driving.
We had a concrete floor beam delivery on a summer’s day in July, it was totally pouring in down. I was seeing the driver into the lane. He brushed into a neighbour’s hedge across the road, the man and woman came out screaming. The man was swearing at me and put his face into mine, his wife jumped up and punched the wing mirror on the lorry and smashed it. The lorry pulled backwards without me watching him and the crane on the back of his lorry hit another neighbours garden wall and knocked it down. There were people in the street, dogs barking, the police turned up, I sent the lorry away. They had sent a longer one than I had asked for. It was the people across the road who called the police when they turned up I told them what had happened and they went across the road, he then came back and said. “I have given them a warning, I was ready to lock the woman up!”
81. Seven houses – Taplow, Berkshire. (3)
Again, I was on my own, but as long as a person can keep on top of everything, I am okay with that. These were timber frame, a block of four and one of three. I was on site for around a year and would return later on for handovers etc.
I was there while the 2012 London Olympics were on. The flame passed very close during the day, and that night I saw it again in Bracknell with the family.
82. Four houses – Odiham Hampshire. As above. (4)
These next three sites were about 6 miles apart, Long Sutton was in the middle. The site was about 26 miles for me, off J4 on the M3. I did in fact get a company van while I was on these sites, I had been using my own car up until then. That was because they had just started up and knowing them for some time I wanted to help them out. I had also been not only doing the sites with no help but also on reduced money. I got that changed on this site.
The site was split in two, at the front at one end of the High Street was three, three-bedroom houses, at the rear, with a carpark in the middle was a very large five-bedroom house. These were all brick and block, I ended up having an assistant on each of these sites.
A quick story about this one. I was in a meeting in my office with Jeremy, on top of double stacked cabins. I said, “hold on Jeremy, I went outside and called out to a roofer who was talking loudly to another, “can you stop swearing please.” He said “I am not swearing.” I said, “believe me you are.” He asked his mate who said, “yes you are.” It was literally every other word, F-F-F-F, and he really didn’t realise. And of course, it was over the High Street.
83. Two houses – Long Sutton, Hampshire. As above. (5)
Long Sutton is a small village just past RAF Odiham, out in the country, well to be fair, all of these sites were. The site was facing a very picturesque pond, when the site got going we would often get visited by ducks, geese and swans as the lads would feed them. I would often spend time escorting the said birds back across the road.
These were two very large and very expensive houses. There had been one large house on the site which had been empty for some time. We had to pile both of the foundations, again these were brick and block. I have to say they were really nice houses.
84. Nine houses – Bentley, Hampshire. As above. (6)
I think this was the most difficult site I did as a manager. There was a very large old Oast House there that we striped and built into three town houses, the work on this was unbelievable, why we didn’t knock it all down and start again, I just don’t know? We also built three, three-bedroom houses, two large, like farm houses, which were connected like an L and one very large five-bedroom house. These were all brick and block.
The site went over two very wet winters, and one Christmas while we were off we had massive storms that blew the hoarding over at the two sites above which we had to go out to, and totally flooded this site.
When we handed one of these houses over, there was only myself and Lenny, an older chap who used to do our snagging/making good and the lady of the house who was waiting for the removal van. It was a very hot day and she was very pregnant, and decided to go into labour. I got her a seat and got her out of the heat and called an ambulance. Lenny said, “Tom what are we going to do if the baby turns up?” I said, “we will have to deal with it. The reply was, “I’ve only got a saw and hammer!”
85. One house – Ascot Berkshire. As above. (7)
I didn’t build this house, but I did all the finishing, certification and handover. This house had been built for a chap. It was a very large house, I say house, it was more like a block of flats. The manager who had built it had a heart attack and packed the job up. So, I was asked to finished it. It was a really nice house, but I wouldn’t like to think how much it would cost to run! It had a very large boiler room, which looked more like the inside of a space rocket.
86. Two apartment blocks – Surbiton Surrey. (8)
I started this site while finishing the two above, it was going to be my site but Jeremy took over as the manager from me and I was moved to the site below.
Two apartment blocks of ten each, I got roads and all the oversites in before being moved on to the site below, which was fine with me, as it was very close to home.
87. Two apartment blocks and six houses – Binfield, Bracknell. As above. (9)
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This ended up as my last site with Compton Homes. It is a very long story which I am not going to go into here, but there ended up with a full out, which the upshot was that they ended up closing the company down, very disappointing as I did think I was going to see my time out with them.
I had a new boss on this site, Peter, as Jeremy did the site above. It was nice and close for me, 9 minutes from home. That is what it would say on my phone when I was going home of an evening. The site was almost in two parts, the six houses on one part, which we built first, and the two blocks of twelve on the second part. They were all timber frame. We were on site about 18 months in all, we had a lot of demolition to start with.
88. Two Houses – Cobham, Surrey. 2017. Rideout Homes. (1)
Well I got laid off in mid-March, I spent the next week in London as my Site Manages Health & Safety Certificate had run out, so I got that renewed. Jeremy promised me a job where he had started, but that fell through.
I started this job at the start on April. I had two interviews and was asked to start. If I had seen the site before hand I wouldn’t have took the job, what a mess. What was funny that the lad, Martin Pearson who finished Compton’s as my assistant was my assistant here, but we didn’t know until we started.
These were two house next door to each other. They would be up for sale for over six million pounds each. I think I was the fourth manager and as I said the site was a real mess in lot of ways, and it was well behind. We turned them around, and they were nearly finished in mid-December. I think the best way I can put it, is that they were not very pleasant to work for, I will leave it at that.
89. Six Houses – Reigate, Surrey. As above. (2)
This site was for the company above, they were building it for a person they knew. I got the oversites in and started the timber frame. I had both sites on the go together at one point, but while I had worked in Reigate before, this site was at the far side of the town, too much travelling again.
I decided to leave in mid-December, I wanted a break and had decided to have January off and look for a new job, which I did and had the one below to start in mid-February.
90. 108 Houses – Wallingford, Oxfordshire. 2018. Miller Homes. (1)
This was a large site of 108 houses/apartments. It had not been going that long when I started. I was doing a lot of the running around, but did not have all the hassle Terry the manager, who started a week before me had. We were well under staffed for the size of the site. We had us two, a forklift driver and a labour. All the buildings were brick and block.
The job did in fact crack Terry up, he had a breakdown and went sick, then jacked. I was on this site twice, which I will explain about below.
91. 92 Houses – Burfield Common, Reading, Berkshire. As above. (2)
Another large site, a little bit smaller than above. I got moved here by the contract’s manager John, mainly because I didn’t want to work late at nights. I used to leave home at 6/00 in the morning and home about 5/30 and worked every other Saturday. Bearing in mind we did not get paid any overtime.
This site was a lot closer to home for me, again a manager and myself, a labourer and forklift driver. This was a lot earlier in the site and it was a lot calmer. John the CM got sacked and I got moved back to the site above, I had been here about two months. Terry had gone sick and the site was a real mess. I had many people say, “don’t know why they moved you?” I jacked at the end of the year.
92. One house – Esher Surrey.
I did retire when I packed up the job above, I was asked to go back via an agency in the new year but said "no." This site was close to the ones I had done for Rideout Homes. This was a site for Jeremy who asked me to stand in for him for a week while he went on holiday, in the February half term.
Another large house he was building for someone. The concrete basement was in and the block and beam floor were due in the next week, it would be timber frame eventually. Jeremy said he had some work coming up and would I do it? I said yes, but didn’t hear anything until the late summer when he asked me to look after this site again, I said “no.”
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