Salisbury Transmission Ltd.

[Peg Monkey]

The end of my apprenticeship was a low-key affair in fact I had to remind the training manager I was due my certificate, the event was simply marked by me being invited to The Technical Director's Office for a Well done.
Peg.

[Peg Monkey]

Reliant - Major STL customer. Salisbury supplied axles for all the Reliant vehicles including the range of 3-wheelers, Scimitars and perhaps the lesser known Metrocab, which was oringinally produced by Metro Camell but later acquired by Reliant and built at the Two Gates Factory, it was quite well designed and latter models met London Taxi Eco targets with a novel combi petrol/electric propulsion system. The Metrocab was a competitor for the traditional Black Cab produced in Coventry by LTI (London Taxi International), in-line with the other motors produced by Reliant it had a glass fibre body.
If you fancy entering the world of collector's cars The Scimitar GTE is worthy of consideration, I saw one for sale recently in suitable for restoration/spares condition for £800 and a restored one for £10,000. Bear in mind the glass fibre body and standard Ford engine means they have virtually unlimited life, I know a university lecturer in mechanical engineering who had one and he spoke very highly of it.
My car restoration days are long passed but if I'd got a spare ten grand I'd be tempted to buy one.
Peg.
Link Scimitar GTE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliant_Scimitar

[Peg Monkey]

1972, 2 years out of my apprenticeship and late one Thursday afternoon when the Work Study Manager says Urgent job in Heat Treatmemt go and see the Works Manager, I did when I'm told need to sort problem by start of business Monday to avoid a strike.
Challenge was to devise a safe way of transferring large red hot ring gears from the furnace to the quench press, I designed a conveyor system and the welders worked like trojans to get it all done for the Monday morning.
Peg.

[Peg Monkey]

Sept 1972 - I got married and was 2 years beyond my apprenticeship, we'd managed to get the deposit on a new semi behind the Reliant Factory, Tamworth and it was looking more and more that I would not find fame and fortune at STL. Commuting to Brum was costly even though we only had a Mini and then in Oct 1973 the Petrol Crisis hit and it looked like we faced rationing, our allowance would not cover our cummute so we made contingency plans to stay some weekday nights with our parents, thankfully it was never introduced.
Early in 1974 (my STL 9th year) I gave notice I was leaving to join the management team in a small fabrication company in Aston.
Peg.

[Peg Monkey]

June 1974 - My Exit Interview: A few days after giving my notice the Technical Manager sent for me, he'd only been with the company a few weeks so he didn't know me personnally. There were the usual positive comments:  I'd done a good job, he was sorry to lose me etc., he didn't ask me for the details of the salary I was moving to, which I thought was strange, I guess he had little room to manoeuvre, in terms of tempting me to stay; STL was introducing a salary structure at that time and it was far from generous, clearly designed not to increase the overall wage bill. In truth my STL salary was £1750 and I was moving for £2400, a 37% increase.
So was that the final chapter in the chronicle: The Life and Times of Peg Monkey at Salisbury Transmissin Ltd.? Not quite.
Peg. 

[Peg Monkey]

1994 Through no fault on my part I found my self jobless and looking everywhere for an employment opportunity, I'm studying the Sits Vac in Thursday's BEM when I see an ad for a non-engineering post but one that was OK for me, I don't recognise the company name, Dana Spicer, but I did the address: Birch Rd, Witton 6. I apply and at the interview when it's revealed I worked at STL before I'm told you must know Roland Kent? (not his real name) I said I do, we were apprentices together, interviewer says he's still here.
I didn't go back, can't remember if I was offered a position, it was often the case only the successful applicant was contacted, it was about that time I said to the wife Do you know what? I'm sick of engineering, do you fancy buying a hotel? The rest as they say is history.
Peg.

[Peg Monkey]

.................a Research Project entitled The Effectiveness of Apprenticeships ..........

I mentioned in the above post the only way to give an informed opinion on the above is down stream looking back on the success or otherwise of the partcipants, well you can't get much more down stream than me at 70, so how did I fare? Quite frankly it wasn't effective for me as an individual, I had to leave engineering to earn a decent salary which begs the question did I waste the first 9 years of my working life? I had to work until I was 65 and for the last 6 years I worked in a menial job, let's give a balanced view by considering another individual who went through exactly the same training as I did: Roland Kent, he stayed at STL all his working life, he rose to be a member of the board of directors and would have been able to retire at 61 on half of a director's salary, so for him his apprenticeship was very effective.
So if I had my time again would I choose an apprenticeship? Probably not, but that begs the question what would I have done if I hadn't - I've no idea.  But I do know, if I did have my time again at aged 12/13 I would check out those jobs where you can earn enough money by the time you are 30 to retire with enough  to keep you in a luxury lifestyle for the rest of your life, Banker, City Trader, Hedge Fund Manager, coming from a back street in Hockley I never even knew such jobs existed.
Peg. 

[Peg Monkey]

Ok, apprenticeship thing got a bit heavy so on a lighter note......One Friday morning I drop Jo (girlfriend) off at her job at Edmundsons Electrical (in Tower Rd, I think), I've got the day off from STL and I head home via Stockland Green, I park in the Plaza carpark and nip out for The Mirror, I'm just sitting in my car reading the headlines when a car enters the carpark, coughing and spluttering, then silence, driver trys repeatedly to start the engine without success - driver gets out it's a girl and I approach her to try and help, we greet each other and my instruction to open the boot is met with a doubting smile, but she complies, 10 seconds later I return and say - it will start now. She turns the key and the engine roars into life. With a look of disbelief she smiles, thanks me and continues on her way.
I imagined her getting to work and recounting her experience to her workmates: it took him seconds to fix the car it was miraculous, only possible explanation is he was a holyman and there was a laying-on of hands.
The truth was I had the same car (Austin 1300) which was prone to a sticking fuel pump located in the boot, a simple tap got the pump going again.
Peg.

[Peg Monkey]

Effectiveness of Apprenticeships - Epilogue. So in 1974, some 4 years after completing my apprenticeship, I left STL in search of fame and fortune, what was the fate of my fellow apprentices who had been taken on in my apprentice year Sept 1965? (STL at that time took on 5 each year) one got sacked for bad timekeeping, not long after completing his apprenticeship, another became a toolmaker in the STL Toolroom, another joined the inspection dept and the last one became a foreman on the casting machining line at the Tyburn Rd Factory. I lost touch with all of them on my departure.
Peg.

[Peg Monkey]

.....................My mate had an Hilman Imp, what a dreadful car, rear engine, rear drive cars never work, (wot about Porche, VW Beetle, Fiat 500?, OK I'll give you those) anyway you don't steer an Imp it's more a case of trying to coax it in the direction you want to go, the steering was so light he put a 2x2 paving slab in the front compartment to keep the wheels on the ground.
Peg.

Since my Imp bashing on the above post I've been racked with guilt, so to be more constructive, as an automotive engineer, I've decided to offer my advice to the designer,  but not here because I'd be going off-topic, STL had no connection with the Imp so my advice is more appropriately placed on the Industrial Birmingham Thread: http://www.birminghamforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=14299.msg699446#msg699446
Peg. 

[Peg Monkey]

Looking for STL's contribution to the success of The Sunbeam Tiger V8?, sorry to let you down, I haven't done it yet.
Peg.