These photographs are included for the interest (perhaps) of my friends, family and any visitors who may have stumbled across this site.

Members of the course I attended at Ulswater Outward Bound School for one month from the 5th April 1960 and the badge of the Outward Bound Mountain School Ullswater.

This photo was taken in Taunton Telephone Exchange and was taken for publicity purposes. We are shown looking at a 2000 type "switch" many more of which can be seen in the background. At the time I was an engineering apprentice known in the BPO as a "Youth in Training" or Y2YC or "Youth two year course". This two year course was following by more specialised training in Bristol, Cardiff & Stone. This specialist PO/BT training was supplemented by other courses resulting in C&G and HND Electrical & Mechanical qualifications obtained through part time study.

A period of three months was spent with engineers who put up poles & erected the overhead lines of (still at that time - 1959) open copper wire. These engineers known as gangs were usually 3 or 4 men. This was heavy physical work coping with a wide range of physical and weather contitions. No day was the same, variation of work, place and season. Holes for the poles were dug by hand or where possible in isolated location blown using explosives!. If the work of the day involved putting up a pole, the pole was carried to site in the vehicle, angled through the back compartment and with the top protruding out of the front, above the cab. I then travelled to site sitting in the back alongside the pole accompanied by the smells of creosote, hession, rope and dried earth and the sounds of rattling spindles and insulators, metal bucket and heavy tools. Poem.

Taunton Technical College (part of original photgraph) taken at Staplegrove Road building 1959