"Dreams - Really Do Come True" - A Book By Gordon Beard

A New Life In Civvy Street

Early in 1946 I arrived back in England from Guernsey and was posted to Hadrian’s Camp Carlisle to wait for my Demobilisation day to arrive. There were about twenty of us all R.A.S.C. heavy goods vehicle drivers, after we had checked into our barracks we were ordered on parade to be assessed for work. The Sergeant called out any one with heavy goods experience step forward. Not one of us moved, we were old soldiers and were quick to realise that if we had an accident our demobilisation would be held up for up to six months to attend the inquest and court case. Oh well barked the Sergeant I’ll take you all on a driving test then, the result twelve of us failed including myself by grating the gears and making a hash of it, so instead I was given the post of ambulance driver and the others were assigned to Austin utility vans.

My ambulance was a 3 ton Austin with a pretty A.T.S. nurse as my companion. That’s more like it I thought. On one occasion I transported a patient to Longtown and whilst waiting I took a trip to Gretna Green and visited the “Old Blacksmith’s shop”. There was only one then, but when I went back with my wife some years later there were several of them and I could not distinguish the one I had visited. Soon the day arrived and I went to Catterick camp to collect my documentation and a new set of civilian clothes and then caught the train home to my wife and daughter Carole now three-years old and a pretty girl whom I now could get to know.

Joan my wife, in anticipation of my home coming, had taken up the post of cook for an American lady who ran a fruit farm. She offered us a house provided I worked on the farm which I did for a while, but the hours were too long for Joan and so I applied to the Council at Gt. Dunmow for a house and was offered a semi-detached cottage in Saltbox Square Gt. Dunmow.

There were no driving jobs available and work was hard to come by owing to the vast numbers who had been demobilised. So I applied for two jobs and got one with a local builder. The other was an application as a temporary Postman with the G.P.O. at Gt. Dunmow I got on well with the builder Holmes Bros., who won the contract to build Swedish Timber Houses at Little Canfield just outside Gt. Dunmow. However, the weather in February 1947 stopped all building work, very severe frost, deep snow which lasted for eight weeks we were sent home on a small bad weather payment not enough to live on, luckily I had joined the National Fire Service as a part time volunteer as they were short of a reserve driver for the fire engine and the Fire Chief Cliff Oakley, found the men who were like me, laid off their regular work by the weather, employment clearing the ice and snow from the fire hydrants. Shortly afterwards I received an invitation to have an interview for the Postman’s job and was accepted.

I have always enjoyed the challenge of learning a new trade and this was a clean well organised vacation. I started at 5.00am sorting the letters for my given round under the supervision of the regular postman who had to teach me his round on bicycles. With the front carrier loaded high with parcels, a letter bag on my shoulder and I had to carry a £1.00 postal order and a book of one and a half penny stamps at all times for sale on request. Also I was given a postcard addressed to a farm house a quarter of a mile up a dirt track only approachable on foot which I was to carry separately in my pocket why, I enquired? Well you may have the company of a Time and Motion study man accompany you unexpected on occasions, came the reply, then you make sure you deliver it, otherwise the time for the round will be cut.

The G.P.O. union was a strong one and I was told to walk up every slight gradient and walk slowly taking a breather every few minutes. It was important that you did not reach the end of the round too early as having delivered at the last house the post box had to be emptied at the precise time designated on the box and beware Mr. N. Parker the local JP would arrive at precisely 30 seconds before that time to post an important letter and if the box had been emptied he would report it to the Postmaster.

With Joan and daughter Carole Anne, aged 3, on a day-out at Clacton

With Joan, Carole and Malcolm, circa 1948

To give an example of the ridiculous time taken on the round, on one occasion when on my own I did the round at my quick pace and had time after delivering to the last house, to cycle four miles further on to my parents’ at Hopkins farm have a cup of tea and still get back in time to clear the box. The Post Office only employed newcomers on a temporary basis and one week the postmaster could say I do not require your services for a while and one was expected to wait to be called back. So I applied for a permanent job at Crittals metal window manufacturer at Braintree at much more money, but three shifts plus the bus service did coincide with the shifts.

The pay was good but not the conditions for after the deep snow of February and March the summer produced temperatures as high as 90 degrees and I was working in the aluminium foundry pouring hot metal into moulds to make window frames we worked in cotton vests but had to wear long hard wearing trousers to protect the legs from spillage and clogs on the feet, a supply of orange juice was available, imagine the temperature was always in the nineties in winter but open windows and doors kept it tolerable but with the outdoor temperature in the nineties it was a killer, to make life more intolerable the foreman had the right to send a worker home if he considered he was sweating excessively.

The high rate of pay and the firm had a good pension fund made up for these conditions and I still filled in as a fireman and was happy. Not so Joan though, the house at night became a house of horror as soon as the gas lights were extinguished and we got into a nice sleep we were woken by the thud of a cockroach which we had never seen before land on the table beside the bed followed by an army of them the neighbours told us it was common in the whole block and as Joan was now pregnant again I arranged for her to go home to Suffolk with her parents and I would approach the council about the problem. As it happened her parents were about to vacate the cottage they were renting and suggested that we move into it which reluctantly I agreed to. I had so many friends in Gt. Dunmow and had no idea what work I could find in rural Suffolk

Life in Suffolk

The cottage in Golden Lane, Lawshall, had no electricity or mains water the toilet was at the end of the garden and just as I had anticipated there was no work. Still it was home from home for Joan and she was happy. As soon as I received my gratuity cheque from the army I made arrangements for Joan to have a false eye fitted as her sightless left eye was now quite disfiguring. It was a success and it had been hand painted to match the right eye, she now had more confidence at looking at people and could now brush the hair away from that eye.

My luck changed soon after. I was working part time at Audley end farm helping while the corn stacks were thrashed and got chatting to the engine driver John Garwood about my driving experience and he said my boss Douglas Aitken is requiring a straw lorry driver, would you like me to recommend you, I could not believe it, was my childhood dream really about to come true? The answer was yes, as I was accepted and soon I was the proud driver of a Leyland Hippo six wheeler with extension ladders at the back and over the cab. The first few loads were rather unstable and threatened to fall off before I reached my destination which was Stramit Boards Stowmarket.

I soon mastered the art of locking each layer in like a brick layer and held the record for the biggest load to go there for several years. I got a real kick controlling such a top heavy load at each corner the lorry would sway over at thirty to forty degrees and seemed like it would land on its side but I learned to control it on the steering wheel. Soon the main road the A45, was too monotonous for me, I enjoyed the thrill off the sway, so changed my route to go through the twisting narrow back roads through Cockfield, Rattlesden and Onehouse I would often take Joan and my daughter Carole with me they really enjoyed the roller coaster ride too.

With my straw lorry and Malcom

The other drivers would carry a ladder to get to the top to unload but I would abseil by pulling on the unfastened rope and when I reached the top loved to do three cartwheels oblivious to the fifteen foot drop if I misjudged my landing! My happiness was short lived though as I had an ulcer burst in my stomach and heaving bales that weighed almost a hundred weight was too much, with much sadness I quit, I decided my next cargo would load itself, I applied for a Public Service Licence.

Mr. Honeywood was one of only two private bus operators in the area to run double-deckers the other was Longs Coaches of Glemsford and I decided if I was going to drive them it had to be the biggest. Honeywood had two double-deckers the one I drove was a 1929 Leyland Titan WH 3552 and was petrol driven. The test was extra stiff, Mr. Midgely was my examiner and I had to drive him through Long Melford to Sudbury careful to pass under the railway bridge on the wrong side of the road because the bridge was lower on the left, it was 14ft. 9 inches on the right and 14ft. 5 inches on the left the double decker was 14ft. 6 inches. I had my reverse test by backing into the narrow street that leads to North street near the Co-op, from Girling Street, from there I drove up Ballingdon Hill towards Halstead and halfway up the hill the examiner rung the bell for a passenger stop, he then got out and placed a match box against the rear wheel and pressed the bell for me to proceed, had I let the bus roll back and squash the box I would have failed. It was a joy to be told I had passed.

1929 Leyland Titan Reg. No WH 3552, now preserved in the Lincolnshire Road Transport Museum

I left Honeywoods’ on a matter of principle. I had driven Coldham Hall cricket club to all their away matches throughout the summer always on a Sunday afternoon when no other driver wanted the job and at the end of the season they were booked to play a fixture in London now this was the big day when a collection would be made for the driver in appreciation for all the other trips. I waited to be given orders to do the job but Friday came and no mention of this trip was made, so I enquired and Mr. Honeywood said, “Oh Cullie Sparkes is booked to do that trip”. What! I replied where was he the other Sundays, sorry he said. I was livid. Coldham hall sent a delegation to try to persuade him to let me drive but he stood firm. So on Monday morning I gave in my notice.

With a Goldsmith’s of Sicklesmere 29 seater single decker omnibus -Bedford JXN 558 August 1956

Bus drivers pay was very poor just agricultural wage two shillings and six pence an hour and Saturday till midnight was included in the week Sunday was at overtime rate. Therefore there were always vacancies and I started immediately with Goldsmith Coaches, Sicklesmere, my reign there lasted a year when C.A.V. diesel engineers advertised for workers at a considerable higher rate of pay and a new opportunity for me to learn new skills. We were employed on a day and night shift system and extra money for night shift, so to make more money I opted for permanent night shift, this entailed cycling eleven miles to work starting at 8.30 pm and finishing at 6.30 am with two half hour meal breaks believe me one did not require rocking to get to sleep especially if it was head wind all the way home and either raining or sometimes snowing.

After three years I was approached by the foreman for promotion to Tool-Setter and after six weeks training was promoted and put in charge of fifty operators responsible for setting their machines and keeping them supplied with the components, and expected to keep the production lines running smoothly. Ten years later I had promoted under studies to help run the section and I was responsible still overall but only had one huge new automatic drilling machine to keep running I at last could relax and might have spent the rest of my days enjoying an easy life. That is not me though, I need a challenge and so I applied for the hardest and most skilful job in the factory, Auto-Setter. All along I continued to drive buses part time for Len Hebditch, and Vera at Lawshall and only stopped when I had a triple bi-pass.

My job as Auto-Setter entailed learning to grind drills by hand to precision and even more difficult, taps for cutting threads and various other precision cutting tools and running a group of four automatic lathes which every time one opened the door to fit a new tool I would be smothered in cutting oil.

One day in September 1970, my whole live changed. The bosses at CAV announced we would be going on a four day week with immediate effect. For months I had been doing two lines on the football pools, but because of the gloomy forecast I decided to economise and only filled in one. When the pools collector took my coupon and thirty seven and a half pence, he remarked, “What’s up Gordon you usually do two lines?” Well you know the future looks bleak, I replied, just a minute give me that coupon back and I hurriedly entered the other line and gave him the extra cash. That line won me £12,000.

I bought a bungalow in Lawshall and booked an airline ticket for two to visit Joan’s sister-in-law in Denver Colorado for Christmas. We visited her every other year for thirty years and also made four trips to visit her brother in Australia in total we clocked up 250,000 air miles and saw every place we ever dreamed of from North Dakota to the Mexico border and from Adelaide to the Great Barrier Reef.

Thank you Peter in Australia and Beryl in America for your hospitality and thank you Fate. One can fill in a hundred Lotto lines each week and not win, you need that extra one from Fate. She has guided me through life and I am waiting for her to lead me to my death, ironically it could be under the wheels of a double-decker bus. In the words of the song:

“Fate is kind it brings to those who love the sweet fulfilment of a secret lover’s dream, like a bolt out of the blue, Fate comes in and sees you through, when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true”

So you see ......... God does answer our prayers and, yes, dreams really do come true.

Gordon Beard, aged 82