Bachelors Foods

[JOGI 10]

Cherry t. I'm intrigued when you say you worked next door to Batchelors. When I worked there it was an isolated site with no other premises around it. I left in 1979 and it was still like it then. I've heard since that an industrial estate has been built where the main factory was. Is there where you worked?. When you referred to a building being vandalised with gardens around it with a railway line at the side of it, this was the H.Q. building where I worked in the basement computer room. There was actually a lawned area between us and the railway line. A fellow from the factory used to maintain this area. (he'd only got one arm but managed the mowing machine perfectly and I used to marvel at him doing this. Im glad he's not around to see the state of it now. Do reply.John.

[shane39 10]

Back in the late 70is friends and i used to walk down the back-edge and we used to pass Bachelors,(on our way to nick the money back bottles from Bass-Charringtons).Anyway i can remember a big kinda holding facility,which oozed mangy greeny stuff.Was that the mushy pea machine?.

[depoix 11]

i worked there for one week in 1972,it was mind numbing,all i had to do was sit in a room and wait for a buzzer and light to go on,this meant the heat had dropped on the conveyor belt carrying the peas,i would turn up with a five feet rod with an alun key attached at one end,insert it,turn it till the heat went back up to normal then go back to my little room,it would have been so much simpler to have the foreman trained up into this specialist job and he could have kept the key under the pea bed conveyor

[JOGI 10]

Shane 39. Thanks for your message.The big machine you refer to was actually situated bang outside the H.Q.! It stank bloody awful.What idiot planned this?. THe purpose of this machine was to strip off the pea pods so that the actual peas could be processed inside the factory. Regarding mushy peas, I don't eat them. Enough said!. When you referred to the back edge is this the narrow road from Foxhill,probably called Midhill Rd, with a hairpin bend near the bottom. What a nightmare for the lorries. Your mention of nicking penny back bottles has made my day. We used to do this in 1937,at intake. Cheers.

[shane39 10]

Shane 39. Thanks for your message.The big machine you refer to was actually situated bang outside the H.Q.! It stank bloody awful.What idiot planned this?. THe purpose of this machine was to strip off the pea pods so that the actual peas could be processed inside the factory. Regarding mushy peas, I don't eat them. Enough said!. When you referred to the back edge is this the narrow road from Foxhill,probably called Midhill Rd, with a hairpin bend near the bottom. What a nightmare for the lorries. Your mention of nicking penny back bottles has made my day. We used to do this in 1937,at intake. Cheers.

 

YA!YA! Yes,that's the road.

 

Always rich pickings down there.

We used to nick the refund bottles and swill a few of whatever was knocking about.Then we would walk down to Fletchers and ask them for any MISTAKE CAKES!Nice chap would give us loads of doughnuts and coffee cakes,which would normally be thrown to the horses in the adjacent field.

 

Those were the days!

[Jozafeen 10]

A fellow from the factory used to maintain this area. (he'd only got one arm but managed the mowing machine perfectly and I used to marvel at him doing this. Im glad he's not around to see the state of it now. Do reply.John.

 

That was my dad who was also the Trade Union Convenor for the site and, yes, he would be sad at the state of both his gardens and the Union he represented if he was still around.

 

I am biased but he was an incredible chap who never let his disability stop him doing anything.

 

I have some pictures I should put online sometime, including one of the Batchelors football team and (this is a very odd one) veteran film star Bela Lugosi opening the 'wet pea cannery' in the 1950s!

 

I also worked there twice as a summer job - once in accounts and once in the staff canteen and experimental kitchen where all the new products were cooked and tested.

 

It's really good to read people's memories of Batchelors - please keep 'em coming!

[Antijammer 10]

I worked for Batchelors foods during my summer vacation in 1951.A truck would pick up a load of students in the center of the city and take them out in to the country where Batchelors grew their peas.

There were field after field of pea vines with a large machine located at the center of the fields which was used to shell the pea pods.The machine was driven by a single cylinder gasoline engine which had a massive flywheel.The machine required about eight students to operate it.Two students fed the vines (roots and all) into a large horizontal rotating drum which split open the ripe pea pods,the peas dropped to the bottom of the drum and fell through small holes in the drum wall.

The peas where collected in large trays,covered with ice and then shipped to the factory for canning.The rest of the students were used for various jobs on the machine such as raking the empty vines out of the drum,loading the truck etc.

The machine started about 7 am and was turned off about 5am every day and never stopped during the the day.Working on this machine was the most tiring job I ever had in my life .It is interesting that only when the peas where perfectly ripe where they canned,all the rest where dried.

Edited February 12, 2009 by Antijammer
spell

[JOGI 10]

Thank you all so very much for your input. I'll get round to replying to you all individually, if thats ok. Can I start with you,Zozafeen. It's incredible that someone can actually take me back to those times.Like to discuss your father with you when time permits. Now for the Experimental kitchen Was this located in H.Q. basement.? If so, as the computer room was right next door, you used to ask us to come in and try your samples. I remember your experiments in competing with Bird's eye Angel Delight. My diabetes will never forgive you!. Must go. Regards to everyone, do please keep in touch. John.

[babyboom 10]

I remember the staff shop where you could buy reduced items, i especially remember getting impulse body spray really cheap. My mum was a cleaner there.

 

My sister worked in the post dept, and she used to bring home loads of impulse, and also the vesta chow mein stuff in boxes.

[jean1 10]

Hi, I workied in Financial accounts office from 1968 to 1972 when I left to have my son. Anybody remember a girl with long dark hair with really short mini skirts, that was me. I remember the chap with the disabled arm he used to be on the coach that took us up Claywheels lane.

[JOGI 10]

Tha nks ANTIJAMMER.,for your very descriptive account. This is well worth saving. I'd like to provide a link to this: Years ago, I listened to or saw an interview with Colonel Batchelor.He said, pea picking had to be run like a military operation. He said that he used to go on the roof of H.Q and test the climate,mainly in the middle of the night. Apparently this was to do with the dew content in the fields.In conjunction with this,the harvesting machines were on standby. When he was satisfied with the conditions,he'd transmit a message. GO,GO,GO. and all the machines swung into action.Reminds me of the Del Monte advert. Who would think that such care was needed. Thanks.

[JOGI 10]

Hi Jean1. Would have liked to have known you,but there was a very strict policy in force when I started in '65.