Tax disc holder

[philthehill]

Managed to get this original tax disc holder for my Minor and which arrived today.

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F W Cutts supplied my Minor in Jan 1958 and it was where I undertook my motor vehicle apprenticeship. I was lucky to have worked on my Minor before I purchased it in around 1968 and thankfully still own.

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[Sleeper]

I suppose one of these days you'll finish it....

John

[philthehill]

Finish it - Never.
My Minor is under a constant flux of modification and improvement
Phil

[Bill_qaz]

Loverly old school garage, not many left. What was the celebration with flowers and ribons?

[geoberni]

I just did a quick internet search for Cutts and found their website is still active, even though the company was dissolved in Sept 2024.
I guess they must've paid for a few years up front

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[firedrake1942]

Phil, have you seen this?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176743977732

[philthehill]

firedrake1942
I had not seen the key fob for sale on 'e' bay until you pointed it out.
I had to have it so bought it.
Paid more than I would have normally done but it will sit nicely on the ignition key. I look forward to it arriving.
So many thanks firedrake1942

[philthehill]

Bill
It was a old fashioned garage that started out as a blacksmiths as many early garages did.
It was used as a shadow factory in WW2 and had its own fire engine.
There was also a similar size second large building to the rear of the building shown in the photo associated with the shadow factory.
My lasting memory of working for F W Cutts is most days going next door to James the bakers and getting a lardie cake, a long cream donut and a bottle of pop.
The foreman back then was Archie Haydon whose father was the original blacksmith.
The recovery vehicle was a WW2 jeep with towed solid wheeled recovery trolley.
Near the end of my apprenticeship I left to work in a local garage at Blockley near Moreton in the Marsh where I undertook general vehicle maintenance to maintaining Alfa Romeos especially the spider series. The garage had a Alfa agency. The garage was featured in Father Brown but not as a working garage. After several years I left the Blockley garage to work for REME as a fitter but ended up after several promotions as Production Planner for the workshop which on average undertook 33000 repair hours a year. The later part of my working life was interesting doing all sorts of technical jobs within the MOD.
Phil

[Mervin]

"I left the Blockley garage to work for REME as a fitter"
I served a fitter/turner apprenticeship when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Sadly someone described as a fitter, in recent times, according to those who haven't a clue, think a fitter just installs tyres and parts.
How wrong they are with likening it to the original trade.

[geoberni]

"I left the Blockley garage to work for REME as a fitter"
I served a fitter/turner apprenticeship when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Sadly someone described as a fitter, in recent times, according to those who haven't a clue, think a fitter just installs tyres and parts.
How wrong they are with likening it to the original trade.

When I joined the RAF in 1974, I undertook training as an Aircraft Fitter Electrical, which until then had been 3 years (or 4 in same cases) training as an Apprentice.
Our 'new' training scheme which was a recent innovation, was essentially the same training as the apprentices but they had cut out anything that was not relevant to the RAF engineering role, so there were no civilian awards at the end of it (Btech ONC or whatever) and they had removed all the 'military skills' training like camping out in training areas for weeks on end. This enabled the courses to be cut to about 13 -18 months depending on the trade. Electrical was around 14 months.
The Aircraft Mechanics in the various trades did courses of around 5-6 months. If any Mechs showed potential, they could be recommended for 'Fitter Training' and go back for another 12 months or so of further training.
In 1977, the Fitter trades all became Technicians, to reflect the change in societal terminology.

On some recent Farcebook posts I've seen, there have been posts from automotive 'Lube Techs' in the US, which is just a Grease Monkey who can do a oil change.. ..

[Mervin]

It was a 5 years apprenticeship at a steelworks. Starting in the fitting/machine shop. Then progressed through various departments, overhead cranes, blast furnaces, power station etc.. (yes they generated their own electricity using the gas produced from the coke ovens to fire the boilers). and finally, for the last two years, in the Diesel electric locomotive repair/maintenance shop.
Gone off topic somewhat!
It's great that Phil has obtained those items which must bring back so many memories.

[philthehill]

I agree with the sentiments regarding the description of the term 'fitter'.
The REME job was for a 'fitter' and fitting was what I did. Very few decisions to make. I was not too unhappy as it meant that I got an extra £5 on top of the £17.50 skilled mechanic garage rate back then and especially so having just got married. After a while while I was promoted to vehicle examiner and then changed from industrial grade to a Production and Technical grade and put in charge of the vehicle examiners section. After sitting a promotion board I rose to be Production Planner. A further promotion board saw me rise again but this time away from REME.
Overall - moving from the garage trade to work for the MOD was worth it in that I have done all sorts of jobs and been to all sorts of places I would never have visited. Below is a photo of me (in orange jacket) undertaking post contract testing and examination of 6 locomotives at the FAUR Locomotive works in Bucharest, Romania which was an eye opener. That was a vast difference from the local garage for local people I started working in. I went on to be involved in all aspects of industrial railways until I retired.

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Mervin
Yes it has brought back many memories - some good some not so good. The not so good was examining locomotives just outside Pristina in the Balkans when the Balkan conflict was ongoing and seeing all the destruction all around.
Phil

[les]

All this from a Tax disc holder—— I quite like posts that wander, can be surprising when you hear of forum members past !

[philthehill]

Les
It is surprising were a simple post leads.
Someone read my post and sent me a PM to ask me if I knew anything about a particular garage in the north Cotswolds. I knew the particular garage as it was local to me back then and my father used it. It turns out the garage in question sold a brand new Minor pickup to a local farmer who I knew well - his son was my best friend way back and I used to work for the farmer in the school holidays. The person asking about the garage and farmer now has the pickup - I was able to fill in some details regarding the farmer and the garage. Unfortunately I cannot remember much about the 1972 Minor Pickup but I have it in the back of my head that it was similar to Oxford Blue - I am most likely wrong about that especially as it was over 50 years ago and these days it is hard to remember what happened yesterday
This thread has also got me thinking about my then best friend whose name was Peter and what has happened to him over the intervening years and where he is now.
It is a small world out there.
Phil

[les]

Yes Phil I agree, I spend time looking back remembering old friends and workmates. Where I served my apprenticeship I met some skilled guys, I doubt many, if any, are now with us. The trades ‘available’ were very handy especially if you had a project on the go ! It worked both ways of course. Oh well them days are well gone, and many of the trades as well. Memories.
‘72 one of the last pickups.

[Bill_qaz]

More memories I came across this Atco childrens car. As a 16year old apprentice I was given this as my first project to overhaul its lawnmower engine and fix the steering and weld body. My 1st solo job for the company, it belonged to one of the family owners son. A few years later I was privileged enough to work on their cars. Bentley, Rolls, Aston Martin, Lotus as well as the several hundred trucks and vans that made up the fleet.
A brilliant apprenticeship learning many skills leading to 50 year in various rolls in the truck industry and a love of classic cars I'm still working on in my 70s

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[svenedin]

Lovely finds both tax disc holder and key fob. Those key fobs were very common. My parents had some made up for their business (not car related). I am on the look out for such items for my car which was sold by the Guildford branch of Wadhams. My car has the Guildford registration PK.

Stephen