The trades

Building:  Carpentry and Joinery

Staff:	Mr. C. Howell, Mr. H. W. Tempest, Mr. W. Broster,
	Mr. L. C. Farnham, Mr. T. E. Nutter, Mr. Collier, Mr. Bishop

Most boys know something about carpentry because they have lessons in school. If you like your woodwork lessons you may wish to earn your living as a cabinet‑maker or as a carpenter. A cabinet‑maker works in a workshop or factory. He may be employed as a machine‑hand in a large furniture factory or in a smaller workshop doing handwork. Boys trained at Goldings have also been placed in situations as shop‑fitters and boat builders.

Carpentry is one of the great national industries. There are many examples of old boys rising from humble positions to Important jobs within the company. Many boys who have trained at Goldings hold good positions in high class firms and quite a few are themselves in business, employing other men. The starting point is an apprenticeship which you are given a good grounding at Goldings. The care of tools is an important part of a craftsman's training. As each boy reaches a required standard of proficiency he is provided with his own comprehensive set of tools, which he takes away with him when he leaves Goldings for employment.

Shoemaking and Repairing

Staff:

Mr. H. Randall,  Mr. F.  Tordoff,  Mr. W. J. Nunn, Mr. Petherbridge Mr. E. Braddock, Mr J. Slater.

"Wanted. First Class Operator for Stitcher, Blake and Rough Rounder. Only highest skilled operators need apply. London W11 district. Box 397 "News", Spencer House, South Place, London, E.C.4."

The above appeared in a London newspaper on 22nd May 1952. It is an advertisement that would be possible for you to be answering one day. Of course, before you were able to answer such an advertisement, you would need a thorough training in this kind of work.

If you get your early training as a boot repairer at Goldings you will have made a good start. Here you can ask the whys and wherefores of everything, in fact, the more questions you ask, the keener your teacher will be to teach you all he knows of the trade. You would not expect to get a job like the one advertised above as soon as you left the school, but it is the early training that counts and many boys from Goldings have done exceedingly well at the trade.

Let us have a glance at the boot, trade in a general sort of way. The boot trade is divided into many sections, each section being really a trade in itself. A boot repairer needs to know something about how boots are made so that he can repair them by the best method, for his job is to give an extra lease of life to boots and shoes that would otherwise be fit only for the scrap heap.

The trade does not require a high standard of schooling and so a boy who has not been very good at arithmetic or spelling may turn out to be a very good boot repairer. That doesn't mean that any stupid person can do boot repairing; there is a lot to learn and it is a very highly skilled trade and the boys who have mastered the work are very proud of their craftsmanship.

All the latest methods of repairing are taught at Goldings and there are many interesting and up‑to‑date machines used in the finishing processes. There is never any difficulty finding good jobs for boys who work well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John S. Coomber. Goldonian summer 1949

Gardening

Staff:	Mr. L. Embleton, Mr. L. Wangles, Mr. S Roper, Mr. S. A. Vince,
	Mr. F. D. Greenhill, Mr. D. Bingnell, Mr. B. Wilson, Mr. Kuscharski, Mr. J. Marston, Mr. Saville, Mr. H. Oldfield, Mr. H. Fordham, Mr. R. Catlin, Mr. Cartwright, Mr. E. Lee, Mr. O. Vaughan

"And some can pot Begonias, and some can bud a rose But some are hardly fit to trust, with anything that grows; But they can roll and trim the lawn, and sift the sand and loam, For the glory of the garden occupieth all who come."

KIPLING

There are about 30 boys in the gardening class, which has a Teacher of Gardening, assisted by a foreman gardener and four under gardeners. In the gardeners' class room good use is made of a Sound Track Film Projector, Film Strips and a micro‑projector and there is much to appeal to a boy interested in living things.

The first Head Gardener was a Mr. Ernest Lee he transferred from The Garden City, Woodford Bridge to take up the post in 1921 he stayed until he retirement in 1945

Building: Painting and Decorating

Staff:

Mr. Green, Mr. A. E. Brooks, Mr. S. G. Moules, Mr. J. F. Ibbotson

Could any job give more pleasure than painting and decorating? These craftsmen begin to work in a gloomy room or on a dingy building and leave a smart and attractive place when they go. The work calls for accuracy and care as you can see by the way the boys in the pictures are concentrating on the jobs in hand.

At Goldings you can train as a painter-decorator or a sigh writer. Whichever you do you can enter the building industry as an apprentice and the time you spend at Goldings will shorten your apprenticeship.

As in other departments each boy is provided with a set of tools, which he will need when his training is complete and he goes out to work at his trade.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mr Moules showing a selection of trusted boys and staff, how to mix tartan paint, the hard part was getting on the wall. Personally I found it hard mixing the stuff, the colours would all run!

Printing

Staff:	Mr J. Woolen, Mr. W. H. S. Millar, Mr. R. Stackwood, Mr. N. T. Powell,
	Mr. F. S. Stevenson, Mr. J. James, Mr. R. Purkis, Mr. W. Purkis,
	Mr. L. G. Mondin, Mr. J H. Taylor, Mr. R. T. Noble, Mr. R. C. Fox,
	Mr. F. Hunt, Mr. Barringer.

Printing is a trade at which boys can find good use for any or all of their talents. They will find plenty of scope for their ability and an outlet for creative work.

The kind of printing done at Goldings is known as "letterpress printing" and it is the printing method most widely used throughout the world. There are two distinct sides to the trade and each is quite separate from the other. The first section is that of the people who set up the type and are generally responsible for the design of printed work. Those who carry out this work are known as "compositors". The second section of the trade is that of printing on the presses and the men who undertake this part of the work are known as "machine minders".

Compositors find that they need to be good at English, particularly spelling, and be interested in design and other artistic work. Machine minders should be interested in machinery, have good colour vision and be physically strong. All printers need to have good eyesight. Those boys who are interested in compositors work and wish to ally it with a mechanical bent would be interested in becoming a Linotype or Mono-type operator. These two machines are installed at Goldings and help to widen the field of those fortunate enough to be taught how to operate them. Both of these machines are widely used throughout the trade.

Goldings printing department is so organised that at a suitable age a boy may take up an apprenticeship. By completing his training at Goldings under the terms of a standard set of indentures a boy is fitted to take a situation as a journeyman in the trade. They will thus be assured of an interesting and satisfying work, which is well respected and well paid throughout the country

When Goldings closed it's doors for good, the Print shop kept going until 1969 when the new Barnardo School of printing officially opened on Saturday 27th September. Goldings fell silent never to hear that old saying again about minding your ps & qs.

Question: so what's so special about the font used above???

The comp room in 1961.

The person behind the camera Clive (Lew) Lewis. Click here to view a photo of Clive >>>

Message for Tony Lydford: please contact the webmaster as Brian Ball would like to make contact with you. We also have contact information for Clive (Lew) Lewis

And now for something completely different

The home of the printing apprentices before they found themselves digs locally. Click the link below to view the Verney notes as published in The Goldonian and some stories of the life and times of the Verney boys.

The Verney Hostel at Waterford

Sheet Metal Work

Staff:

Mr. A. de' Boeck. Mr. H. de' Boeck. Mr. M. Brierley. Mr. K Brierley

The boys in the sheet metal work department at Goldings work with sheet iron, galvanized iron, copper, brass, and tinplate. The are taught to make some of the every day items used. To succeed in the work you need to be able to use compass, rule, and set square and you must not mind getting your hands dirty during working hours. There are not so many boys who get the opportunity to learn this trade and there is a shortage of skilled men.

The photograph above gives you a very good idea of the work done in our Sheet‑metal workshop and you may amuse yourself counting the number of kinds of useful household articles being made.