The History of Ruddington Depot
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Wartime Operations
Managing the Depot
Managing the Depot as an operational unit in wartime was a very complex and demanding task, and it required a large number of staff to keep everything running smoothly. The administration block was in the northeast corner of the site, close to Loughborough Road, and on the boundary of what is now Jubilee Field. There were many offices in the block, along both sides of a long corridor, from which orders were despatched, invoices paid, wages made up, and records of deliveries, production and despatch were kept. Even organising the cleaning, maintenance and repair of buildings and grounds took a great deal of time and effort, and required considerable manpower. A few women worked in administration, mainly as secretaries and typists, but the clerks and office juniors were often very young men.
George Holland went to work in the accounts office when he left school:
“I was an office boy cum accounts boy. There were two of us started at the same time. We were office boys alternate weeks. In the office we kept records of the bombs as they came through…500lb bombs mainly. We dealt with R.A.F. warrants for bombs sent out to Padgate, near Warrington. We kept records of all consumables used on the site as well.
As I remember it, the Co-op were the managing agents for the Ministry of Supply , or whatever. Mr Critchlow was Secretary of Ruddington Co-op, and he lived next-door-but-one to me in Church Street, but he was the only local man. The rest came from elsewhere, mainly from the Manchester area where the headquarters of the Co-op was. In our office there was Mr Critchlow, who was the accountant, Mr Buxton who was in charge of the consumable stock, and Mr Lynes who was the buyer. They all came from the Co-op in Manchester, except Mr Critchlow. About every quarter or half year we did a stock-take of everything consumable in store, from light bulbs to toilet paper. It was all kept in a massive place. Sometimes one of the lads had to climb up some high bins to see what was in them.
Every Friday morning we used to go to the cashier’s office and put up the money into pay packets using pound notes and coins. It was quite interesting actually.
On alternate weeks we used to go round on bikes, our own cycles, making deliveries all day long. The mail, and daily newspapers for the bungalows, were delivered to our office, with papers and other things that needed to be taken between buildings. We used to take them out in the morning and then two or three more times in the day. It would take us about an hour and a half every time. We were provided with a mac so we could go out in all weathers and belt around the site on our bikes. We used to enjoy that!
We would whistle down to the bungalows, where some of the people working on the site lived, then call at Gate B. No one was allowed in Gate C (clean side) so we would ditch our mail, or whatever, and someone used to come up in padded feet to pick it up. We would go virtually right round the perimeter road, and even further away than the weighbridge, leaving mail and delivering papers and other things to all the buildings.”
The Story > Chapter 3 > Section 3.14