The History of Ruddington Depot
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The End Game
The turbulent seventies
A
diagram of the depot as it was in 1974The economic boom of the Sixties
gave way to economic gloom of the seventies, and inflation and industrial
unrest affected the Depot. There was a miner’s strike in the winter
of 1971/72 and again in 1972/73, which caused power cuts and eventually the
imposition of a three-day working week throughout the country. At the Depot
the security staff continued to work as usual, but the two days the electricity
was cut off each week, meant there was no heating, lighting and power in any
of the buildings. A small amount of essential work continued to be done by
the light of the candles in rooms with calor gas heaters, but the majority
of the workforce had to stay at home. Staff from Ruddington Depot made a small
contribution towards the national effort to provide emergency help for essential
services. Bernard Slack was one of a team who went to an old air base at Hinton-in-the-Hedges,
near Brackley for about 10 days:
“There was a desperate need for generators to keep basic processes going, so redundant military equipment and vehicles with generators attached to them were collected together at Hinton to be sold at a special auction. Our job was to remove the generators from whatever they were fixed to, so that they could be sold freestanding. As we left cranes and slingers (operatives) from Ruddington arrived and began to line up the vehicles which had lost their generators, so they could be sold as well.”
In December 1973 the Arab oil producing countries in the Middle East suddenly doubled the price of crude oil. Petrol prices increased dramatically, triggering off soaring inflation, which reached an unprecedented rate of 18% per annum in 1975. Demands for higher wages to meet the increase cost of living were backed up by widespread strikes, but not at the Depot.
Sometimes the auction sales were affected by industrial unrest and strikes. During the ‘Winter of Discontent’ in 1978, for instance, the fire fighters went on strike and the ex-army fire engines known as Green Goddesses fetched a very high price.
Roslyn Wilson changed her job and became a telephonist/typist at the Depot in 1974 and experienced both inflation and technological change:
“I started at £27.00 per week and finished in 1983 at about £84.00 per week. I was trained on a plug board and a fortnight later they pulled out the board and put another one in.”
Throughout the previous winter Roslyn Wilson had practised driving in her father’s car on the Moor End Vehicle Park when it was empty after auction sales. Her father, who was now the Chief Security Officer, sat beside her. After she passed her test they drove together to work every weekday morning. By this time the whole working atmosphere of the Depot had changed:
“Everyone had a personal pass, and a car pass if you drove to work. Every so often they also had spot checks. If you had forgotten your pass, they usually let you in because everyone knew everyone else. Almost everyone who worked on the Depot lived in the village. There were so many families working there. It was a good place to work, and everyone was very friendly. We all worked together and the supervisors worked as hard as anyone.”
At the time the government had a policy of getting firms to employ what were called ‘green card’ people; adults with disabilities. Obviously they had to follow their own policy, but there was no problem. All the ones on the Depot could work. Perhaps they were a bit slow, but everyone treated them well. There was no bullying. They wouldn’t have dared. Anyone doing that would have been landed on like a ton of bricks.”
The Story > Chapter 8 > Section 8.06