Jebscot's Blog

Further Education

Jebscot Blog No.4

Further Education

As I made my way to Dalwhinnie in the Scottish Highlands in April 1958 I had no idea of what I faced. My new employers had not been very specific about the project or about what I would be expected to do. The title “assistant Surveyor” seemed to be a very loose term, although the query about my knowledge of theodolites had given me a clue.
I left my wife and my nine month old daughter in the flat that we had purchased in Edinburgh. It was the first time that we had been separated, but we had both acknowledged that, if I was to make progress towards achieving my ambition to gain a major role in the construction industry, I would have to face the prospect of living away from home at times.
Someone had been informed that I would arrive at Dalwhinnie station, and picked me up. The drive to the site office was fairly short, but I then discovered that the site itself was a further four miles away, along a gravelled road that had been constructed for the project.
The project itself, for the Hydro Electric Board, was the construction of a small power station, fed by the water from Loch Cuaich via a pipeline. The site itself was over half a mile long. There were three distinct parts of the site: the power station itself, the pipeline and the intake at the lake.
After being driven to the site I learned that my first job would be to survey the route of a small branch stream which would be fed into the main pipeline. I was given a ”chainman” who would assist me with the survey of the stream and was immediately left alone to get on with it. My helper was thankfully experienced at doing this kind of work, but he was a bit taken aback to learn that I had never even seen a theodolite before.
The most difficult bit about using a theodolite is in setting it up properly. The books that I had read had given quite specific instructions on how to set up, and I had made careful notes about it. Andy, my chainman, was quite amused when I pulled the notes out of my pocket, but he gave me a lot of help.
My first, rather short day was spent practicing with Andy in a field well out of sight of the other site staff.
At the end of the day I returned to the sit office area where living quarters had been constructed for non-local workmen and staff from the site. Site workers were accommodated in a dormitory type block, but site staff, including myself, had separate rooms in a smaller building, away from the others. The food that was provided was of a high quality. And the accommodation, although fairly Spartan, was better than I had been used to while doing National Service.
That first night I felt very lonely, but at the same time I was pleased at the progress I had made in using the theodolite for the first time. The prospect of carrying out a full survey of that little stream was actually less daunting than I had expected that time I had lied about having used the instrument previously.
On the site I had to share a mobile office with two qualified Civil Engineers, although it was quite evident that their work necessitated long absences from that office. I discovered that the work of a site engineer was quite rigorous. They were constantly dressed to protect themselves from the weather, donkey jackets and Wellington boots were worn at all times even on bright sunny days. The weather in the Cairngorms is extremely difficult to forecast, and in April there was still prospects of snow showers.
Away from the site office there was very little shelter, and the work place was a long way from the office.
The survey that I carried out was over a distance of more than half a mile, and would establish the eventual route of a smaller pipe line that would feed into the main one.
I had to survey the land to both sides of the stream to establish the variation in levels, so I worked up one side and back down the other,
When surveying with a theodolite, it is possible to establish the level at the point where readings are taken from the staff , held by the chainman. The readings, three from the staff and a couple from the base of the theodolite have to be carefully recorded in a notebook. The actual plotting of the survey, which is done from the records, in the office establish the essentials of the landscape.
I had learned from the books that I had studied that it is important that the survey “closes” accurately. That means that the first and last reading, taken from the same point, correspond. The plotting of the survey requires careful mathematical work to establish distances, levels and location. I was delighted when the plotting revealed that I had closed to within a couple of inches.
It took me more than a week to complete the external work and the plotting. When I finished it I felt that my education had been extended, but I wondered what else I would be asked to do next.

stagnation

Jebscot`s Blog No 3

Stagnation

Prior to completing my studies at Heriot-Watt I had to report to the army and have a medical. In addition to the medical examination there was an intelligence test to enable the army to place recruits in suitable services. I had requested a place in the Royal Engineers, and that test apparently established my right to  join them, for I was given orders to report to their training base in Worcester on 23 April 1953.
Following the initial two weeks training, and further intelligence tests I was posted to a training regiment in Farnborough along with about sixty other recruits, all of whom had been designated as “Potential Officers” or “Potential NCO`s”. Apparently I had done well in the tests for I was named among the former.
In my chat with the head at Heriot-Watt he had told me that I would probably be placed as a potential officer, but he advised me to renounce the opportunity and request a course at the Royal School of Military Engineering at Chatham to qualify as a Clerk of Works. He considered that this would widen my experience in building.
When the basic training was finished, instead of being allocated to another regiment, I was held back on the permanent staff at Farnborough- the only one of the intake to do so. It appeared that the army could not decide on where to place me. It was clear that they were not used to having tradesmen perform well in the tests!
For several months I had to carry out various roles, including one spell as a Regimental Policeman, before I was eventually posted to Chatham to take part in a course on Engineering Clerk and Storekeeping. I could not see what this had to do with building, but was quite happy to be learning something different. At the end of the course I was promoted to Lance Corporal and was posted to an Engineering Stores Depot in Belgium.
After I had settled in there, I was appointed to run an office in the stores maintenance department where engineering stores were maintained and preserved for future use. For the first time I had control over several staff, all Belgian civilians, and I was promoted to Corporal.
The remainder of my service was served in that role, and I was demobilised in April 1955 without having learned anything about building, but at least having some experience of running an office, which actually stood me in good stead later in life.
During my service I had thought a lot about what I would do in the future, and had made up my mind to try and capitalise on the Higher National Ceertificate that I had by writing to some of the major building companies in Britain to gain experience in large building projects.
While I was in the army my father had started a small building company of his own. He had been quite successful, building individual houses for private clients, with the  ambition to have me join him and develop into a larger company. I was not enthusiastic about joining him as I could not see us ever having the type of contract that I wanted. I made an agreement with him that I would work with him to try and set him up more widely, but would only work him until the end of 1956. Little did I know how much I would regret that decision- probably the worst one I ever made.
My time with my father was not unsuccessful. We were gaining a reputation with local architects for being good house builders but my ambition was not being satisfied. Within the time that we worked together I learned very little, I had married, and my wife had become pregnant. I had been corresponding with major companies and making plans for my own future when tragedy struck.
In December 1956 my father was involved in a traffic accident and was killed. My life was suddenly in a complete whirl. For many months I was tied to completing the contracts that my father had already set up. It was quite evident that all his work came from his own reputation, from architects that he had worked for previously, and that I had no real chance of developing the firm on my own, even if I could whip up the enthusiasm to do it.
It took me nearly fifteen months to tie up all the loose ends of the company, during which time I had several contretemps with architects and other professionals, which left me with a rather poor opinion of their integrity and honesty. My lack of experience in dealing with such people was to be costly and seriously affected my fathers estate.
As I neared the end of winding up the company I became involved again in corresponding with larger companies, but I was having no success. Who could blame them? I was just a bricklayer, now married and a father, twenty-six years old, and nothing to offer apart from the HNC that I had gained five years previously. That was when I decided to contact Heriot-Watt again. I was delighted to find that the Professor was still there, and he agreed to meet me.
He could not offer me anything at the college but did tell me that he had been approached that very day by a well known Civil Engineering company who were seeking a surveyor to work on a hydro-electric scheme in the Scottish Highlands. He made a call while I was in his office and arranged for me to have an interview with them. Within days I had an interview. The professor must have painted a very rosy picture of me for I was offered the job with the title of Assistant Surveyor on the project at Dalwhinnie
When I had been interviewed I had been asked if I had experience of using a theodolite. I had never even seen a theodolite, but had been quite proficient with a dumpy level so I lied. It had been intended that I should start immediately but due to some delay on the project I was told that it would be a further two weeks before I was required. Those two weeks were spent poring over a book about the use of Theodolites and making notes in a small notebook that I could carry in my pocket.
Almost precisely five years after that first chat with Professor Sidwell I was setting out on the adventure that I had dreamt about since I first set foot on a building site! The stagnation period had come to an end- I was set up for bigger things.

Education

Jebscot Blog 2

Education

Despite the visits I had made to building sites with my father when still at school, and the weeks as teaboy on a site, I was not really prepared for working on a building site. I had never had to sit in a hut with tradesmen, labourers and other apprentices, listening to their conversation, witnessing arguments and hearing how prevalent swearing, gambling, smoking and drinking were among building workers. There was even a form of class structure. Tradesmen appeared to consider themselves a cut above labourers, each different trade considered themselves above all others and apprentices being the lowest of the low.
I felt a total stranger among them and hesitated to talk about my ambitions to pull away ahead of them all eventually. None of them could appreciate why anyone would want to study at evening classes, just doing their job and getting their wages was as far as they could see in front of them.
As an apprentice I still had to do some menial jobs, on of which was to take horse racing bets to the local bookies` runner each day. As I did this job I discovered that I could work out the winnings on a wide range of bets, faster than any of the men, including the bookie`s runner himself. During that first year, when my wages were the equivalent of £1.37p per week, I used to receive a cut off any winning bets that I had taken to the bookie, and the bookie himself would occasionally give me something.
Other apprentices on the site could not understand my interest in the different trades that worked alongside us. In my eagerness to learn as much as I could, I watched, and talked to, carpenters, roofers, plasterers and roofers, trying to appreciate where they all fitted into the building sequence.
In those years after WW2 building methods were continuing as they had done previously, although the shortage of basic materials was leading to experiments with new materials and systems. The subjects that I was studying at Heriot-Watt included technical drawing. Most of these were based on pre-war details that were now being overtaken by new ones, so I was able to compare how things were developing. I can remember especially that damp-proof courses which previously had been done in lead were now being done in a bitumen based product and timber windows were being replaced by metal windows. In addition blockwork was replacing brickwork in partitions and the interior skin of cavity walls.
Each of these required the adoption of new techniques, and the responsibility for their insertion fell to bricklayers instead of plumbers and carpenters on the first two examples. This caused some controversy, as most of the bricklayers had completed their training before the war, and now found they were having to learn new skills.
I took a particular interest in the Quantity Surveying classes that I was taking, As the Bill of Quantities is part of the contract documents for a contract, along with the Specification and Working Drawings, I had become familiar with these in my father`s office. Now I was able to relate them to the actual work I was doing. Many tradesmen have no idea of the importance, or even the existence of these documents.
In the Theory of Structures classes I was also learning about the calculations that have to be carried out in deciding the sizes of various components of structures. In effect I was gaining a very wide range of knowledge about the industry as a whole. My interest in the other aspects of building led to me being responsible for setting out on some of the sites I worked on. I enjoyed learning the various aspects of building and never refused to anything that would improve my knowledge of the industry.
On completing my apprenticeship in August 1952, I still had a further term at Heriot Watt. I should have become liable for National Service immediately after completing my apprenticeship, but I obtained a further deferment to enable me to complete my studies. I had expected my employers to make me an offer to join them on their staff, with added responsibilities, but when no offer came, I left to join a larger company who were building a large distinguished building close to Heriot-Watt.
Almost immediately after I joined them I must have impressed someone for I was asked to look after the construction of the entrance area of the building. This resulted in an increase in pay and enabled me to do the setting out and control of the work in that area. I welcomed this for it gave me my first opportunity to be overlooking the work of several trades for the first time.
On the very day when I took my final examination for the Higher National Certificate I received my calling-up papers to the Royal Engineers and had to accept that for the following two years I would be out of circulation. As I left the exam room that evening, the head of the college spoke to me and offered me a role in his teaching staff. I had to refuse of course but I felt very proud that I had come to his attention. He pointed out that he had never had a bricklayer complete the course, and he thought that my practical and theoretical experience would strengthen his department.
I could not know what was ahead of me at that time, and that I would be in touch with Professor Sidwell again to my very great advantage. But that was in the future.

Initiation