| Description | Tape 1 Side A: JOHN MICHAEL BARNES born 4 April 1935 Nottingham. Only child. Did not know grandparents. Maternal grandfather a sweet manufacturer. Father a Chief Inspector in Nottingham Police. Evacuated with mother. Family names. Mother's family Birch. Childhood home a detached house in Sherwood middle class neighbourhood. Describes father, his gregarious personality. He didn't discuss his work. He was a family man, strict. Describes mother. Close family. Went to local preparatory school. Mentions hairy teaching situation because of war. Recalls prominence of war in newspapers. Recalls holidays, boat on Trent River. Has continuing interest in boats. Not much social life in childhood home. Compares police then with now. Father got information from local villains. Need for Bobbies on the beat now. Childhood interest in mechanical things. Details. Career aspiration: to do something in engineering. Reason for no interest in policing. Recalls wartime bombing, dogfights, wounded neighbour. Recalls Eakring oil wells from war years, nodding donkeys. Sherwood Forest full of munitions stockpiles. Recalls road convoys prior to D-Day. Went to Wellingborough School 1948-52 as boarder. Details. Recalls housemaster A J Rice, accommodation, conditions, rations, discipline, uniform, rules. Received and administered corporal punishment. Explains. Cannot recall teachers. Opinion re hardening experience of school. Recalls successes of house teams in sport. Likes working in teams, important in own career. Made a prefect at school. Details of role. Feelings about punishment then and now. Good at sport. Influence of school in later life, sense of right and wrong. Conservative in politics, like parents. Comments on contrast between Labour, Conservative.
Tape 1 Side B: Decided to train as engineer. No social life with girls at school. Recalls spartan life there, snow on bedclothes - didn't do any harm. 1953 went to do Student Apprenticeship with Perkins Diesel. Details re Perkins, links with other companies, ownership. Details re apprenticeship, areas covered. Did Higher National Certificate. Helped to start Apprentice School later. Reference to CNC (Computer Numerical Control), Whitworth, BSF (British Standard thread), UNC/UNF (United thread), metric thread. Details re British, American threads, wartime negotiations re changing angles of threads, saving of steel. Importance of changes. More changes now, to metric thread. Significance for national pride of decision re angle of thread - in middle of war. Became Work Study Engineer, Production Supervisor. Recalls overseeing new 4-cylinder diesel engine construction, running block line. Explains problem-solving technique, importance of five questions - why, what when, who, how. Explains importance of work/method/time study in training phase. Example of benefit of systematic review. Never had problem with workforce. Explains. Aware of North Sea industry then which we gave away too easily. Comments on union situation in 1960s. Recalls problems with militant NGA (National Graphical Association). Explains belief in need for unions, steps taken to improve conditions. 1964 moved to Barnards Ltd Wire Products, Norwich, Assistant Works Manager. Details re Barnards, their products. Chance to run factory. Details re wife, children. Lived in digs in Peterborough after leaving home, met wife in Nottingham 1959. Member of Masonic Lodge. Comments on popular view of Masons. When first at Barnards, knew nothing about wire. Details re Barnards' ownership, their wire products, rapid ordering processes, seasons, quantities processed, main clients.
Tape 2 Side A: Describes in detail manufacture of wire fence at Barnards. Mentions gauges, galvanising process, welding, tools used, quantities produced. Explains re-equipping of factory. Details re new machines, improvements, reduction of workforce. Never sacked anybody. Recalls introduction of presentation clocks for long service - many long serving staff, some over several generations. Details. Staff paid by piecework, some got up to tricks. Significance of material utilisation, scrap, strict controls on pilfering. Describes culture of Barnards, firm rules. Company's link with oil industry when gas pipe wire netting required around 1968. Explains purpose of netting. Details re placement of pipes on sea bottom, added weight necessary. Early problems. Mentions American attitude to waste. Details re machinery. Comments on American impatience. Mentions attempts in wire industry at saving wire in order to make money. Details re sizes, economies through change in size of spindles. Beat established German competition on transport, better use of machines, use of accumulators on wire. Details re output of factory. Had to keep doors locked because of industrial espionage. Mentions Wafios company. Wire world a very secretive one. Explains. Details re a competitor's old fashioned machinery. Describes bleak pipe-coating factory site at Immingham. Describes pipe-coating process with netting, iron ore concrete. Describes welding process when pipe-laying at sea with welders inside pipe. Health & Safety didn't visit. Whole operation of pipe-coating was a sea of mud. Details re haste to get job done. Work done at Brown & Root in Yarmouth, Aberdeen. Main thing - get the oil and gas going. Workplace living conditions dreadful. Describes. Typical American.
Tape 2 Side B: Platforms not particularly safety-conscious to start with. Explains. Changes to offshore installations since disasters. Barnards supplied number of companies. Details. Developed palletising process for delivery. Details re delivery process. Later developments in wire industry. Explains quality control of wire products, dealing with stretching in selvage etc. Indefinite lifetime of product. Conventional wire netting was for domestic market. Mentions Barnards sending shiploads of wire to Australia for rabbit control. After oil industry began, conventional factory closed down. No competition. Explains significance of use of scrap. Complexities of coil, avoidance of snags. Breaks joined by welding, but in past, by hand. Details. Recalls enthusiasm of Americans. British had technical skills, not enthusiasm. Reason - strength of union. Kept union under control at Barnards. Explains. Recalls making a mistake, problem areas. No strikes. Situation re BP pipes. 1973 General Works Manager, Nacanco Ltd. Details re factories making first 2-piece can in UK. Describes machinery for making, printing cans for Coca Cola, system for counteracting effects of breakdowns, increasing efficiency. Details re can tops produced in America at 12,000 a minute. Recalls encounter with union over a shutdown. Attitude of unions, particularly NGA to various issues. Nightmare over printing ink. Reference to closed shop. Situation re unions in America. 1976 Production Director, later Managing Director, Beresford and Hicks, makers of reproduction furniture. Details re company, own role turning company round. 1982 established own company Clifton Manor Furniture Ltd, reproduction furniture manufacturers, closed down 1990 because of interest rates. Explains. Details re company. First to introduce cut glass into furniture. 1990, Furniture Industry Manufacturing Consultant. Details re work in office furniture.
Tape 3 Side A: 1990 Furniture Industry Manufacturing Consultant (cont'd). Reference to own notes re oil/gas industry. Manufacturing today not popular because of cheaper labour rates in other countries. Situation in America. Prospects not good for UK in future. Explains. Comments on quality of British engineering, no longer happening but should be. Poor public image for British value-creating industries which led world. Situation in Japan. Woodwork industry now all Italian, German. Barnards took raw material and created product for oil/gas industry. Hard to find skilled people now in Britain. Explains. Comments on disappearance of apprenticeships. A few companies restarting them. Oil industry was considered a gift from heaven but not thought through re what to do with it. Short term solution to energy problem. Annihilation of coalmines a mistake. Mentions potential solutions for pollution. Oil industry in retrospect - a short term project. Example of impact of North Sea industry on Yarmouth, Immingham. Shipbuilding situation now in UK, compares with before. Loss of control of maritime standards, seamanship. Lot of UK problems lie with banks. Explains. Reference to Rolls Royce. Manufacturing is a long term commitment. Reference to America. Mentions retirement 2000. Current activities including boating, caravanning, painting.
Tape 3 Side B: Blank
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