Kearney & Trecker Apprentices

Location, location!

Although the old Bernard Oppenheimer Diamond Works is listed under Lewes Road, the correct geographic and postal location is Coombe Road.  The factory, paid for by the philanthropist diamond merchant Sir Bernard Oppenheimer, opened in 1918.  It was originally used to train disabled WWI soldiers to polish diamonds.  Between 1945 and 1973 it was used by CVA/Kearney & Trecker, to manufacture many of its wide range of products.  During the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the Kearney & Trecker Apprentice Training School was housed on the second floor.

Apprentices

While the majority of first year engineering apprentices, from a wide range of local companies attended School Road Engineering Training School, most of them in the second year went into their respective factories.  This was not the case with Kearney & Trecker craft apprentices, who spent their second year at the Company’s own training school in Coombe Road, under the instruction of Gil Percy and Tom Muggerage

1964 Industrial Training Act

Although the Industrial Training Act of 1964, was of benefit to many apprentices, CVA/Kearney & Trecker had an apprentice training programme for many years prior to 1964.  In fact Gil Percy had been an apprentice himself at the Portland Road factory, starting as a 14-year old lad in 1943.  So it was very fitting that he was to end up as the Senior Apprentice Training Instructor in 1969.  As the Portland Roadfactory was wound down in the late 1960’s the training school was moved to the Coombe Road factory. 

Industrial Training Board

While Brighton Technical College provided the necessary tuition to pass City & Guilds exams, the Industrial Training Board (ITB) helped to structure and oversee in-house training by the Company.  Practical training modules had to be complete and written up by the apprentice, to ensure they were fully understood.  They were then checked and marked by the instructor, before submission and approval by the ITB.  At  CVA/Kearney & Trecker the modules consisted of complicated turning, milling, grinding and precision fitting.  Following completion of the second year, third year apprentices were moved to the Hollingbury factory, to work alongside skilled tradesman!

Move to Hollingbury

With consolidation of the various Brighton factories within the Company, the Apprentice Training School was moved to the Hollingbury headquarters in 1973.  The old Coombe Road factory was then left empty for some time and became very shabby.  Later it was used for many years by Tyreco International as a warehouse, before a complete renovation around at the turn of the century, and is now home to The Big Yellow Self Storage Company.

Comments about this page

  • Wow Peter, those first two photos bring back memories of my time as an apprentice at Coombe Road. Tom Muggerage specialised in turning, he taught the apprentices how to turn to high tolerances and screw cut threads on a lathe using a single point tool; he also taught us how to set up capstan lathes for high volume production of parts. Gil Percy specialised in milling, he taught us how to mill different materials accurately, also taught us complicated milling techniques like spiral milling and cam milling. All other aspects of engineering were taught by both instructors, fitting, grinding, drilling and tool sharpening. I remember Geoff Paine who was training officer for Kearney and Trecker at the time, he must of been the administrator for the company apprentices and the ITB. I was apprentice at the time of the move from Coombe Road to Hollingbury, but have happy memories of No 3 factory. With the factory’s location near shops including George and Ann’s fish and chip shop, the newsagents and a pub, there were plenty of things around, unlike Hollingbury industrial estate at the back of Brighton. I must say that there was a superb canteen located in the basement of No 3 factory that served hot lunches as well as the usual factory tea and rolls. I feel fortunate to have had engineering knowledge instilled by not only by Gil and Tom but the highly skilled and knowledgeable employees at Kearney and Trecker, that background has served me well in my working life.

    By Michael Brittain (23/12/2012)
  • It looks like Ray Holt on the radial drilling Machine.

    By Michael Brittain (23/12/2012)
  • Does Diamond Buildings include the similar block on the opposite side of Coombe Road, probably best remembered as Dentsply? This was known as Diamond Buildings having been a diamond works & a laundry before making dentures? I spent a couple of years there and enjoyed it greatly but, like most industry in Brighton, it sadly wasn’t to last.

    By Ken Valder (24/12/2012)
  • Looks like a scene from an early Norman Wisdom film where Norm is about to wreck the stablishment by misuse of his lathe whilst the esteemed Mr Muggerage is driven to distraction and despair by his demented antics, and is then carried off for an extended holiday in a Bournemouth ‘rest home’!

    By Stefan Bremner-Morris (24/12/2012)
  • Does anyone have any information about the Grout family who owned the Bakers in Coombe Road from the 1900s as I believe my grandmother Charlotte Grout may be related to them?

    By Jan (17/04/2013)
  • Hi Jan, I used to live in the Coombe Road area and used Grout’s the Bakers at the corner of Riley Road. I have a link for you on the QueenSpark books website that will lead you to a book that George Grout wrote about his life http://www.queensparkbooks.org.uk/shop/search/?search=george%20grout&page=3
    The book is called ‘The Smiling Bakers’ and you can read extracts from it that may give you some good information. I hope this helps.

    By Paul Clarkson (21/04/2013)
  • Thank you Paul, I will certainly check it out, it sounds promising, thanks again. Jan.

    By Jan (22/04/2013)
  • Great photos! I always remember going along Lewes Road past the derelict factory in the early 1990s and thinking how foreboding and desolate it looked. There is a strange haunting beauty associated with abandoned, run-down structures. I remember either this, or the factory opposite which I think made false teeth and was also derelict at the time, had fading letters on the roof with some missing. Glad both have been scrubbed up and made useful again instead of demolished which is often the way.

    By Luke (06/10/2014)
  • I was brought up at the top end of Ladysmith Road where it joins with Coombe Road, and went to Coombe Road School in the early 50s. Attended St Albans Church on the corner with Buller Road. Also remember the bakery on the opposite corner and Grouts Bakery and Post Office on the corner of Riley Road. KRDQ1

    By Ken Norman (02/10/2015)
  • What about a page for Ladysmith Road and other roads in that area? I have a lot of memories to share!
    [All our pages come from contributions from our visitors and supporters. Why don’t you start a Ladysmith Road page? If you click here, you’ll be taken through how to do this.  Editor]

    By Ken Norman (03/10/2015)
  • I remember those faces. Unfortunately I cannot put a name to them apart from Simon Warr on the first lathe in Tom Muggeridge’s class.There were two more instructors in that year who haven’t been mentioned. One was Bob Paulsen I think and the other was a much younger man. The canteen was excellent and I remember lunchtimes, sitting outside with the rest of the group calling out to the girls sitting outside the factory opposite.Times have changed. Everybody would have safety glasses on nowadays for instance.

    By Tony Hull (11/04/2020)
  • In the first picture I am the boy on the lathe that Mr Muggeridge is looking at. My name is John Plowman and I lived in Coombe Road and I started at CVA in 1969. We had a whale of a time at the building in Coombe Road I lived so close that when the eight o clock beeps went off on the BBC I could run down to CVA and clock in on time, and I also was awarded a 100 percent mark for one of my tests and Gil Percy said he had never given that to any apprentice before.

    By Mr John Plowman (27/10/2022)
  • I would just like to add one more comment, when I was at Coombe Road some of my mates set me up as a senior manager at CVA when they filled in a form from an engineering magazine putting me in as the manager of the centre. Then one day Gil Percy called me in to his office to tell me that there was someone downstairs waiting to see me so he took me down to meet this man from a company I cannot remember to say he had come to set up some system to help us out, as you can guess I knew nothing so Gil and me and the rep from the outside company soon realised that it was a set up. Gil apologised to the man who left then I believe we went back up and Gil got all the apprentices in and gave them a little telling off. To this day I still do not know who the perpetrators were as they were not brave enough to confess, I do have my suspicions as to who they were but they have never come forward to admit it was them. I do understand why as I probably would have done it to somebody else if I had been approached, its what stupid teenagers do from time to time. Just to let you know I did survive. Regards John Plowman.

    By Mr John Plowman (30/10/2022)
  • Well done John!!!

    By Peter Groves (30/10/2022)

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