I was born just after the end of WW2 in Torrington, N Devon and my early memories are centred on the Cow and Gate Milk Factory which was then being built beside the River Torridge and the loads of materials that were brought in for it.. Coal came into Fremington or Bideford by sea from Wales and was then delivered to Torrington by road and rail. Large steel sections were delivered from Danks of Birmingham and were hot riveted into place. The boilers that were fitted had twin flues with twin fire beds and were about 70ft long and 35ft in diameter. There were five boilers in line - each boiler had chain grates fitted which pulled coal to the fire bed from the coal bunker. Fitted to the bottom of the fire beds were ash and clinker grates which took ash to an ash pit and which was then removed by ash barrow. In the corner of the boiler house were six Weir steam pumps that fed water to any boiler requiring it. The fittings in the boiler house were kept spotless with all the copper highly polished. The floor was of cast iron plates, each 8ft x 6ft x1in thick which were so clean you that you could eat off them. Each boiler was fitted with soot blowers that were blown each shift - the environmentalist would have a field day in 2009. There was a large concrete chimney being constructed at the time which was to be 180ft tall. I understood that 6ft of concrete was poured every day and the chimney was lined with fire bricks as it went up. Steel steps were also added as it went higher. In the flue between the boilers and the chimney was a giant economiser which was used to warm the boiler feed water.

On leaving school at 15, I was fortunate to obtain an engineering apprenticeship as a fitter/turner. What a surprise and an eye opener! On my first day in the workshop, I saw all sorts of machines from Lathes to Welding sets and all of the coppersmiths tools that you could imagine. What a start to my working life!

On my second day, I was taken on a tour of the factory. I saw a new lathe being unloaded - a “Mitchell of Keighley”. It was 9ft long with a 20in swing – a state of the art machine 48 years ago. This lathe was to play a big part in my life - but more about that later. My apprentice controller was a great gent who at 63 had spent most of his life in the ship building industry. He introduced me to all 55 of my future work colleagues. The coppersmiths were a great help in my model making ambitions. At the end of my second day I helped to clean the new lathe and when that was finished, I sat down with a cup of tea and thought how fortunate I was – all thanks to my father.

During my first few weeks I was shown how to service the new boiler control units, made by Hamworthy of Poole, as the boilers had just been converted to crude oil. The boiler inspector called to test all the controls. I was sent with the inspector and my controller to set the safety valves and test them. There were four 6ins dia. Hopkinson safety valves set to 160 psi and were fixed in the middle of the boiler. We reached them via the extensive steel walk way along the tops of all the boilers where the temperature was in the 90's. On reaching pressure, the valves all lifted together - and the sound was horrendous. The boiler passed its test and over the next 32 years I enjoyed the testing.

My controller and I were invited to a meeting with representatives of an American company as they wished to make alterations to their injectors and ejectors so that they could be used in the milk industry. These were large items, 4ft tall with cones that had a stainless steel adjustable holes. The tests lasted over 6 months and I very much enjoyed them. It helped me in later life with my models.

During my apprenticeship I was allowed to use any machine that I had been trained on except the new lathe but I could clean it. In the workshop there were three persons with an interest in model engineering. We were allowed to buy any material at scrap price. I was building a traction engine and the tinsmiths shop was a favourite place for odds and ends. During alterations to the boiler house, some of the cast iron floor plates were removed. These were top grade and I collected several large pieces. At this time I purchased a small lathe and later made a milling machine. Subsequently, a Harrison L5 and a Beaver mill were purchased but I was able to return to work and make any parts that could not be made at home.

Time moved on and I enjoyed working on the Bellis and Morcom Steam engines. These were triple expansion with oil recovery fitted. There were six in line, three connected to generators, two to refrigeration and one to an air compressor. The engine room was spotless with an all red tiled floor. All pipes were lagged and colour coded. The Health and Safety people would have a field day, today, as to start the engine a crow bar was placed in the 10ft dia. fly wheel and pulled around. After a small amount of steam was introduced, the speed increased and the generators were gradually switched on to supply power to the factory. Very few guards were used and pipes were lagged with asbestos. In time, modernisation came along and all the steam engines were scrapped. A sad day but that was progress. The steam engines were replaced with Rolls Royce generators in case of power cuts.

The old boilers were not economical and were replaced with new Ruston Thermac. The two Hamworthy dual fuel burners were now four complete with their own feed pumps and economisers. Three extra large oil tanks were built inside a bunded wall, with each holding 10,000 galls. We were glad of the bunded area on more than one occasion. When the tanks were overfilled the “Napoli” oil spillage had nothing on us - the cleaning took days. Gas was used during the summer and oil in the winter. Oil was delivered over night from Plymouth, Falmouth or Bristol.

As the Dairy expanded, more boilers and chimneys were added. The boilers were oil fired with one made by Babcock from their Steamblock range with a pressure jet burner. Three more were made in Italy by Ortling and one by Beverley. These four supplied hot air for milk powder drying.

I was transferred shortly after all the boilers were fitted to the Unigate packaging division and worked in Switzerland, Germany, and France. On returning I was again given a major role in the service dept dealing with steam, water refrigeration, effluent, power, etc. One job that was always a challenge was to white metal and machine turbine bearings. There were two turbines in use - 9 bearings in each and they ran at 10,000 rpm. Clearances had to be perfect. As time went on more major changes were made to the boiler house with two more boilers installed. These were dual fuel with Sackkie burners pressure set to 400 psi. All boilers, air compressors, refrigeration etc were controlled by computer. We were on good terms with the boiler inspectors from firstly, National Vulcan and then Royal and Sun Alliance.

Sadly about ten years after all the new equipment was fitted in the boiler house, the factory closed and we were asked if we would like to buy anything from the workshop before everything was auctioned off. I purchased a shaper, a power hacksaw, a 100 ton press pan folder, rolls, rotary table and a dividing head. I thought that this would help me get back into model engineering as I had not been active for many years. After I had removed all that I had purchased, the factory manager called me to his office and asked me why I had not bought the Mitchell lathe as I had used it for 30 years. I told him I could not justify the company's price. He suggested that I should make an offer – so I offered £400 and the lathe was mine! But at 5 tons and three phase with a 6 hp motor my problems were about to start. That’s for another day! The good news is that it is in my work shop and in use - a small part of my working life.

Why “Cornflakes”? I always save the old cereal boxes. As they make good templates in modelling.

Derek