Morris Engines, Courthouse Green

OMG, believe it or not, I walked down Nuffield Road as the sirens sounded, and then ran like hell, didn't want to be near the Morris. Can't actually say it was that particular night, but possible as there was a lot of damage next morning. As I have posted before I brought a lad up from Brighton, top of the bill for weightlifting British title at the Morris middle of the fifties. We had a packed house and he smashed the record by a good margin.

My grandparents moved to Tackford Road, having previousley being bombed out in Crabmill Lane. They were only 200 yards from the Morris. Where were you living, Kaga, when the Morris got bombed?

Mr Blue Sky, Miles away at Tusses Bridge, but my brother was in the Fleet Air Arm in the Pacific, his girlfriend had visited my parents, I was 13 at the time. Time to go home, mum made me escort her, and the bloody black-out was on. She lived in Stoke.

Blackberry Lane gate. 1950.

Hi Binkey. I think the apprentice bed race was held at the old Butts Stadium.

I was searching through some papers and photos and came across this photo of my dear dad Ken McPherson, ex CCFC player who worked in the Progress Department at Austin Morris, Courthouse Green. He also played football with Harry Barratt who also worked in the main office block. The photo of was taken in New York during his football career.

I'm sure that Ken McPherson lived just down the road from us in Macaulay Road Wyken, during his playing years with CCFC. Were you there too, Dean?

Hi Johnnie. Yes Macaulay Road. Did you also work at the Morris plant?

Hi Dean I grew up at number 16 from the age of four in 1951, going to Ravensdale and then KHVIII, then at 1967 to London Uni. Between school and Uni I worked in the brand new computing centre at the GEC Copsewood. We would often say hello to your dad - and good luck for the match!

Hi all. My late dad worked at Courthouse Green from late 50s through to closure - Harold Howes, known to some as Harry or H. I know he worked on the track and also rectification, later becoming a foreman before moving into the Training School working with the apprentices. Big mates with Ron Floyd and Harry Barratt. I am sure he was involved in moving parts of the track to the Transport Museum in the early eighties after it was announced they were closing down. Early sixties he was on BMC working parties to Algiers (63) and Stockholm (65). Anybody else remember relatives going to work away for three months at a time (I do have quite a lot of pics of their time in Algeria and Sweden). Also remember as kids me and my brother going to the club and playing table tennis while dads were in the bar or playing snooker. Any of the ex-apprentices remember him? Great thread! Phil

Hi Phil. I knew your dad Harold as I worked at Morris Engines 10 years until I moved to Oxfordshire in 1970. I was in the group that worked in Stockholm in Sweden from 1st September to December 1966. I have photo of myself with Harold holding his cine camera, Bill Ward, Mick Stanley, Dave Cottell with Ron Floyd taking the photo on my camera on one of the many bridges in Stockholm. Other people in the working party who I remember were Alan Griffiths, John Pirie, Mick Bates. There were about six from Durbar Avenue and two from Cowley. Rob has my email address if you would like chat about Harold and our time at the Morris.

Oh wow, Mr Blue Sky, how fantastic to hear of somebody else that was on those working parties. I have the said cine camera in my possession together with cine films, although the projector has not been switched on for many years so would struggle to root out the Stockholm films (but do remember one of a river trip). I am sure those trips bonded you as a gang for life!

Phil. You can use his contact button to email Mr Blue Sky (but you'll have to enable "contacts" in Your profile in order to contact anyone, first).

Hi Phil, how nice to have your dad's cine camera with all its history on film. Yes, we were a happy group of people, we started work at the garage at 9am and finished at 6pm, Monday to Friday, and 9am to 1pm on Saturday, and Sunday off. We had 4 Austin 1800s to take us from our hotel to work and could use them to go into Stockholm city centre. The cars were lhd as Sweden was getting ready to change over to driving on the rhs of the road in 1967. Quite a few of us were football fans and on Saturday evenings we would go into the Swedish bars or pubs, clapping our hands and chanting “ENGLAND, ENGLAND” as we had just won the World Cup 5 weeks ago. The Swedish people are so friendly, they just joined in.

This is my first post, I hope I am in the right section. My grandad used to work at The Morris, Courthouse Green. I wonder if anyone has any photos of him or remembers him even. His name was Robert (Bob) Bateson (Big Bob). Worked there until approx 1974. Any information would be grateful.