It was time to look for work and I approached the Appleby-Frodingham steelworks at Scunthorpe only to be told I would need to join a trade union as they had a "closed-shop" policy.
I attended a meeting of the Scunthorpe branch of the Electrical Trades Union and was admitted to membership.
My chief memory of the meeting is that when it finished I found there would be a long wait for a bus home, so I walked the eight miles (about 12 km) to Brigg.
I cannot remember exactly when I started work at Appleby-Frodingham as an electrical fitter; it was probably late June or early July 1951. I had bought a new bike and at first I cycled there from Brigg; starting time was 7:30am so I had to be up early. When winter approached I used the bus.
A lot of my work was repairing control gear for big electric motors and I was not exactly enraptured by it. From some of the apprentices I learned that they attended Doncaster Technical College one full day per week to study for the Ordinary National Certificate (ONC) in Electrical Engineering. This was a three year course and success in it allowed one to do another two years for the Higher National Certificate (HNC).
I arranged to see the works' education officer. Fortunately I still had much of my written work from my Torpoint days and showed it to this man. He thought my earlier studies could get me exemption from the first two years of the ONC course and that I could be allowed one day a week with pay to attend the technical college. He was right on both counts and so when college started in September I was there.
To get to Doncaster from Brigg meant catching an early train at Elsham Station, about three miles away. I used to cycle there and, leaving my bike at the station, catch the train for Doncaster. It was a long day since we were required to attend the college in the evening as well as all day and so it would be about 10:00pm when I got back to Brigg. Luckily, Doncaster boasted a very good cafe where we had an excellent lunch and tea at reasonable prices. As well as the full day at the college we had to do homework which occupied about three hours a week.
Between arranging to continue my education and the new academic year starting in September came the school holidays and Nancy spent about three weeks with me in Brigg. Although we had agreed to marry we had spent very little time together so this was an opportunity to become better acquainted.
At Doncaster I found the course fairly easy; in mathematics we did differential and integral calculus which I had covered in my navy apprenticeship and most of the electrical course covered familiar ground.
At about this time I spent a weekend in Liverpool and we made our engagement "official" by buying a ring at a jeweller’s called Boodle and Dunthorne.
We also told the world by notices in the Bangor and Brigg local papers.
MORE MEMORIES FROM CLIFF TO COME ON BRIGG BLOG.
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