Doing Time Inside: Apprenticeship and Training in GWR's Swindon Works
GRW's Swindon Works had a proud reputation. The boast was "if you had worked in Swindon Works, you could get a job anywhere!," and that meant anywhere in the world. The Works was referred to by locals as "Inside," and thousands of men did "time Inside" for eleven decades until the swinging '60s brought changes to the way young boys trained to become "modern" journeymen with flexible skills. Apprenticeship, when a young man was bound over to a master for years, was hard work and came with a lot of history and baggage. In early years the conditions and rules were awesome—including no marriage and no letting harm come to your master—but when the old ways were abandoned did it lose much of its ritual mystique? Doing Time Inside expresses the collective voices of the Swindon apprentices, recording the life of apprenticeship, and how it changed, the differences between apprenticeships, the good times and the rotten jobs. Including many first-hand accounts and unpublished photographs, this fascinating book will appeal to the thousands of workers who remember this period with affection.
1102264930
Doing Time Inside: Apprenticeship and Training in GWR's Swindon Works
GRW's Swindon Works had a proud reputation. The boast was "if you had worked in Swindon Works, you could get a job anywhere!," and that meant anywhere in the world. The Works was referred to by locals as "Inside," and thousands of men did "time Inside" for eleven decades until the swinging '60s brought changes to the way young boys trained to become "modern" journeymen with flexible skills. Apprenticeship, when a young man was bound over to a master for years, was hard work and came with a lot of history and baggage. In early years the conditions and rules were awesome—including no marriage and no letting harm come to your master—but when the old ways were abandoned did it lose much of its ritual mystique? Doing Time Inside expresses the collective voices of the Swindon apprentices, recording the life of apprenticeship, and how it changed, the differences between apprenticeships, the good times and the rotten jobs. Including many first-hand accounts and unpublished photographs, this fascinating book will appeal to the thousands of workers who remember this period with affection.
34.99 In Stock
Doing Time Inside: Apprenticeship and Training in GWR's Swindon Works

Doing Time Inside: Apprenticeship and Training in GWR's Swindon Works

by Rosa Matheson
Doing Time Inside: Apprenticeship and Training in GWR's Swindon Works

Doing Time Inside: Apprenticeship and Training in GWR's Swindon Works

by Rosa Matheson

Paperback

$34.99 
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Overview

GRW's Swindon Works had a proud reputation. The boast was "if you had worked in Swindon Works, you could get a job anywhere!," and that meant anywhere in the world. The Works was referred to by locals as "Inside," and thousands of men did "time Inside" for eleven decades until the swinging '60s brought changes to the way young boys trained to become "modern" journeymen with flexible skills. Apprenticeship, when a young man was bound over to a master for years, was hard work and came with a lot of history and baggage. In early years the conditions and rules were awesome—including no marriage and no letting harm come to your master—but when the old ways were abandoned did it lose much of its ritual mystique? Doing Time Inside expresses the collective voices of the Swindon apprentices, recording the life of apprenticeship, and how it changed, the differences between apprenticeships, the good times and the rotten jobs. Including many first-hand accounts and unpublished photographs, this fascinating book will appeal to the thousands of workers who remember this period with affection.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780752453019
Publisher: The History Press
Publication date: 06/10/2011
Pages: 160
Product dimensions: 6.70(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Rosa Matheson is a long-time enthusiast of Swindon Works, GWR, and women's railway history. She has a large collection of memorabilia and has written a number of books and articles on her pet topics. She is the author of TRIP: The Annual Holiday for GWR's Swindon Works and The Fair Sex: Women and the GWR.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 4

Introduction 5

1 Apprenticeship: An Evolution 7

2 How it all Began 29

3 Boys 36

4 What was a Railway Apprenticeship? 56

5 The Way In 81

6 Two World Wars and In Between 92

7 A New Era 115

8 Doing the Time 140

Appendix 155

Bibliography 157

Index 159

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