Jim Gregory – What Was Pebble Mill?

Keith Moreton

Pebble Mil scene dock, photo by Jim Gregory, no reproduction without permission

Tony Wolfe, Barry Chatfield, Annie Morris, Keith Moreton. Photo Jane McLean, no reproduction without permission

Keith Moreton and Jane McLean. Photo from Jane McLean, no reproduction without permission

Derek Price and Keith Moreton, photo by Jane McLean, no reproduction without permission

Keith Moreton sadly died last Thursday 3rd November 2016, after a short illness. Keith was a Charge-hand Electrician at Pebble Mill, along with Phil Vaughan, Keith Bullock, Roger Hynes and Derek McCulloch.

(Thanks to Annie Gumbley-Williams for passing on this news).

The following memories of working with Keith were added to the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Lesley Weaver: ‘Many happy memories of working with Keith. What a lad! I especially remembering him sitting in the Make up room at Pebblemill showing me how to fill in my T&D’s the ‘Sparks Way’ for a block of filming we both did on the same programme .. It may have been Nannys. Needless to say it was instantly rejected in our office… unlike his no doubt!’

Bridget Jenkins: ‘Coming into my office on Friday lunchtimes to encourage me down to the club. And me a fine upstanding Personnel Officer! He lightened up many a dull day.’

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Telecine on Howards’ Way

These photos are of telecine notes from Howards’ Way from 1989. The location scenes of Howards’ Way were shot on film in and around Southampton, and then played in to the studio shoots via telecine. The notes show the ins and outs of the different takes, as well as the film roll numbers. The notes have been kept safe and beautifully wrapped by Jim Gregory for the past twenty five years.

Milton Hainsworth, Graham Winter and Mike Brown in TK

Photo by Jim Gregory, no reproduction without permission.

The photo includes: Milton Hainsworth, Graham Winter and Mike Brown. It was taken by Jim Gregory in June 1973.
“Milton Hainsworth was a News film editor, Graham was TK supervisor, although technically the post had been re-titled Senior Recording Engineer. Mike was the original film projectionist for Film Unit and the Dubbing Suite, he defected to Central and is now a Video Editor at BBC Nottingham.
In the background is a Westrex Sepmag machine. The photograph was taken by Jim from the Telecine Quality Check Room, which only lasted for a few more years as fairly big alterations were made to that end of the Telecine VT area later.”

Jim Gregory

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Ray Lee: ‘I remember all 3 as I joined Telecine in 1974, Graham soon moved to Wood Norton, but Milton was still around when News editing had gone to Betacam tapes. Don’t remember where Mike moved to, but our paths didn’t cross often.’

Christopher Hall: ‘I remember Graham Winter from Wood Norton. Sadly he died a couple of years ago.’

Peter Woolley: ‘I remember Milton! I think he refused to go to his own leaving party!’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Well I certainly remember Milton. Yes, I think he did not go to his leaving party bless him.’

Mike Dhonau: ‘I spent 7 weeks with Graham running training in Oman – in 1993. Great times. He was a little plumper then…’

Max Mulgrew: ‘Peter Woolley is correct. Milton was not at his leaving do, on floor two at Pebble Mill, and later refused to accept his leaving present. I think Sue Beardsmore was among those at the gathering.’

Peter Greenhalgh: ‘Mike Brown is still around. Just showed him the pic as he’s not on FB. He does all the tech op jobs here, and was a freelance camera op before joining us.’

Pebble Mill splicer

copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

This is a film splicer from BBC Pebble Mill, which would have been used in Telecine, for cutting and joining lengths of 16mm film. The same machines were used in the film edit suites. The splicer could cut film straight, or at an angle, and also held a roll of sellotape for joining the pieces of film together.

Each splicer was obviously labelled with the building name, and a number, to stop it wandering around the building, and being taken off by someone else in error.

Thanks to Jim Gregory for keeping it safe for many years.

The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Nigel Mercer: ‘The lever at the bottom was for cutting the mag sound diagonally and the one next to it was to straight cut between the film frames on the frame line. Amazed I can still remember !!!’

Fred Hammond – Gosta Green Commissioner

Photo by Jim Gregory, no reproduction without permission.

The photo is of Fred Hammond, the Commissioner at the BBC Birmingham studios in Gosta Green, which pre-dated the Pebble Mill building. It was taken at the front of Gosta Green looking across to what was then Gosta Tech Students Union (now part of Aston University), circa mid 1960s.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Paul Hunt: ‘He so reminds me of the commissioners that used to man the doors of BH in London when I joined in 1985. They all knew you on first name terms and on special days they would proudly wear their white gloves under their epaulettes.’

Gordon Astley: ‘I remember him. I was there in 1969.’

Gail Everett: ‘I remember Fred very well, first person I met at BBC. He had a daughter who also worked at Pebble Mill but can’t remember her name.’

Janet Collins: ‘His daughter Olivia also worked at Pebble Mill.’