John Endall – What Was Pebble Mill?

Dave Pick wins Radio Club prize

Pebble Mill News 1984

This cutting is from the Pebble Mill News, March 1984. This was the internal staff newspaper.

The article tells how Dave Pick, an OB Maintenance Engineer at Pebble Mill, won a short-wave radio competition, by contacting more short-wave radio stations than any other competitor. He did all this from the 2nd floor of Pebble Mill.

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

Roy Thompson: ‘I think it was a popular past time for many engineers, John Endall I think was one. At Wood Norton there was a radio shack which was popular with trainee engineers and operators.’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘There were quite a few Radio Amateurs at Pebble Mill. Dave is still about.’

Thomas Graal: ‘We shortwave fans were well served back in the day….unlike now.’

David Ackrill: ‘Many organisations had Amateur Radio groups as part of their sports and social groups. I belonged to the MEB Radio Club (G6MEB and G4MEB) on Mucklow Hill, Halesowen. I became friends with Giles Herbert when he moved to Birmingham and lived just down the road from each other for a while. I worked the Children In Need special event station and still have a QSL card for the contact somewhere.’

Dave Pick: ‘Yes we had a radio room in what used to be the 2nd floor club’s bottle store. We had access to the roof for aerials (not so much health and safety then!). Who remembers that geodesic dome they tried to use for programmes up there? I still hold the G2BBC call sign. Radio club had quite a few members including Maurice Darkin, John Endall, Simon Evans, Frank Stevens, Malcolm Hickman and loads more.’

Jim Lee: ‘I remember having a few plays on G2BBC in the 90s with Dave and Giles in that store. I remember going up on to the roof as well – probably with Dave – where there was a Cobwebb and the top of a sloping 160m dipole.’

Brian Empringham: ‘Hi Jim, don’t know about Pebble Mill, but there were some hams at Bush – including the late George Eason – who worked out of some sort of shack on the roof.’

John Endall RIP

John Endall on a PM@1 OB in the Cotswolds. Photo by Tim Savage, no reproduction without permission.

I’m sorry to have to tell you that John Endall died on Saturday morning. He didn’t recover from his fall in the autumn of last year, despite having had a new hip replacement. His daughter, Penny told me that he had been in Kidderminster hospital for quite a while, for recuperation, but had developed various infections and also hadn’t really been given enough physio to avoid muscle wastage. The latter meant that he hadn’t the strength to attempt to walk towards the end.

I visited him in Redditch hospital a few weeks after his operation, and he seemed quite chipper at the time. I told him that only the previous day I had been walking near Rutland Water and had come across the pub in Whissendine where we used to stay whilst doing Gardeners’ World from Barnsdale. Needless to say many ‘fireside O.B. yarns’ were told after that!

John Kimberley

John worked at Alexandra Palace after the war and then Carpenter Road and later Pebble Mill. Known to many as ‘Biggles’, he had a good innings reaching 90 years and was active with swimming and sailing throughout his retirement.

Anne Gumbley-Williams

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

Tim Dann: Dear old John, God Bless…RIP….”Biggles” it said in the link above…I remember well entering the bar when it was on the second floor at PM…in a ‘Posse’ of Designers & Design assistants looking for mischief…. & John, leaning on the bar, giving it ‘rock all’ about the war & his time in ‘Fighters.’ & the Battle of Britain…..”Bloody hell!” cried one of our company rather uncharitably…”Not another one of the bloody ‘Few!!’….you buggers must have been eight to a Spitfire!”….John nearly swallowed his pipe, spilt his bitter down his front before collecting himself & raging at our raiding party about being lucky and what the ‘Few’ had sacrificed before stomping off in a haze of blue pipe smoke….No lasting damage done (save perhaps from the passive smoking of the era!)…just another example of the amazing relationship that we all had with each other during certainly my time at PM which was 73 – 79…….Off into the ‘wild blue yonder’ John…Give em hell!

Katie Cooper: ‘Such a lovely ‘wicked’ man…… Always a giggle…RIP’

Diane Reid: ‘He was the pilot for my first ever glider flight – he also taught me a thing or two about OBs – a real gent.’

Studio Operations (part 2) – Ray Lee

TM’s and EM’s

The studio engineers all worked to the TM’s (Technical Manager). Each studio day had a TM1, who was senior and looked after the studio lighting, and a TM2 who dealt with all the other technical issues, and liaised with the producer and director.

The TM1 was always in the lighting gallery, and the TM2 in the production gallery. Between them they were the final arbiters of technical quality during the production. TM2’s quite often acted as TM1’s and there were quite few movements in the early days, so I cannot be exactly sure who was in post at the time (mid 1970s). Bob Gell and Barry Hill were the main TM1’s, joined soon by Dick Bentley together with TM2’s who I think were Bob Chaplin, Derek Price, John Jevons and later Ron Irvine. They were joined later by George Allen and Barry Chatsfield. (who moved from being a Cameraman to TM fairly early on as I recall).

The two EM’s (Engineering Managers) at that time were Gordon White and John Endall. They were in charge of all technical planning of O.B.’s . Normally only one EM would be allocated to an OB. as there was rarely any major lighting to be done.

Ray Lee

Studio A lighting gallery

Pebble Mill Reunion 2010

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission. Thanks to Jane Mclean for making the photo available.

The photo was taken at Keith Salmon’s get together at the Saracen’s in 2010.

Included are: John Smith, John Endall, Yvonne Ackrill, Keith Ackrill, Jim Dumighan, Roy Ronnie, Margaret & Brian Barton, Gordon White, Keith Salmon, John Kimberley, Dave Ballantyne, Toby Horwood, Bob Jacobs, Wilf Welch, Tony Wolfe, James French, John Couzens, behind Jane Mclean (front with orange juice), Kath Woolston, John Abbott. Simon Evans wearing shades at back and Eric Wise standing in the front between Dave Ballantyne and Bob Jacobs. It might be Keith Bullock behind Margaret Barton, Dave Doogood behind Bob Jacobs and Mark Kershaw between Wilf Welch and Tony Wolfe. Probably Phil Wilson behind Kath Woolston. Simon Albu on left in front of John Smith.

Thanks to Dave Bushell, Jayne Savage, Janet Collins, Yvonne Ackrill and Jane Mclean for identifying everyone.

Pebble Mill at One OB

Photos by Tim Savage, no reproduction without permission.

The photos are of an outside broadcast for ‘Pebble Mill at One’ in the Cotswolds.

The first photo of Engineering Manager, John Endall and the horse was probably taken at David Nicholson’s racing yard at Condicote.

The other photos are of a tractor which was in the way of the scanner and took a long time to start and move!

It is Engineering Manager, John Endall sitting on the tractor, with VT editor, Steve Neilson on the far left of the tractor photos. The man in the light anorak could be rigger/driver from BBC Bristol called Ken Townsend.

Thanks to Jayne and Tim Savage, and Dave Bushell for providing the information.