Malcolm Hickman – Page 8 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Sheila Brown RIP

Sheila Brown sadly died on 14th April 2015, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. Sheila started work as a secretary in Personnel, and then later in the Press Office and PR department, organising visitor tours of Pebble Mill.

Sheila is shown in the right of this photograph, which was taken at the Friday Night at the Mill party in 2004. The party which marked the closing of the Pebble Mill building, prior to its demolition in 2005.

Clara Hewitt, Janet Collins, Margaret Barton, Sheila Brown. Photo by Ruth Barretto, no reproduction without permission

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

Andy Bentley: ‘Remember Shiela well, she received an MBE if I remember right. Lovely Lady.’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘We used to take parties around the Mill, including parties of staff newly arrived at Bush House. Sheila used to organise the catering and for some inexplicable reason, there was always one or two bottles of red wine left over. A very sweet lady and an accomplished ballroom dancer in her younger days.’

Jane Ward: ‘Wasn’t she a keen ballroom dancer?’

Conal O’Donnell: ‘I remember Sheila very well- quite mischievous on her way & always good fun .I am sorry to learn of her passing.’

Julian Hitchcock: ‘What a lovely, funny soul she was: her very memory brings a warm smile to all who knew her. I do hope she enjoyed her later years.’

Tim Manning: ‘I’m so sorry to hear the news about Sheila; she was – as others have said – a lovely lady, and someone who cared deeply about Pebble Mill. And yes, Jane Ward, she was a very keen and skilled ballroom dancer; when I was directing a film for The Golden Oldie Picture Show, she loaned me all her trophies and lots of memorabilia.’

Marie Phillips: ‘Sheila was very kind to me when CIN was regarded as something of a misfit in the Press Office. Very very efficient. A well deserved MBE.’

Andy Caddick: ‘We used to have long chats on the No1 bus on the way to Pebble Mill. So sad, lovely lady.’

Graham Todd – A55 course

A55 course July 1978: L to R, Back row: D Slingsby (Terminated), M Swain, G Todd (Birmingham), J Willis (Belfast). Middle row: N Meadwell, R Pickering (Terminated), D Purdham (Glasgow), S Rowsell (Cardiff), G Russell (Cardiff). Front row: N Barnes, A Best, M Brown, M Devareux, G Fry, N Godden (Resigned at end of course)

A55 30 yr reunion Sept 2008. L to R, back row: Martin Swain, Neil Barnes, Steve Rowsell, Graham Todd, Joe Willis. Front row: Andy Best, Martin Brown, Martin Devereux, Gary Fry

A55 35 yr reunion 2013. L to R, back row: Steve Rowsell, Graham Todd, Joe Willis. Front row: Neil Barnes, Andy Best, Martin Brown, Gary Fry

The photos are from the VT Old Boys website: http://www.vtoldboys.com/etd/etd24.htm.

Thanks to Joe Willis for giving permission to use the photos, from the original TA course, A55 at Wood Norton, and the subsequent reunions. Graham Todd, from BBC Birmingham, was one of the first people that Joe met, when he joined the BBC, and they shared a room in D-Dorm, on the course. The A55 course, Engineering Training Department, visited Pebble Mill as part of the course, to see Pebble Mill at One going out live on air.

Graham Todd, died in October 2014.

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

Andy Marriott: ‘Graham was a great bloke. It came as a real shock to hear he’d died.

I made it to his retirement do (which I think was in 2010?) and that was the last time I saw him.

Unlike many retirement do’s I’ve been to where the person in question is usually a little sad to be leaving, but ultimately looking forward to a bit of R&R, spending time with family and hobbies and the like, I got the feeling he retired out of frustration at the way things were going. It was really quite upsetting.’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘I worked with Graham for many years and a better colleague you couldn’t wish for. Another fine fellow gone.’

Rustie Lee on Radio WM

Photo from Tony Wadsworth, no reproduction without permission.

Tony Wadsworth was the producer for Caribbean cook, Rustie Lee’s show on Radio WM. The show went out on Sunday afternoons. Rustie is pictured here with Shelia Harrod.

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

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Who could forget Rustie! I remember going into the studio and being invited to have some of the lovely food she had made. I was not even a member of the production, just someone who happened to walk in.’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘She also had a restaurant in Hurst Street. 4 of us went one night and spent a fortune on Caribbean cocktails, but had a fabulous night out.’

Little Red Book – Safety Regulations

Photo by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

This little red book contained the BBC Safety Regulations for Engineering staff.

Thanks to Peter Poole for sharing his copy of the book.

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

Pete Simpkin: ‘Somewhere I have the big green folder containing among other things the correct balance and control settings for audio levels…. Obviously no longer issued!!’

Stuart Gandy: ‘I still have one of these too somewhere. Funnily enough I am at Wood Norton this week almost 35 years to the day that I started my BBC career there, where I was presented with the little red book!’

Alan Jessop: ‘Still got mine in the loft, you used to get a pack of new pages now and again with updated regs, you we’re suppose to replace updated pages and chuck the old ones!’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘Mine went west years ago, but I do have my Comms Data Sheets’

Ray Lee: ‘I think I’ve still got mine somewhere!’