copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
These photographs of the personnel team at Pebble Mill were given to Rani Randhawa in 1985, when she left the BBC after a one year placement, to go to university.
Photo from Jane Upston, no reproduction without permission
Staff from Personnel at Pebble Mill had a reunion in July 2017 – and here they are under the gazebo at the Tally Ho in Birmingham. Gilly Groom (was Sellars) first left. Going round the back row, next to Gilly Groom is Diane Verney, Stephen Davies. Lynda Perrin and Heather Jones. Front row is Jane Upston, Kate Hawkins, Rani Randhawa, ?, then Marie Phillips.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Jonathan Dick: ‘Ah – the golden age when you had your own personnel officer, based in the same building as you! Nowadays ‘HR’ is a call-centre somewhere or other.’
Keith Brook (Scouse): ‘I’m afraid personnel caused more problems than they solved. They had grown so large without any increase in staff numbers that they needed problems to justify their existence. Luckily for us, we were able to bypass most of their inane decisions.’
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
This Guide to Your Payslip was published in 1987, but was still being issued to new staff many years later. The booklet seems more complex than the actual payslip itself, and I bet most staff never read it!
Thanks to Dharmesh Rajput for sharing this booklet, and for keeping his copy safe all these years.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Andy Bentley: ‘1987 was the year I started at Pebble Mill, I remember this but you are right I never read it.’
Lynn Cullimore: ‘I once tried to read it! Gave up. But my gut instinct always told me if the figures were wrong!’
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.’
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
Memo from Mary Mallet in Personnel to film editor, Charles White, about the need to produce his birth certificate due to joining the BBC Pension Scheme.
I particularly like the sarcastic tone of the first line!
Thanks to Charles for sharing the letter, and keeping it safe!
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page:
Louis Robinson: ‘In the awful, awful days of the bloodbath that was the “Pamela Armstrong Show” Mary Mallett saved my sanity. Caught between two warring factions of management, she convinced me not to resign and leave. For that I am forever grateful.’
Mary Sanchez: ‘Hey! I worked on Pam Armstrong show ! Hilarious ! I’d only been at the Beeb a few weeks and this show was a real eye opener!’
Stuart Gandy: ‘Andy Tylee was the ‘personnel officer’ which was what they were called in those days, who I was assigned to when I joined.’
Marie Phillps: ‘Yes Stuart – Andy knew every member of staff he was responsible for and introduced many innovations including Career Development amd workshops for we “penpushers” to better understand the pressure and timescales faced by programme makers
I loved my morning Vision Mixing ! He gave me lots of confidence and is owed much by many. Still my Second Son!’
Andrew Godsall: ‘That is fabulous! I recall my first personnel officer at the BBC back in 1977. I was 18 and had no idea that I could just behave normally and didn’t have to bow and scrape to authority…she told me how she hadn’t really wanted to recruit me as she thought I should have gone to university instead! Then we talked about jazz and how much she loved it. Hardly any work talk at all!’
Pete Simpkin: ‘They certainly don’t make them like Mary in this sophisticated age!!’