OH609 Interview with David Trivitt (Tales of the Vale)
Please note this is not a full complete transcript but a detailed summary of the recording
Interview is on 2 recordings
Track 001 00.00 Born in a house in Blackboy Hill, DT lived all his life in Bristol. He went to Kingsdown Secondary School. He always wanted an apprenticeship in the Navy but failed the exam. His first job was working for Averys Wine Merchants. He became a van boy delivering food to shops, hotels and restaurants but was sacked after six weeks 05.00 He did deliveries between Gloucester and Bridgewater. 06.07 Learnt to drive and became a driver. 06.30 Moved into construction as tea boy and general labourer before he became a scaffolder working for building firms that renovated houses in Bristol. 07.04 Joined ICI at Severnside working for Costain Construction digging trenches in the winter. Saw his first JCB and amazed when it finished off digging the trench and dug more in 20 minutes than he and the other 4 men had dug all week. He thought to himself how much easier it was than digging with a shovel and from then on he wanted a job driving an excavator. When he was 18 he got a job at the Oldbury Power Station working as a banksman. 10.00 DT describes the reservoir built to supply water to the power station and his job as a banksman making sure that everyone was working to safe procedures and knew what each other was doing. They had to work according to the river and tides and it was very important they got it right. Because of this they were paid 1 ½ hours for every hour worked so an 8 hour shift was paid for 12 hours. They had to follow the tide out and work until the tide came in. It was dangerous work and he remembers one foreman being run over and badly injured. 13.22 For the night shift huge 40 foot trailers carried floodlights out and all the holes had t o be pumped out before work could start. DT describes the pipes running into the river. 15.00 (Continues description). 15.49 DT names the different contractors. He worked for Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Co who were earth moving specialists responsible for digging out the power station basins. DT was there for 9 months until the job was completed. It took 7 years to build the power station. 17.55 DT still wanted to be an operator. He describes his next job and how he learnt his craft over the next couple of years and built up his experience. 20.00 He was 18 and working for Bristol Plant Hire. People would ask for him to be their operator when they hired machinery but it meant a lot of moving around the country and he had a girlfriend in Bristol. Within a few years, however, more and more companies were buying their own equipment which meant he had to go where the work was and this led him into motorway and airport work using big machinery. 23.24 DT describes working on the M5 and M4 motorways driving a JCB digging central reservation drainage. 25.00 This was difficult because of the type of rock which had to be drilled and blasted. He describes a blasting accident. 27.00 He describes accidents that happened at Oldbury Power Station. 30.00 (Continues talking about accidents he remembered before Health and Safety was more rigorous). 34.03 The construction industry came to an end around October/November until February/March and workers would be laid off. He describes how he blagged work as a scaffolder in the winter months. 35.00 Describes scaffolding in those days which was much less rigorously monitored like it is today by Health and Safety so he got away with it. He worked on some of the motorway bridges. 35.43 DT describes working on the Second Severn Crossing where he drove a Rubber Duck excavator putting in anchor points for machinery. He remembers one occasion when he had the section foreman with him to inspect holes who didn’t want to turn back when DT said it was time to go. DT explained they would have to outrun the tide which was being driven in early by a force 9 gales. It was touch and go. The foreman apologised. 40.00 DT remembers that Laing’s (the construction company) didn’t understand how quickly the tide could come in and how variable and unreliable it could be. Describes what it was like to get caught out by the tides. 41.57 DT talks about the different times he worked for ICI including construction of their acid plant and later their nitrum plant and working on the 328 ft high chimney which had major problems with the scaffolding due to an architect’s design fault. After this experience he thought twice about another scaffolding job on cooling towers in Thirsk. He didn’t go to this job and where the scaffolding collapsed and killed two men. 45.00 He then went back to ICI driving a tractor shovel. 45.30 DT describes a problem with the storage of the fertiliser and how he had to work 3-4 days without a proper break. The company didn’t tell his wife for two days that he was at work. 48.10 DT describes a photograph taken during the winter of 1963 when he was working on the pump station at Oldbury Power Station. 49.22 DT describes the work he has done between Worcester and Bridgewater on the M5 and M4 using bigger equipment. 50.00 One of the bigger jobs was working for Blackwell’s on a section through Hallen Hills cutting at Avonmouth when the red and green marl rock had to be dug out with motor scrapers. 50.47 DT describes the processes involved in removing the marl. 55.00 Rock and subsoil waste was often dumped and buried under farmers land and their top soil went back to the motorway. Farmers were paid rent and compensation. 55.00 While working on the M5 for Brookthorpe archaeologists found roman remains. He explains the protocol of them getting involved with any excavations. Once when working on the M11 they found a bomb 15 metres down which the Bomb Disposal Unit removed. 59.07 DT describes one site that had been an RAF bombing range and still had live bombs in the mud. 1.00.00 The army Bomb Disposal had supposedly cleared an area ready to be excavated but one driver, Charlie Marshall, ended up with a 500lb bomb in the earth on his motor scraper. Luckily it turned out to be a dud. Tape ends 1.02.04 Track 002 00.00 In 1975 he had come back from building the Redruth bypass in Cornwall driving a D9 40 ton bulldozer. He realised work in the construction industry had started to dry up. The major motorways had all been built and that winter he worked for a friend in a nightclub. 0.52 DT describes how he changed his career path to become a fitter after taking a government training course for heavy plant fitting. 02.27 DT describes how he started working for GT Services in Bristol (a Case franchise) where he worked for 2 years . 03.49 DT talks about how this changed to working as a demonstrator with the Case company. 05.00 Eventually, due to changes in operating strategies he was actually employed by Case from 1.4.1979. 05.34 DT explains what happened after he had been taken on by Case as a demonstrator and how the company expanded its business. 08.15 When the training officer realised DT could operate cranes he offered him the job as demonstrator in the crane division. After training in France he worked all over the country as their crane specialist which possibly saved his job until 1988 when he was made redundant. 10.00 The realisation was that times had changed and there wasn’t enough work available for all the large equipment available. 10.40 DT explains how Stevie Morris converted Rubber Duck excavators to be rail mounted. Meanwhile DT was working at Durstones on the Second Severn Crossing. When work stopped he was kept on as he was self employed and he was offered 3 months work on Avonmouth Bridge. 10.00 The job turned out to be for one day only and was all about getting a cheap hire rate. Back at Durstones DT started working on rail mounted Rubber Duck excavators in the Severn Rail Tunnel. They expanded and bought more Rubber Duck excavators. 16.48 DT describes how the rail modified Rubber Ducks worked. 17.23 When the rail division (now called Hydrex) was expanded and shares were sold in the company it made millions of pounds and it became the biggest supplier of road/rail adapted equipment in the UK with 13 depots. 18.08 DT describes how everything changed when the owner retired and a financial expert was brought in to run the company. 20.00 One of the companies bought by Hydrex was MTR training Co in Weston Super Mare. DT describes why it wasn’t such a good deal. He fell out with the financial advisor who he called a snob. Eventually the company over extended themselves. 21.48 DT describes his job as a trainer with the company which he did for the next 5-6 years. He also set up a training school in Portishead before retiring at 65. 24.10 DT has lived in Sea Mills for 33 years. He describes Sea Mills Together (SMT), a neighbourhood group he set up after retiring to bring local people together. 25.00 He explains how Sea Mills was the first garden suburb ever built by a local authority and how that uniqueness is being threatened by a new proposed development by Bristol City Council that goes completely against the original ethos of the garden suburb. 27.00 He is not at all happy about the proposed changes that will see 149 or 249 houses demolished so that this land can be redeveloped. Along with other residents he is very concerned and is challenging the council about the impact this will have on the suburb for the future. He is critical of the council’s plans which, in reality, he does not think will work.
Track 002 ends 31.05
Track 001 00.00 Born in a house in Blackboy Hill, DT lived all his life in Bristol. He went to Kingsdown Secondary School. He always wanted an apprenticeship in the Navy but failed the exam. His first job was working for Averys Wine Merchants. He became a van boy delivering food to shops, hotels and restaurants but was sacked after six weeks 05.00 He did deliveries between Gloucester and Bridgewater. 06.07 Learnt to drive and became a driver. 06.30 Moved into construction as tea boy and general labourer before he became a scaffolder working for building firms that renovated houses in Bristol. 07.04 Joined ICI at Severnside working for Costain Construction digging trenches in the winter. Saw his first JCB and amazed when it finished off digging the trench and dug more in 20 minutes than he and the other 4 men had dug all week. He thought to himself how much easier it was than digging with a shovel and from then on he wanted a job driving an excavator. When he was 18 he got a job at the Oldbury Power Station working as a banksman. 10.00 DT describes the reservoir built to supply water to the power station and his job as a banksman making sure that everyone was working to safe procedures and knew what each other was doing. They had to work according to the river and tides and it was very important they got it right. Because of this they were paid 1 ½ hours for every hour worked so an 8 hour shift was paid for 12 hours. They had to follow the tide out and work until the tide came in. It was dangerous work and he remembers one foreman being run over and badly injured. 13.22 For the night shift huge 40 foot trailers carried floodlights out and all the holes had t o be pumped out before work could start. DT describes the pipes running into the river. 15.00 (Continues description). 15.49 DT names the different contractors. He worked for Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Co who were earth moving specialists responsible for digging out the power station basins. DT was there for 9 months until the job was completed. It took 7 years to build the power station. 17.55 DT still wanted to be an operator. He describes his next job and how he learnt his craft over the next couple of years and built up his experience. 20.00 He was 18 and working for Bristol Plant Hire. People would ask for him to be their operator when they hired machinery but it meant a lot of moving around the country and he had a girlfriend in Bristol. Within a few years, however, more and more companies were buying their own equipment which meant he had to go where the work was and this led him into motorway and airport work using big machinery. 23.24 DT describes working on the M5 and M4 motorways driving a JCB digging central reservation drainage. 25.00 This was difficult because of the type of rock which had to be drilled and blasted. He describes a blasting accident. 27.00 He describes accidents that happened at Oldbury Power Station. 30.00 (Continues talking about accidents he remembered before Health and Safety was more rigorous). 34.03 The construction industry came to an end around October/November until February/March and workers would be laid off. He describes how he blagged work as a scaffolder in the winter months. 35.00 Describes scaffolding in those days which was much less rigorously monitored like it is today by Health and Safety so he got away with it. He worked on some of the motorway bridges. 35.43 DT describes working on the Second Severn Crossing where he drove a Rubber Duck excavator putting in anchor points for machinery. He remembers one occasion when he had the section foreman with him to inspect holes who didn’t want to turn back when DT said it was time to go. DT explained they would have to outrun the tide which was being driven in early by a force 9 gales. It was touch and go. The foreman apologised. 40.00 DT remembers that Laing’s (the construction company) didn’t understand how quickly the tide could come in and how variable and unreliable it could be. Describes what it was like to get caught out by the tides. 41.57 DT talks about the different times he worked for ICI including construction of their acid plant and later their nitrum plant and working on the 328 ft high chimney which had major problems with the scaffolding due to an architect’s design fault. After this experience he thought twice about another scaffolding job on cooling towers in Thirsk. He didn’t go to this job and where the scaffolding collapsed and killed two men. 45.00 He then went back to ICI driving a tractor shovel. 45.30 DT describes a problem with the storage of the fertiliser and how he had to work 3-4 days without a proper break. The company didn’t tell his wife for two days that he was at work. 48.10 DT describes a photograph taken during the winter of 1963 when he was working on the pump station at Oldbury Power Station. 49.22 DT describes the work he has done between Worcester and Bridgewater on the M5 and M4 using bigger equipment. 50.00 One of the bigger jobs was working for Blackwell’s on a section through Hallen Hills cutting at Avonmouth when the red and green marl rock had to be dug out with motor scrapers. 50.47 DT describes the processes involved in removing the marl. 55.00 Rock and subsoil waste was often dumped and buried under farmers land and their top soil went back to the motorway. Farmers were paid rent and compensation. 55.00 While working on the M5 for Brookthorpe archaeologists found roman remains. He explains the protocol of them getting involved with any excavations. Once when working on the M11 they found a bomb 15 metres down which the Bomb Disposal Unit removed. 59.07 DT describes one site that had been an RAF bombing range and still had live bombs in the mud. 1.00.00 The army Bomb Disposal had supposedly cleared an area ready to be excavated but one driver, Charlie Marshall, ended up with a 500lb bomb in the earth on his motor scraper. Luckily it turned out to be a dud. Tape ends 1.02.04 Track 002 00.00 In 1975 he had come back from building the Redruth bypass in Cornwall driving a D9 40 ton bulldozer. He realised work in the construction industry had started to dry up. The major motorways had all been built and that winter he worked for a friend in a nightclub. 0.52 DT describes how he changed his career path to become a fitter after taking a government training course for heavy plant fitting. 02.27 DT describes how he started working for GT Services in Bristol (a Case franchise) where he worked for 2 years . 03.49 DT talks about how this changed to working as a demonstrator with the Case company. 05.00 Eventually, due to changes in operating strategies he was actually employed by Case from 1.4.1979. 05.34 DT explains what happened after he had been taken on by Case as a demonstrator and how the company expanded its business. 08.15 When the training officer realised DT could operate cranes he offered him the job as demonstrator in the crane division. After training in France he worked all over the country as their crane specialist which possibly saved his job until 1988 when he was made redundant. 10.00 The realisation was that times had changed and there wasn’t enough work available for all the large equipment available. 10.40 DT explains how Stevie Morris converted Rubber Duck excavators to be rail mounted. Meanwhile DT was working at Durstones on the Second Severn Crossing. When work stopped he was kept on as he was self employed and he was offered 3 months work on Avonmouth Bridge. 10.00 The job turned out to be for one day only and was all about getting a cheap hire rate. Back at Durstones DT started working on rail mounted Rubber Duck excavators in the Severn Rail Tunnel. They expanded and bought more Rubber Duck excavators. 16.48 DT describes how the rail modified Rubber Ducks worked. 17.23 When the rail division (now called Hydrex) was expanded and shares were sold in the company it made millions of pounds and it became the biggest supplier of road/rail adapted equipment in the UK with 13 depots. 18.08 DT describes how everything changed when the owner retired and a financial expert was brought in to run the company. 20.00 One of the companies bought by Hydrex was MTR training Co in Weston Super Mare. DT describes why it wasn’t such a good deal. He fell out with the financial advisor who he called a snob. Eventually the company over extended themselves. 21.48 DT describes his job as a trainer with the company which he did for the next 5-6 years. He also set up a training school in Portishead before retiring at 65. 24.10 DT has lived in Sea Mills for 33 years. He describes Sea Mills Together (SMT), a neighbourhood group he set up after retiring to bring local people together. 25.00 He explains how Sea Mills was the first garden suburb ever built by a local authority and how that uniqueness is being threatened by a new proposed development by Bristol City Council that goes completely against the original ethos of the garden suburb. 27.00 He is not at all happy about the proposed changes that will see 149 or 249 houses demolished so that this land can be redeveloped. Along with other residents he is very concerned and is challenging the council about the impact this will have on the suburb for the future. He is critical of the council’s plans which, in reality, he does not think will work.
Track 002 ends 31.05