Taplow Court - Part 1. 1968

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To make a change from the ‘Family archive’ pictures, I thought I may, 

on this post step back just a mere 44 years to 1968.

The 30th of March 1968, to be precise.

The old Morris 1000 was parked outside my bed-sit loaded up with a suitcase, 

a tape recorder and a brother. 

If I remember correctly, the Morris was a shared purchase, as this was the only way us three eldest brothers could afford to buy anything roadworthy with four wheels!

However, I was off to start a new job, a hundred miles to the south of Bournville and brother Colin was going to drive the car home after dropping me off in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

For the previous two or three years I had been living here, in a bed-sit in Laburnum Rd. 

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My bed-sit was in the house just in the picture on the left.

It was an upstairs front room and had two windows 

both looking out over this lovely memorial garden.

The inside was not quite so lovely!

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My 1966 student's bed-sit.

I won't show you the bed end of the room, 

as it was rarely tidy!

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But the cooker was tucked away in a closet.

(No ventilation - no Elf 'n safety)

And just look at my 12" telly.

It will come as no suprise to learn that I

still have, many bits & pieces from those days.

Mainly books and vinyl records.

I had graduated from University the previous year and was now working for GEC (General Electric Co.) in Birmingham. Being the proud owner of a ‘shiny’ new degree I very much wanted to get into doing research rather than just engineering.

And talking of engineering - 

I came across a photo of me working in the foundry at 

GEC as part of my ’hands-on’ practical training. 

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We had to do this sort of thing during the University summer shutdowns.

Anyway, I applied for a transfer within GEC but they were not happy to move me as it would have meant a relocation to Coventry. The only option therefore was to change company, and I recall buying the Daily Telegraph, (if I remember correctly) every Thursday, as that was the best day for job advertisements.

In those days, after completing an application form, one could nearly always expect to be called for an interview, and I was invited to four. One was in Somerset with Plessey Marine Systems, another in Surrey with Mullard. These first two interviews unfortunately did not produce positive results, but two other interviews with The Post Office (now BT), and British Telecommunications Research (nothing to do with BT!) did both result in ‘offers’. The former offering £960pa at Dollis Hill in north London and the latter offering £1250pa at Taplow, near Maidenhead. 

    

So, from that Monday in April, Taplow Court was to be my new ‘home‘.

I remember feeling very lonely that Saturday evening as Colin drove off home to family and friends, but it wasn’t to last for long as I was to discover a new ‘family’ and dozens of friends at BTR Taplow.

I can still remember that first Monday morning walk to work. I was in lodgings alongside the Thames near Boulters Lock. I had to walk to work alongside the River Thames!

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My river-side walk to work.

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Taplow Court estate was situated high up on the chalk escarpment, 

just a few miles south from Cliveden (NT) and right opposite Boulter’s lock. 

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The walk past Boulters Lock.

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So every morning I had to walk a mile downstream 

to cross the river at Maidenhead Bridge …..

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…..and then a mile back up the other side 

to Taplow - and uphill.

1 - marks the lodging on t'other side.

2 - shows the path up from the bridge.

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Who could wish for a nicer way to

start the day?

Luckily, I joined BTR in the April and

by the time the winter arrived,

I had moved to a flat in Taplow itself.

Here’s a view from the grounds at Taplow 

looking down on the river and weir at Boulters.

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I loved it. Paradise. 

What a difference from the previous week in March, when I fought my way into Birmingham’s Navigation Street terminus, on a crowded Number 62 bus! 

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It turned out that I was to work at Taplow for almost twenty years - just three months short in fact - for the whole site was to be closed at the end of 1988 and we were all made redundant. 

Goodbye Taplow.

“For the good times are all gone,

And I’m bound for moving on.

I’ll look for you, if I’m ever back this way.”

Well, a couple of weeks ago, on English Heritage Day, I paid Taplow Court a visit on one of it’s open days and I was whisked back to that morning in 1968. 

I took plenty of pictures as it is now, 

but over the next few blogs 

I am going to dig out some old and very old pictures, some history and quite a few memories.

When I arrived in 1968, the old place looked very similar to this picture taken two or three years earlier.

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I have left this as a ‘large’ image so that if you click on it you can zoom in for a better view of all the interesting buildings and features. I hope to enlarge each section as I get round to describing each area.

Very few changes had been made, or were indeed allowed to be made to the buildings. Planning rules were much stricter in those days. I’m not sure whether they had ‘listed buildings’ back then, but  I now know for sure that the Main House, the Estate Office and the Dairy are all Grade II listed buildings.

In my days there were walled gardens with fruit trees and vegetables, an indoor tennis court (one of the first in the country), one of the very first squash courts to be built and a bowling green. There was a croquet lawn, many hard tennis courts and a boat house (with boats for loan) down on the river opposite Boulters lock. 

If I’d had my own boat I could have rowed across the river to the office every day!

They even provided us with deck-chairs, so that in the summer months we could sit outside in the sun and watch others play bowls.

In later days when BTR was taken over by Plessey, 

Taplow became known as the ‘Plessey Holiday Camp’.

And there was I thinking this was my 'place of work‘.

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