Wood Norton – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Milton Hainsworth, Graham Winter and Mike Brown in TK

Photo by Jim Gregory, no reproduction without permission.

The photo includes: Milton Hainsworth, Graham Winter and Mike Brown. It was taken by Jim Gregory in June 1973.
“Milton Hainsworth was a News film editor, Graham was TK supervisor, although technically the post had been re-titled Senior Recording Engineer. Mike was the original film projectionist for Film Unit and the Dubbing Suite, he defected to Central and is now a Video Editor at BBC Nottingham.
In the background is a Westrex Sepmag machine. The photograph was taken by Jim from the Telecine Quality Check Room, which only lasted for a few more years as fairly big alterations were made to that end of the Telecine VT area later.”

Jim Gregory

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

Ray Lee: ‘I remember all 3 as I joined Telecine in 1974, Graham soon moved to Wood Norton, but Milton was still around when News editing had gone to Betacam tapes. Don’t remember where Mike moved to, but our paths didn’t cross often.’

Christopher Hall: ‘I remember Graham Winter from Wood Norton. Sadly he died a couple of years ago.’

Peter Woolley: ‘I remember Milton! I think he refused to go to his own leaving party!’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Well I certainly remember Milton. Yes, I think he did not go to his leaving party bless him.’

Mike Dhonau: ‘I spent 7 weeks with Graham running training in Oman – in 1993. Great times. He was a little plumper then…’

Max Mulgrew: ‘Peter Woolley is correct. Milton was not at his leaving do, on floor two at Pebble Mill, and later refused to accept his leaving present. I think Sue Beardsmore was among those at the gathering.’

Peter Greenhalgh: ‘Mike Brown is still around. Just showed him the pic as he’s not on FB. He does all the tech op jobs here, and was a freelance camera op before joining us.’

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.’

Vote for Them – Regal Cinema, Tenbury Wells

Photos by Roy Thompson, no reproduction without permission.

These photos are from the 1989 three part serial: Vote for Them. They were taken at the Regal Cinema in Tenbury Wells, which stood in for an Egyptian cinema. Roy Thompson took these location photos whilst on attachment at Pebble Mill, from Wood Norton. A 5am make up call at Pebble Mill was necessary!

The cameraman in the top photo is Dave Doogood, with Simon Tooley in the striped top.

Brian Johnson – Grade C Certificate

Thanks to Brian Johnson for sharing his Grade ‘C’ certificate from Wood Norton, in Engineering and Television from 1972.

‘A’ Course – Wood Norton 1970 studio

The photo is from an ‘A’ Course held at BBC Wood Norton in July 1970. Included in the group are trainees (left to right): Dave John, with Pebble Mill’s Keith Brook on camera, John Bennett, Tony Nicholson (he worked for the ILEA’s TV unit, (Inner London Education Authority). They made OU type programmes before the OU began).

The camera is probably a Pye Mk 6: http://www.tvcameramuseum.org/pye/mk6/p1.htm

Thanks to Mark Kershaw for sharing the photo.

Mark adds the following information:

‘The pic is August 1970, the final part of our A1 training course, where the 10 TV people split off from the engineers to train in the studio – then called “the Phoenix”. It was a converted indoor badminton court. I was told it was originally built with the insurance money after the top floor of Wood Norton hall burnt off, and the BBC didn’t rebuild it, just put a roof on! Hence called Phoenix as out of the ashes! (Not sure if true or not)! Later the bar took over the name. For intested the Studio now called Studio A is still in use!

The camera is (I think) a Pye mark 6, it was one of a group from a recently decommissioned B/W OB Unit, as they had all just gone colour. The OB scanner (that looked just like the Dinky model) was parked behind the studio and we worked it like a drive in. For info at that time Wood Norton had only one colour camera – an EMI2001, it was used to train the engineers on how to line them up –we were not even allowed to touch it!’

Keith Brook adds some more detail:

If my memory serves me correctly, the ‘A’ Course, starting in 1970, replaced the old Technical Operations (TO) Course to reflect the less technical aspect of life as a cameraman or sound bloke. And, yes, a man’s world in those distant days.

There was still loads of technical stuff – knowledge of the tools is crucial to any job, not just TV or sound – but the ‘A’ courses concentrated more on learning the basics of how to operate the gear.

The course lasted 3 months, and A1 took place in the middle of summer which was a scorcher that year. Bliss!

In those days, the ‘A Block’ was the only one built of bricks and mortar. ‘B block’, where I lay my drunken head, was still a wooden hut from the war days, as were the classrooms!

The course finished with two important items.

Firstly, a programme that we were required to write, produce and shoot and which is sadly lost in the old 405 line cemetery. That’s me on the camera and the reason you can only see one leg is that I’m using my knee to stop the bloody thing from rising due to the heat!!

Secondly was the end of course exam. I scored 97% despite having no sleep after crashing my car on the M5 after returning from an OB at Radio Merseyside. After moving the mess to the side they reopened the motorway. Intrigued at what might be in the boot of my upturned car, they opened it and everything I owned in the world spilled back onto the motorway, which had to be closed again. I was picked up from hospital in the morning by the BBC chauffeur who drove at 20mph so as not to alarm me. He was actually making me even more nervous because I was worried about missing the exam.

A few days earlier I’d commented that no one had crashed their car that week. Dropping cars into the ditch halfway between the school and the BBC Club was a weekly event. Evidently is was my turn.

After that it was off to TV Centre for me and then, two years later, Pebble Mill.

Happy days!!’