Name: | |
George Cottrell | |
Transcript: 6 | |
Transfer to Langley | |
The Langley factory, near Slough, was developed by Hawker Aircraft to mass produce aircraft for the war effort as the factory at Canbury Park Road, which dated from the First World War, was very limited in production capacity. After the war, there was a demand for more skilled staff at Langley and George accepted the offer of a transfer.And when the end of the war came they wanted people at Langley. Because the Hurricane had finished – well you’ve seen the picture the ‘Last of the Many’. And then they were switching to the Sea Fury. And they wanted staff down there so they came to all of the young inspectors at Kingston and they said ‘would you like to have a transfer to Langley’. And as soon as they said it to me, I said, ‘yes, I’ll do it’. And only one other man, well a boy, said the same. He said, ‘I’ll do it’. So, two of us, out of all the inspectors at Canbury Park Road, volunteered to go to Langley. And I said, ‘how do I get there’ and they said, ‘you go by coach, a coach will pick you up’. They had what they call a ‘stopping coach’ to pick people up. It used to come from Richmond Road, stop at Teddington and it used to take us to Langley. |