Tom Kay to Derbyshire

 By Elizabeth Kay

So why did my dad Tom Kay leave Cumnock? The answer is simple. As, in lots of cases, work. 

Born in 1901 (Tom not Thomas, on his birth certificate) in Spout Row Ayr Rd, he was the eldest of three having two younger sisters, Nannie Kay, the Cumnock librarian and Mrs Jean Smith. He attended school in Cumnock then night school in Ayr. I remember seeing an attendance record for night school and remarking it wasn't very good, only to be told he and his pals could only go if they had the bus fare. Sometimes he walked part of the way. Dad did his five year apprenticeship as a fitter at Drummonds in Cumnock ending on 31st December 1920. He also worked for Montgomery and Howat. Under the 1921 census he was a postman, something he did off and on over a period of around 15 years. 

 

He did spend time in Glasgow working for, among others, John Brown's shipyard in the 1930s. Of course, we all know what happened to the 534 when work stopped in 1931, due to lack of funds. He did return to Glasgow when work restarted and saw the launch of the Queen Mary on the 26th of September 1934. I still have the ticket, below.  I also have references from Montgomery and Howat and the Post Office dated 1935. 

 

But no other work being available, when in the Cumnock Labour Exchange the following happened. He saw jobs were available for his trade as a fitter in England. Reading this from his side of the counter, he said to the clerk pointing “I wouldn't mind going there” she said OK and filled in the chit. When he read it, the work was in Spondon. He thought it said “London”!  So that is how he came to Spondon, a suburb of Derby in the English Midlands. 

Getting off the train outside the factory, he went in for an interview and got a job. He then walked up into the village of Spondon to find digs. He found some very soon. After working at British Celanese (a chemical company) for around a year.

British Celanese, now demolished.  geograph

He saw a job advertised in London, so he did get to London working as a fitter for a small firm in Euston Rd. He loved London. The highlight of his stay was the coronation of George  VI in 1937. When it became clear war was coming, he decided to return to Derby (Derby never had unemployment problems, having many industries) and got a job at Rolls Royce. He spent World War II working on Merlin engines. Amongst his workmates he met a man who was a member of a local rambling club, "would my dad like to come along?" Well, he was always fond of walking and the countryside, so he became a member and that was where he met my mum, Mabel.

They married in 1941. He first took her to Cumnock in 1940 to show her his birthplace (she came very familiar with Cumnock) and to meet this family. His mother told him never to take Mabel away from her mother, so no more moving about. When I came along after the war, he was still at Rolls Royce but they soon let go the extra folk taken on for the war. 

What to do next? Well, he went back to British Celanese at Spondon as they were taking on fitters. I should explain here, that British Celanese was not just one factory. It was a huge site employing around 20,000 people at any one time with departments for spinning, weaving, dyeing, printing artificial silk. Ever heard of Tri-cel ? They made 90% of the ether used in Britain in the 1950s and yes there was a stink, a pong or as it was known around here the “Spondon Hum”! It was opened in 1916 for the manufacture of cellulose acetate dope for World War One aircraft. It closed in 2015.

Well, when he went back for another job and they looked up his cards they asked is this your address 37 Ayr Road Cumnock? No, he said, "not anymore" and gave his new address. He worked there until his retirement in 1966 having spent the last 10 years as a “time and motion” man and estimator, a cleaner job. 

We spent most of our holidays in Cumnock -  as a child I was taken every year. One visit that I remember was the summer of 1966. As a young man he entered the Flower Show in Cumnock. Often I found reports in the Cumnock Chronicle of shows he entered in the 1920s and 30s and in 1966 he wanted another shot. He was very fond of his roses so we packed up cut roses on the Friday evening in a large cardboard box. They sat in tubes of water with cotton wool. We caught the midnight train from Derby to Kirkconnell, Cumnock station having closed. Then a bus, a double decker Western SMT to Cumnock Town Hall where he took the roses straight in to stage them. He was thrilled to be among the prizes-winners once again. We returned home by coach on Sunday morning and back to work on Monday. 

flower shows 1926

As a child he took me out on walks in Cumnock but always stopped to talk to someone having been a postie, I think he knew half the toon! His last visit was the summer of 1969 just a few months before he died. Keeping up with current news was easy as his sister sent him the Chronicle every week along with the Ayrshire Post, a football paper and a couple of others. I was quite used to his Scottish accent but it was much stronger when he was amongst his “ain folk”. Before his mother died in 1943, he always had to have his train fare home in the Post Office.

Elizabeth still lives in Spondon.