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Ken Oakhill remembers |
My name is Ken Oakhill and I now live at Faithful House in Cheltenham.
I left school at 14 and went to Bristol Commercial College to learn typing and shorthand. I had to travel into Bristol by train every day with some of my friends. I left college when I was 16 and went to work in an office in Bristol. When I was 20 I applied for a job in the shoe trade. I had passed my driving test so after a year in the office I became a rep selling components, mainly to shoe repairers. I worked from the Bristol area but travelled nationally in the UK, from the top of Scotland down to the bottom of Cornwall.
I enjoyed the travelling side even though the hours were long because I met so many interesting people. I used to do 50 000 miles a year but I didn't worry because my son owned a hire Car Company.
There were a couple of buyers in London that I particularly remember for their extensive knowledge of the shoe trade.
I used to stay in Paddington when working in London. It was extremely noisy due to the volume of traffic so I couldn’t sleep because of the return of late night visitors. I was always exhausted when working in London.
In later years when working at Morden I would always stay with one of my predecessors. We used to go off to the pub in the evening and talk about the old days.
We visited many old sites which remain of great interest to the elderly. We took great interest in observing the layouts of drainage which dispersed large volumes of water that could be safely carried away to a nearby sea .
Towards the end of my working life I was in poor health so I had to retire and I went to live in Faithful House where I have made many friends. I chose Cheltenham because I had always liked the area when I was on my travels and it is easy for my son to visit me there. My three grandchildren are now at university so I don't see so much of them now.
© October 2000 Ken Oakhill Part of the Silver Surfers' Project by trAce Online Writing Centre for the 2000 Cheltenham Festival of Literature