A Week Working with Villiers in the 1960's || Wyn Lees

Wyn 2560 days ago

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A Week Working in Villiers Stores in the 1960's with Wyn Lees

In the 1960s, while working for Reliant Plant in Walsall Wood, I spent a week in the Villiers warehouse. At that time, Reliant Plant was Villiers' main dealer in the Staffordshire area. The warehouse was located on Upper Villiers Street/Marston Road in Wolverhampton. This experience opened my eyes to the vast number of spare parts and engines available. I worked alongside Ted Cosgrove, the Stores Manager, and his assistant John Tipton, pulling orders for UK agents and assisting customers. The warehouse buzzed with activity, filled with large wooden packing cases that housed Villiers C12 Engines. Each engine was carefully packed with spare parts to ensure they could be shipped anywhere in the world.

The first personal computers didn't arrive until 1975, so a large warehouse operated quite differently back then. During my visit in the 1960s, there were no computers in sight; everything relied on paper systems. I remember two girls, twins in fact, whose full-time job was to handwrite all the small tags and labels for the parts. They had to write the part number, quantity, and location of the parts ordered by customers.

During the week, I pulled an order for piston rings. The order was for forty rings, and the bin I was using contained packets of 100. Can you guess what happened? I counted out the forty and put the bag of sixty back in the bin (or so I thought). I ended up mixing the bags up and gave the customer the sixty! The Foreman Checker soon caught the mistake and gave me a stern telling off!

One morning, I was warned to be on guard as the Major was coming for an inspection. His name was Jack Flower, and I was instructed to address him as 'Sir' if he spoke to me. He was a tall, upright, flamboyant gentleman with a regimental-looking moustache. I was told he personally managed the agents and stockists, which involved a week away in the Channel Islands.

At lunchtime, I had the privilege of sitting with other guests from distributors, stockists, and dealers in the staff canteen, as a guest from Reliant Plant. I was the only one working in the stores; the others were in the engine rebuild section.

During my visit, I toured the carburettor kitting workshop, where hundreds of B10/1 carbs were assembled to different engine specifications every day, with only twelve people working in that department! Before I left, I was also shown around the main manufacturing works, and what a sight it was. The noise of machinery, the smell of work, and the men and women who contributed to making Villiers industrial engines some of Great Britain's finest engineering products. It was, and still is, a privilege to have been involved.

- Wyn Lees

Villiers Mark 12 Engine, Operating Instructions & Spare Parts List (July 1957)

Visit our Vintage Engine Parts Section

Photo credit goes to www.gracesguide.co.uk, a great site for information on an encyclopedia of brands! Go check them out.

A Week Working with Villiers in the 1960's || Wyn Lees

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A Week Working with Villiers in the 1960's || Wyn Lees

A Week Working in Villiers Stores in the 1960's with Wyn Lees

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