Volume Four - An Era of Change, Uncertainty, Depression & War - The Penarth Dock Engineering Company Limited . . .

	In my last letter, I named quite a few workers at Penarth. At Barry I can recall: Phil and Peter Cox, father and son; Sid Ford (union rep); Don Ford; Nobby Churchill; Nobby Clarke; Jim Colderbank; Tommy Price; Bob Coombs; Dai Farrell; Vic Morris; Neville Williams (Evil Knievel); Andrew Ryde; Scotty the Yank from Detroit – he used to come over by ship, and stay a few months each year.
Staff at Hodges Engineering Company, Barry

Apprentices included Albert Brown, Brian ‘the slug’, ‘Lofty’ Lofthouse, Colin Roberts, Steve Ellis. Cyril Tudor was the lorry driver from Barry and Fred Goddard was the Penarth driver. A friend told me that Cyril’s brother Burt, who was a welder, is fit and well and still singing in the Barry choir. Josh Thomas, Dai Brook, and another fitter were involved in the running of the Barry lifeboat. John M Gibbs, Plassey Street, Penarth.' [305]

I recall a number of these names from my time there but it was Tosh Thomas who was the forman and whom I had a special regard for - I learnt a great deal from him. I went to school in Dinas Powys with Philip Cox and often traveled with his father, Peter, from Dinas Powys to Hodges at Barry Docks. I think he had a light blue Morris Minor car!

The Hodges Engineering and Fownes Forge workshops situated between No. 1 and No. 2 tips on No. 1 Barry Dock.