1980's - By October 1986 the apprentice school had been demolished to make way for the entrance roadway into the Tesco store. This is part of the tapered building is where I spent many hours working on lathes, milling machines, borers, planers and shapers learning my trade. The floor of the apprentice shop is being dug up prior to demolition of the building.

A vivid memory of my days there is that t here used to be an access door in the top left corner of the building and one winter day we heard a loud knock from the outside, we opened the door and pounded the person with a few shovels full of snow followed by howls of laughter from the apprentices. The snowman shook himself and it turned out to be a man in a suit and bowler hat, the General Manager, Mr. Quinnell ; we were all suspended from work for a few days in retribution! This included an apprentice who shall remain nameless who was found hiding outside around the corner who had watched the preparations intended for him and had realised the great opportunity to set us all up.

The original photograph is held at the archive of the National Museum of Wales and forms part of a series of 31 photos of engineering workshops at Penarth and Barry Docks. [Museum item number : 87.202I/4] [629] [20180326]