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Westwood Works 1903-2003 |
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The strong "Family" feeling engendered at Westwood is alive and well. This is illustrated by the continuing steady flow of memories and memorabilia for inclusion on this Website, a year after we started work. Many local hostelries are the venue for informal gatherings of ex-employees, particularly on Friday lunchtimes and reminiscences are exchanged in impromptu sessions in Peterborough's coffee shops on a daily basis. Ex-Rugby Club members meet regularly to re-live old games and social events over a pint (or two) and another WWRUFC Annual Dinner is planned for October 2004.Even more memories are swapped at the weekly meeting of the Retired Members Section on Wednesday afternoons in the New England Club.
A number of events to celebrate 100 years of activity at Westwood have been held in 2004 and some are illustrated below. All were well attended and resulted in an even heavier flow of material into the Website.
The first "Reunion" was held on 3rd December 1993, almost a year
after Westwood Works closed, and was organised by Dorothy & Trevor Edwards, Jean & Dave Stonebridge, Jim Deboo, Horace Phillips, Brenda Green and Bert Slater. This was followed by the memorial gathering for
Sir Ivor Baker following his death in January 1994, held in the main hall at
Peterborough Technical College on 20th February 1994 and particularly well attended.
Sir Ivor was unable to attend the December 1993 Reunion but sent a personal message:
“I am very sorry that I can’t be with you tonight but I am afraid old age has caught up with me very fast at the age of 85 and I am not fit enough to come.
I think that the organisers of the gathering tonight have done a marvellous job in getting together so many members of the ex-Baker Perkins family, as I like to think of you all, and I am sure that you will have a lovely nostalgic evening. Perhaps it can become an annual fixture for the future.
I think that between us we built up a wonderful company and I am proud to have been part of it. Thank you all for the splendid co-operation you gave me.
I am bitterly disappointed not to be with you tonight but please drink a toast with me to Baker Perkins and the good old days.
Ivor Baker 3rd December 1993”
We would like to hear of any other "reunions" and copies of formal, or informal, photographs for inclusion on these pages would be gratefully received.
Here are a selection of photos from the October 2002 Westwood Works Rugby Club reunion.
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Mac McCulloch & Tony Belson |
John Smith & Mac McCulloch |
Peter Brodie, Brian Prentice, Ray Measures & Howard Pettit |
Colin Young & Colin Nichols |
Mike Herring, Howard Pettit & Andy Duffus |
Derek Westwood, John Porter, Brian Prentice & Alan Beales |
Lionel Brewster, Mick Ward, TBC, Rex Login & Mike Corrigan |
A number of events to celebrate 100 years of activity at Westwood have been held in 2004 and some are illustrated below. All were well attended and resulted in an even heavier flow of material into the Website.
The first in a series of Baker Perkins Coffee Mornings was held at Peterborough Museum om April 29th 2004. Ex-employees were invited to identify old photographs and to record some of their memories of their time at Westwood Works.
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2004: First meeting at Peterborough Museum (April 29th) |
The second "Coffee Morning" was held on July 21st. and more memories were collected. These were used as the theme for "The Baker Perkins Exhibition" held at Peterborough Museum over the weekend of 4th/5th September 2004. Memorabilia and photographs from the earliest days of both WP&P and Baker Perkins created a background against which a steady stream of visitors exchanged reminiscences of their lives at Westwood.
Perhaps the highlight of the first day was the presence on the front lawn of the Museum, of a 25-Pdr Field Gun, one of the 2,200 made at Westwood during World War 2 (see Westwood Works in WW2). The members of the Territorial Army who had transported it from their Depot in Nottingham were particularly fascinated to discuss its features with two of the men who had made it - Bert Slater and Jim Deboo.
As Peterborough Museum has a large archive of Baker Perkins material, much of which has yet to be shown in public, it is hoped that this Exhibition will be the first of many. Much of the credit for the availability of this material must go to Bert Slater who has spent many years painstakingly identifying and cataloguing the thousands of photographs and negatives in the Archive.
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09/09/04: Local Press Coverage of Museum Exhibition |
APV Baker Family Open Day |
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Family Open Day Leaflet |
The old Baker Perkins flag flies again |
A key event in the 100 Year Celebrations took place at the APV Baker factory at Paston on Sunday 12th September 2004. Existing and past-employees compared working experiences at a Family Open Day, a key feature of which was a "Heritage Display" with one input being this website. Also shown was a draft of "The Westwood Works Roll-call", a list of 10,000 people who have worked on the site between 1904 and 1992. The finished version can be seen here.
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What was, effectively, the 50th Reunion Dinner of the Club as given its new lease of life by the 1953/54 Apprentice intakes, took place at the Great Northern Hotel on 29/10/2004. These are just some of the many photographs taken on that occasion.
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Another Reunion was held at the Parkway Club, Maskew Avenue, Peterborough on 28th April 2006. Despite it being 14 years after the closure of Westwood Works, 375 ex-employees and their partners attended.
It was not planned but it was a happy coincidence that the Reunion was held in the same month that the old company reverted to its original name of "Baker Perkins" - APV Baker having been acquired by private investors John Cowx and Brian Taylor.
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We are grateful to Fred Davis for the photograph of Lizzy and Elisabeth from the Archives Services Section of Peterborough Library who are helping to create the official Baker Perkins Archive |
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The Society's second publication - "A Hundred Years of Baker Perkins at Westwood Works 1903 - 2003", compiled by Rita McKenzie and based on her successful series of local "slide shows", was launched at Peterborough Museum on Wednesday 28th November 2007.
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A Reunion to commemorate the Great Trek from Willesden to Peterborough in
1933 when employees of the original Joseph Baker & Sons joined their new
colleagues from Perkins Engineers as part of the recently formed Baker
Perkins. For a selection of photographs taken at the event held at the
Parkway Club, Peterborough on Friday 3rd October 2008, click here.
