DIRECTORATE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
SCHOW (Social Club Home Office Weyhill)
By: Steven R. Cole
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The eight years which I spent working at Weyhill from 1983 until 1991 remain firmly locked in my memories as representing many of the happiest days of my working life with the Directorate. I believe we were fortunate enough to have a group of really interesting people who worked both in Maintenance Planning Group and Weyhill Maintenance Unit.

I seem to recall that at its peak during that time, we had something like sixty people working on site, each having a variety of work and personal skills and interests which were put to very effective use.

During a recent clear out of my loft, I came across two copies of the social club newsletters which, as editor, I had produced during 1986. They give an insight to what was going on at that time, who were some of the principle organisers, etc.

There is no doubt in my mind that for a number of years around 1986, the social club provided a wonderful platform for bringing the staff, their family and friends together for social events. The events were varied and covered many areas of interest such as Sport, attending TV game shows, theatre productions, going on booze trips to places like Cherbourg. There were a number of special events at Christmas for the Children which I seem to remember the adults dressed up in costume and the building was colourfully decorated to include castle walls in the VDU Section, Punch & Judy Show in the Canteen, where the children also enjoyed traditional jelly and sandwich parties (my own children included).

Since we were fortunate to have our own resident pyrotechnic in the form of John Perry (and maybe others that I have forgotten), we enjoyed some excellent firework displays, accompanied by hot food as I recall.

Other events included a summer fete of which I came across some video recently that I took using by Sony F1 Portable Betamax (remember those units?). I hope to be able to place a copy on this web site before too long if I can get it down to a sensible file size.

These newsletters can be viewed by clicking on any of the images above. The logo was designed by Len Clark's son, Jason

On the sporting side, there were a number of keen cricketers which enabled Weyhill to form a team and take on some of the local teams such as the Army Logistics Executive. We used to practice on the south facing field at Weyhill, which players often had to watch where they were running due to the numerous rabbit burrows. The cricket team managed to benefit from getting some equipment paid for by the Civil Service Sports Club, which triggered the likes of me to join. It was all great fun and led to some friendly banter on and off the field with our opponents. Badminton was also well supported using the Andover Leisure Centre facilities and gave the chance for a fine workout.

I believe the main reason for the success and enjoyment brought about by these social events could be attributed to the enthusiasm and support of those who worked at Weyhill

Unfortunately, I cannot comment on what sort of social facilities existed at Weyhill before SCHOW was set up. I can only guess that there must have been a number of events, since the Maintenance Unit and Maintenance Planning group had been in existence for some thirteen and ten years respectively before I transferred to MPG.

Maybe, there are others from Weyhill who have some memories or photos that they would wish to share, or perhaps you worked at other Directorate sites which had similar social club events. Either way, please write in if you have any material which I could publish.

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