The construction of Shrewsbury Market Hall was a massive undertaking, yet the company that built it was also building the monumental Shirehall at the same time.
In its heyday G Percy Trentham was a huge national construction and civil engineering company with big flagship projects to its name and depots all over the UK, including Stoke-on-Trent where a large number of workers for the market hall and Shirehall came from.
Reg Winfield was one of them. He dropped in to see us and tell us about the building of the market hall and life for the scores of workers who worked on its construction.
Founded by G Percy Trentham in 1913, the company was responsible for a large number of major construction and engineering projects across the UK – factories for major car manufacturers including the iconic Ford Dagenham production plant for Henry Ford, power stations, airports, RAF bases, railway stations, major roads and bridges, reservoirs, docks and coastal defences. In its heyday the family-run firm employed thousands of workers.
Reg’s brother, Frank, also worked for the company as one of a team of architects. For them working for a prestigious national company and the building of state-of-the-art civic buildings was a great source of pride.
“Being here and looking at the market hall now and the success it has become gives me a great sense of achievement,” says Reg.
“It makes me feel proud to be part of its history.”
Back in the 1960s, workers who built the market hall sometimes got the impression that locals didn’t like them very much!
“People would walk by and say things like why are you building that load of rubbish?” recalls Reg.
The new market hall was meant to be part of a brave new world, cutting edge architecture representing a new era for Britain. Not all the locals, of course, saw it that way, mourning the loss of the Italianate Victorian Market Hall that had dominated the town for nearly 100 years.
“They couldn’t understand why the old building was demolished,” says Reg. “I do remember it had beautiful stonework.”
But the old building was not fit for the modern era and had a lot wrong with it. In contrast the new Postmodernist Market Hall came with all the mod cons and was bigger, housing not only a large modern indoor market, but a shopping centre and office block. It was intended as a new prestigious building for the town.
Reg, who now lives near Shrewsbury, joined G Percy Trentham as an apprentice at the age of 14. His apprenticeship in construction and civil engineering took five years. A farmer’s son, he didn’t fancy the farming life.
By his early 20s he was working on the construction of Shrewsbury Market Hall and Shirehall, in charge of a small maintenance team that looked after the machinery involved in the construction – from concrete mixers, hoists and lifts right up to diggers, dumper trucks and enormous cranes.
Another responsibility was driving the company’s workers by bus, from the Stoke-on-Trent area to Shrewsbury, sharing the duties one-week-on and one-week-off with a co-driver.
Living on his family’s farm, at Draycott in the Moors, North Staffordshire, meant Reg could park the bus there overnight, ready for the early morning pick-ups, starting at 5.30am, from Uttoxeter, Blythe Bridge, Meir and Longton. His was one of three busloads of around 40 – 45 men that would make the two-hour daily trip to Shrewsbury.
Around a dozen single men stayed in digs in Shrewsbury, paid for by the company. Reg recalls a three-storey guest house run by a Mrs Baker, close to the town centre.
Demolition company Potteries Demolition dismantled the old Victorian Market Hall. G Percy Trentham was entirely responsible for the groundworks and construction of the new market hall.
On site would be a small army of groundworkers, bricklayers, steel fixers, carpenters, concrete teams and labourers. Many labourers, groundworkers and bricklayers were recruited locally, helping to boost employment and the local economy.
On Sundays a 35ft – 40ft ton 8-wheeler mobile crane would be transported on the back of a series of lorries from Shirehall. The small convoy would snake along Abbey Foregate, up Wyle Cop and along High Street, Mardol Head and Shoplatch to Bellstone where it would be used to raise a huge hoist, in the centre of the market hall’s clock tower which was under construction.
The hoist was used to lift the building materials up to the bricklayers working on the tower. Every Sunday it had to be raised to a higher position ready for the following week’s work. The crane can be seen in one of the photographs that are part of the market hall’s current 60th anniversary exhibition.
Reg would drive the 50-ton lorry used to carry the main part the crane, while one to two other lorries would carry the crane sections. He recalls the painstaking manoeuvres necessary to navigate around the tight corner of High Street and Mardol Head, inching forwards and backwards three or four times to squeeze round the bend.
The two main bricklayers for the 200ft clock tower were two brothers, Tom and Fred Clarke, who lived in Castlefields, Shrewsbury. They prided themselves on never dropping a brick!
Health and safety on site was strict with the company stipulating that safety harnesses had to be worn when working at height. Although working practices back in the 1960s weren’t what they are today. Reg recalls workers spending lunchtimes at The Hole in the Wall or The Exchange pubs, and going back up the scaffolding afterwards.
The surveyor for the site came from G Percy Trentham’s Stoke offices. Every so often there would be consultation with the architect David du Roi Aberdeen’s company in London.
The market hall was completed in 1965. Reg and other workers were involved in the topping off ceremony held on April 7 1965 to lay the coping stones on top of the tower, although they weren’t invited for the official civic opening on September 16. Shirehall opened the following year.
G Percy Trentham had started on the Tyburn Road, in Birmingham, before moving its headquarters to Purley, near Reading, in 1961. It had depots and regional offices across the UK including Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Liverpool, Cardiff and Scotland – divided into Southern, Midland and Northern regions.
Reg was employed by the company for 32 years, working his way up to become an area manager. He finished in 1988 after the Midland and Southern regions were sold off. The northern region continued. Reg was the last person to leave the company in the Midlands. His final job was to lock-up and hand over the keys to the Stoke depot to new owners.
He went on to work as a maintenance manager for Alton Towers, during its early days, looking after the likes of The Corkscrew, the Thunder Looper and various water rides.
After three years he had the opportunity to open a hotel and a 65-cover a la carte restaurant in Borth, Aberystwyth, with his then wife. Three years later they sold the hotel, went their separate ways, and Reg got a job as a manager with the Youth Hostels Association (YHA) and went on to work for An Oige, the Irish youth hostel association.
Reg moved to Baschurch 25 years ago, so has been able to see the success of Shrewsbury Market Hall develop over the years. “I like the building,” he says.
And he fondly remembers his time working for G Percy Trentham.
“They looked after their staff. They appreciated us as individuals.”
