Norman Pilton built gear boxes and remembers working night shifts at Westland

We used to get extra perks because we were on nights. You’d get extra money and various other little odds and ends. Extra time off, an extra day off for your holidays. Then they’d start moaning and groaning because they wanted the same. Why should they get this that and the other and we’re not getting it. But they wouldn’t do the nights. It was quite nice. I enjoyed it.

I was able to see my kids off to school

The thing I liked about it best on nights really was the children were small, growing up. I would be able to see them going off to school and one thing and another in the morning. I was also home here seeing them go to bed whereas lots of times chaps were working. They used to be up early in the morning and gone and they were gone all day. Then, if they were working overtime or anything they didn’t see the children at night and at weekends. If they worked the weekends, there was very little they saw of them again that way. But on the night shift, you were lucky in that respect. You were able to see a lot more of your children than a lot of the other chaps.

We just got on with it

You got stuck into it I think more than what you did during the day because nobody was pestering you. You didn’t have a chargehand not in transmissions we didn’t. It was just me and two or three, four blokes there working. We just got on with it and then you could work it so that you got an hour’s break or an hour and a half, couple of hours break maybe because you could bank on nobody was coming down saying, doing this, doing that and what have you. It was good and I enjoyed it anyway.