When I started Jarrow Central School in 1949, for the first time in my life, I had to use public transport to get to school . Prior to that date, my two previous schools, High Board Infants and Windy Nook Juniors, had both been within walking distance. Going to school by train was a unique experience for me and entailed walking to Felling station to catch the 8:26 to Jarrow. The station was generally crowded with Jarrow Central School pupils and I have no doubt that we formed a very noisy group, much to the dismay of our fellow travellers who, presumably, were going to work. Not only that, there was a similar influx of rowdy pupils at Pelaw station to contend with.

I don’t remember having any thoughts about the people working away behind these walls but little did I realise that I was destined to be one of these workers myself for nearly all 45 years of my working life.

Alphonse Constant Reyrolle was born in Juillac, France in 1864. He first came to England in 1883 to work as an Instrument Maker but it was not long before he set up a small engineering business making electrical components in London. It was Charles H Mertz who first suggested that Reyrolle’s future lay in the north of England and A Reyrolle and Company Ltd was duly set up in 1901 at Hebburn. The two sites, one in London and the other at Hebburn, worked in tandem for a while but this was inefficient and it was decided that the London branch would be closed down and all work in hand transferred to the Hebburn site; a monumental decision for the North East.

In 1905 Henry William Clothier joined the company and he is credited with the idea of manufacturing the first metal clad switchgear which was to revolutionise the electrical industry. It was also about this time that Charles Mertz and Bernard Price took out a patent for a protection system based on circulating current and pilot wires. Reyrolle Ltd was given a sub license to build this equipment which became an international standard for feeder, transformer and generator protection.

The company flourished and by 1919 had grown steadily until it employed about 1000 staff. Sadly Alphonse Reyrolle died in 1919 and he was not destined to enjoy the fruits of the success that the company was later to achieve and the staff levels reached a peak of 12,000.

I joined A Reyrolle and Co. Ltd in 1953 after a short spell as an office boy at Baker Perkins. I started as a craft apprentice on a pre-apprenticeship course at Jarrow Grammar School together with about 15 other young school leavers who had decided that engineering was to be their future (see photograph POT-POURII 6/56). Most of the lads on the course were from Reyrolle’s and after completion of the course we had to report to the training school at Hebburn. After a nine month spell in the training school it was into the factory to work on piece work in various departments including relays, industrial switchgear, mining switchgear, testing and finally high voltage switchgear.

In 1956 I was transferred into the drawing office to complete my apprenticeship in the relay section drawing office. In August 1960 I was called up for National Service to serve two years in the RAF. Probably the last National Serviceman to be called up from Reyrolle.

On my return I went back into the drawing office and after about three years went to work in the laboratories to do research and development on new relay products.

These were halcyon days for Reyrolle’s and the orders flowed in with enormous profits for the company. During this spell new buildings were sprouting up all over the Hebburn site including the 1954 short circuit testing station, a new laboratory block, a new relay factory and a multi story office block for office staff. There was even an underpass built under the railway to link up the Hebburn works and the Newtown works. Money appeared to be no object and the company ploughed the profits back with the intention of making sure that Reyrolle remained a leading player in their chosen field.

Vast profits were to be made mainly from the sale of switchgear and Reyrolle’s were at the forefront of technology in the switchgear and protection market. Reyrolle was known as the Rolls Royce of switch gear and the future looked secure.

At that time promotion was nearly always from within and most section leaders, unit managers etc. were personnel who had came into the company either as apprentices or very early in their careers. For example, Bill Grey was chief engineer and he was an ex Reyrolle technical apprentice. He was later promoted on to the board of directors.

The company prospered and an amalgamation took place between Parsons and Reyrolle and this was the forerunner of a larger company called Northern Engineering Industries which included Reyrolle, Parsons and Clark Chapman’s from the Tyne area. At about this time orders began to dry up and suddenly the outlook did not look so rosy. For the first time Reyrolle were having to take on orders with a much reduced profit level and in some cases orders which were running at a loss.

Competition in the switchgear industry was fierce and cost became an over-riding factor in order to obtain orders. Efforts were made to reduce the cost of existing products but this meant that new designs suffered and for the first time Reyrolle was no longer a leading player at the forefront of technology but was a company struggling to stay afloat. Orders became more difficult to achieve and there was insufficient money being generated to maintain the staff levels. Inevitably redundancies had to take place and in a very short time Reyrolle was reduced to about half its former size. The New Town works was closed and the land sold off for housing development. It became a standing joke in the company that only an optimist bought a monthly ticket on the metro.

NEI was eventually taken over by Rolls Royce so Reyrolle which had been known as the "Rolls Royce of Switchgear" suddenly became "The Switchgear of Rolls Royce". Orders picked up for a while and it looked as though Reyrolle had weathered the storm but unfortunately it was not to be and Rolls Royce sold Reyrolle to VA Tech who were themselves taken over by Seimens.

The only building left on the Reyrolle site now is the Light Engineering Factory which houses Reyrolle Protection which employs about 200 staff compared to the 12,000 employed when I started in 1953. This is not by any means a unique occurrence in the north east but nevertheless a very sad one.