{"id":861,"date":"2026-08-24T16:14:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T15:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sunbeamland.com\/wordpress\/?p=861"},"modified":"2026-08-24T16:14:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T15:14:41","slug":"archies-stories-of-tom-ainscough-working-at-cadburys-after-the-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sunbeamland.com\/wordpress\/?p=861","title":{"rendered":"Archie’s stories of Tom Ainscough working at Cadbury’s after the war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TOM AT CADBURYS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the piano business went unprofitable Tom took a job at the local Cadbury factory, at first being a “brusher up”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His first place was at the top floor of the sugar warehouse working a dinner hour spell cleaning up the floor where the sacks of sugar were emptied down a chute. The sacks were stowed up to almost ceiling level and the stackers were considerate to leave a space in the middle for Tom to crawl up to and have a snooze when he had finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once, to his consternation, he heard footsteps on the empty stairs and the head security man (ex policeman) appeared and carefully inspected the floor, even looking down the two sets of stairs. Tom held his breath. Having done a thorough search, the man went over to the sugar chute, furtively produced a bag from his jacket and filled it with sugar, hid it under his coat and left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom was working the weekend in the basement cleaning up round the new sugar grinder that had come from Bourneville and was to be “ceremonially unveiled” on the Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In due course a gathering of the supervisors clustered round it and the most senior switched on and pushed the start button. Beyond a click, the machine stood motionless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The electrician fitter was sent for and duly tested things and pronounced it “not electrical”. Then the fitter and his boss were summoned. They said it must be electrical. By this time the audience had drifted away. Finally the boss fitter said to the fitter, “Take the main drive case off and we will have a look.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it was removed it disclosed that there was no chain between the motor and the machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You didn’t fit the bloody chain on,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I did,” said the fitter. “You couldn’t. I did.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new chain was fitted and the thing worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom said nothing. A new chain was snugly running in the Sunbeam sidecar outfit’s rear chain case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom had a 1934 600cc Model 9A Sunbeam outfit with a box sidecar, and bought various scrap items from work. One was a steel table with tubular legs, about six foot square, but it was really too big to fit in the sidecar. Eventually he got it on, but it shut off all left vision and the legs stuck out over the bike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming up to the roundabout Tom saw the local cop standing there gazing at the outfit and his heart sank and he prepared to stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cop waved him on and as he passed said, “Oh, it’s you. I thought it was a combine harvester.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TOM AT CADBURYS When the piano business went unprofitable Tom took a job at the local Cadbury factory, at first being a “brusher up”. His first place was at the top floor of the sugar warehouse working a dinner hour … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t