In the meantime the factory was getting really busy and a new fleet of Jenson commercial vehicles had arrived and drivers had been employed to take domestic appliance orders around the country. Also a garage workshop had been opened up and vehicle mechanics were taken on to do repairs and maintenance. The winters travelling on the auto-cycle to work were atrocious. Heavy thick snow and ice, with fog, supplemented with smog from coal-fired chimneys made getting to and from work difficult to say the least (I now wonder how I had put up with it during the two years on the auto cycle). There was plenty of overtime on offer, so I decided that I needed a car to get to work. I bought a pre-war Morris 8, which was in reasonable condition. This would make my future travelling a little more comfortable.

The next thing on the menu was the fact that Edna had been pushing me to move into a house of our own, which was only natural, as in the six years we had been married we had lived with my family. We eventually took the plunge and left the smallholding and moved into a three bed-roomed end terraced house in Wallcroft Street in Skelmersdale. We took out an endowment policy over 25 years and moved into the house in 1951. This became the start of my D.I.Y. period, a hobby which was to last me my lifetime. I also particularly enjoyed making thing with wood.
The years moved on and Edna became pregnant again in 1954 after two miscarriages. This time we both agreed that the hospital was the best place and so on the 16th August 1955, our son was born and christened Lincoln (I was a fan of Robin Hood in those days and loved to watch Richard Green on the telly. Robin and his band of outlaws used to wear garments of Lincoln Green – and I think maybe that was where I got the idea for the name and as we both liked it we settled for it).

My brother Joe had joined the R.E.M.E (Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers) in the later years of the war and served time in the middle-east campaign. Some time after the war he met a girl named Patricia who lived in Formby near Southport and they were married on the 6th July 1957.
It wasn’t long before Edna and myself started thinking about another baby and how it would be nice if we could be lucky enough to have a girl. Eighteen months later it finally happened and in November 1957, on the 8th day, we were delighted when our daughter was born. We both liked the name Wendy and she was duly christened. Both babies had been born by caesarean section.

Work for me carried on as usual and by now the factory was extremely busy as other departments were manufacturing Switchgear and Fuse gear. Internal transport was expanding with a variety of stacker trucks being used to load appliances onto vehicles and more private cars and vans had been added to the fleet. The transport department was now quite large, doing repairs to internal vehicles as well as external. We had replaced most of the old commercial vehicles with new types, also some of the vans and cars had been upgraded.
One particular day the transport manager Mr Webster sent for me and he said he had a proposal to make to me, "As you can see Jackie," he said (that is what he always called me), "We are getting quite a lot busier, so how do you feel about opening up a transport stores depot and running it? I have had promise of the building next to the garage workshop, which we could use". He also continued with, "You will be given a rise and put on staff status, so what do you think?" I was really pleased at this and obviously with two young children at home needed the extra money. I accepted the offer. It meant starting from scratch, getting to know what types of spare parts we were likely to need for various vehicles and dealing with suppliers but I enjoyed the challenge. Over the years I built up the stores and had staff working for me. In 1972 I was presented with my gold watch after 25 years service.

The children grew up quickly and we were a happy family. My parents moved from the smallholding into a nice little bungalow and lived happily until their mid-eighties. Over the years we enjoyed many happy family holidays, both in the UK and abroad. Our son Lincoln began to show a love of travel at an early age. As a small boy he always loved to study maps of the world and after getting married to a local girl in 1977 they emigrated to New Zealand. This gave Edna, Wendy and I the opportunity to visit this beautiful country several times during their stay there. One visit that particularly stays in my mind was in 1979 when we had the opportunity to sail around the Bay of Islands in a friend’s seagoing yacht.
A few years later they moved from New Zealand and went to live in Melbourne Australia. We visited often, for weeks at a time and in 1983 Wendy went over to work there for a twelve-month period. A few years later Lincoln's marriage broke up but they stayed friends and Lincoln remained in Australia. Both children had a taste for travel and spent time backpacking around the world. Lincoln especially liked to visit the more ‘off the beaten track’ places and would work for several months to accumulate some money before jetting off to somewhere like Nepal, Thailand or Peru for several months or more. In 1990 Wendy gave birth to a son named Nyle, this was to be our only (to date) grandchild and Edna doted on him.

The English Electric Company was now GEC (General Electric Company), and as the years passed by changes were being made in the factory causing many redundancies and the transport dept was being affected also. I had turned 64 years of age when notices were put around the factory asking for volunteers for redundancy. As I would have to leave when I reached 65, I had nothing to lose so I put my name forward but I did not expect to be accepted, being so close to retirement. It was quite a pleasant surprise when I got notification that I had been accepted.

In 1985 I left the factory for good after 38 years. I had got my redundancy payment which I had never expected to get and I was quite happy with events. I now began to think about plans for my retirement. I was looking forward to having a lot more time to carry on with my two main hobbies, swimming and woodworking. I have always had a small workshop and over the years have collected a fair amount of tools and had made a variety of children’s toys including blackboards and easels, wheelbarrows and desks and chairs. Now I was retired I was able to spend more time with my wood and so I decided to buy more of the equipment I would need. I have built up quite a collection and what with making toys, cabinets, coffee tables, fireplaces and helping out with everyone’s DIY projects, I sometimes wonder how I found the time to go to work!

Over the years I have kept myself quite busy, and manufactured lots of items including a wooden vintage 1907 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost replica car, which is approx 3 feet in length and takes pride of place in my front room. I made a point of keeping up my other pastime swimming, and when I turned 65 years of age I joined up with other pensioners at 8.30 am every weekday morning at the local swimming pool. I made a practice of swimming 30 lengths each day and I really enjoyed it. I have continued with this exercise to the present day, but as I’ve got older I have reduced the number of lengths to 25 per day, which suits me fine. I have reaped a lot of benefit from my swimming and I believe that this regular exercise has kept me active in both body and mind.