A FORMER toolmaker's apprentice at Maidstone's Tilling Stevens plant in St Peter Street is trying to get in touch with his old colleagues. Jim Henderson, known as Buster, was an apprentice at the engineering firm from 1950 to 1955 and continued to work for the company until 1960.

He then went on to work for the Medway-based firm's Hobourn Transmission and British Twin Disc, but was recently reminded of his Tilling-Stevens days when he bumped into a fellow former apprentice Ray Guntrip.

Mr Henderson of Manor Lane, Hollingbourne, near Maidstone said: "I hadn't seen Ray for 30 years. We got to taking and decided it would be good to meet up with other colleagues from those days."

The pair are planning an initial meeting in the Muggleton Inn, High Street, Maidstone, on Wednesday, October 24, at 7.30pm, with perhaps a more formal re-union dinner to follow.

At this stage they would like any former apprentices who knew them to get in touch and hope that perhaps relatives or friends will pass the message on to those that might have moved out of the area. Mr Henderson, who now runs his own firm, Benz, making machinery to fashion artificial limbs, particularly remembers Spencer Croucher, Ray Knott, Brian Fairhead and the top apprentice for three years running, John Nicholson.

Mr Henderson can be contacted on 01622 880625 and Mr Guntrip on 01634 246036.

Tilling-Stevens was created from a partnership between Maidstone's WA Stevens of Stevens and Barker electrical engineers and the London Tilling bus company.

Until its closure in 1976, the St Peter's Street factory produced lorries, military vehicles and buses.

During Mr Henderson's era, it was producing an armoured personal carrier, spares for Humber cars, and the TS3 diesel engine.

Kent Messenger - April 12