i io for pens nckiser (formerly Reckitt & Colman) Pen ners of the Reckitt Be sion Fund No. 46, January 2010 OUT OF THE BLUE CAME A 50 YEAR OLD REMINDER New chairman for Pensioners’ Association As reported in the last issue of Contact (No.45, October 2009) there were no nominations for the committee elections and retiring members continue for three year terms from the beginning of this year. At the post election meeting at the end of 2009 Ken Cole and Phil Mayor retired from the committee. Ken was a founder member at the Association’s inception in 1995 and was elected Chairman later that year following the death of Derek Goodson who had pioneered the visitor system on which the Association was based. The Committee would like to thank Ken for his sterling efforts on theirs’ and the members’ behalf throughout this period. David Saltmarsh right, was elected to succeed Ken. Phil Mayor, who took over from Ken as visitor coordinator for the Northern region in 1995, will continue David Saltmarsh in that role after stepping down from the committee. The floods which captured worldwide headlines when they devastated the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth last November also hit the former Lake District ultramarine factory of Reckitt Colours at Backbarrow which, as former employees recalled, had partly collapsed into the river half a century ago. Contact’s reminder came from former Hull site engineer Ted Chappell, now living in Norwich, who e-mailed us to express his surprise at seeing a newspaper picture of the collapse of the bridge parapet at Backbarrow when, like most of us, he thought Cockermouth area had been the main focus. Our picture, above, was taken by Backbarrow pensioner Eric Hubbard. very worrying time for Harry Kay the manager.” After the closure of The Mill, as it was known, in the 1980s the building was converted into timeshare apartments ideally situated for the Lake District holiday area. Frank Davies, author of the soon to be published history of Morley Street (see P6) we featured in our last issue (Contact No.45, October 2009), inherited hundreds of photographs of the Hull site but none of the Lake District site, although Backbarrow retiree Eric Hubbard, who contacted Frank following our October story, says that when he worked at the Mill there were some photographs of the kiln shed walls collapsing after the river rose. “As far as living memory goes in Backbarrow the river has never come over the bridge to wash away the parapets as it has done this time,” he told us, “although I think we have never had over 300mm of rain in 24 hours before. continued on P2 HR director co-opted We are delighted that Trevor Clark has agreed to join the Committee following his retirement from Reckitt Benckiser’s Human Resources Department in Hull and he has been co-opted pending elections to be held later in the year. The Constitution provides for “at least six and up to nine” members. Just a reminder that the Committee has members identifying with the three regions, Northern, Southern and Eastern, and, amongst other things, is responsible for the Contact printed and on-line newsletter, organises the pensioner visitor programme and elects a Trustee to the Pension Fund. See committee listing on P2 “An unholy mess” Recalling the time back in 1957 when he was sent to Backbarrow after the unexpected collapse of part of the factory into the River Leven Ted Chappell wrote: “ I had never been to BB before and I was greeted by an unholy mess – an enormous void with the river roaring past. I had been given three days to come up with a plan of action. “The staff were very helpful and I took refuge in the Sun Inn in Ulverston, managing to produce a plan and costing in time for the arrival of the chiefs. Several months later we were back in business. It had been a + + next page