Bob Carvell, from Semilong, Northampton, joined P.Phipps and Co in 1939 at the age of 15. His father was a dispatch clerk for LMS in the Far Cotton freight yards and Phipps were one of his key customers with malt and hops coming in and bottled beer going out. Elder brother Earnest was already with the brewers and provided an introduction to Phipps MD Major Frazier. After a brief interview at the offices on Gold Street, he started in the Cask Office on Bridge Street. In 1943 Bob enlisted in the Kings Royal Irish Hussars as a tank driver and fought through France to Berlin and the end of the war. Phipps paid any of their workers who were in the services a small retainer, unlike NBC, and held his job open for him after the war. He rejoined the firm and moved into the Architects Department on Gold St.. One of his early jobs was providing the sketches for some of the 25 Phipps pubs that were shown on commemorative cards stuck to the back of beers bottles. This promotion was to mark the 150th anniversary of the company in 1951 and the idea was to collect all 25, then claim a free crate of beer from the brewery. As many will have suspected, one card was made deliberately hard to get, limiting the number of crates ever claimed; The Swan at Duxford being the rarity. Following the closure of the Gold Street Offices, Bob took on the task of converting the old Crown and Anchor Maltings into offices and store rooms. He remembers the difficult task of breaking up the cast iron water tanks in situ and finding the back wall 3” out of line. He also remembers the Praeds take over well, making inventories of plant to be removed from Wellingborough and the arrival of a group of Praeds workers in Northampton who stood out with their different ways of doing things. Throughout the 50s and 60s Bob added extensions and modernised Phipps and later Phipps NBC pubs and Working Mens Clubs. After the building of the new Bridge St. office block in 1958 the Architects Dept. moved in on the 2nd floor. Like many Phipps men Bob was keen on most sports, playing Football, Cricket and Rugby. He particularly remembers the extra intensity of matches between Phipps and NBC, sometimes on Phipps Baulsmholm fields, sometimes on NBCs Spinny Hill grounds. This rivalry would be repeated in later years as Phipps Northampton teams would often play other Watney Mann brewery sides, games that had a fraternal rivalry. In the 70s Bob was chairman of the Northamptonshire Cricket Assn. During the preparations for the closure of the Phipps Brewery and the building of Carlsberg, Bob was involved in the re-routing of the River Nene to create a larger, single site incorporating both the old brewery and the Baulsholm. He moved up to the Lodge Farm depot with other Watney Mann estate staff, finally bowing out in 1986 when computers came into the office, a 47 year career.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 09:08:39 +0000
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