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Joe had a brilliant idea to save
money on transport costs. Youngsters who attended the
juvenile court and were remanded in custody had to be
taken to one of the remand homes, which were some
distance away. There was always a spare seat in the car
during a driving lesson, so the youngsters could be
taken to one of the homes during a lesson, and the
driver could gain a lot of experience at the same time.
This is what Joe had to say about it:
“When the kids were being remanded,
they were never remanded locally, all the remand homes
were some miles away. There was one at Welland in
Worcestershire, and a regular one at Barry in South
Wales. When we came on at 2 o’clock we only had two
trainees in the car, there was always a spare seat. They
used to send a policeman with a car, and an escort to
Barry, but I realised that this could be done with the
school car. The court always finished at lunchtime, and
the kids were then ready to go to remand homes or
approved school. We used to load them in the back, where
there two spare seats and take them. Mr. Goodchild
thought it was marvellous, it was another lever to keep
the driving school going.
Our driving school upset the chief
constable at Stafford when we pulled out of their
school, but Mr. Goodchild stood his ground. I shall
never forget one day when we were going to Barry with a
juvenile. It was a long way, there were no motorways, so
it was ideal for training someone in advance driving. We
got into Newport about tea time, and were stopped by the
local police. After being asked if we were from
Wolverhampton and on our way to Barry, we were asked to
go into the local police station for a cup of tea,
because they had some bad news. We were told that a
mistake had been made with the warrant, and the
youngster had to go to Manchester instead. We then had
to go all up the A49 to Manchester to drop him off. We
didn’t get back to Wolverhampton until the early hours.
That’s the sort of thing we did. We never got paid for
the extra hours, but took time off instead.
The Barry run was regular. During
the run we used to go down to Hereford, where one day I
was conscious of a posh car, a Rolls Royce I think,
which was following us. We pulled up at the traffic
lights in Newport, and the driver dashed out of the car
and said “I want have a chat with you lads about
driving. Would you like to come and have a cup of tea
with me?” He was quite a toff in his Rolls Royce, we
followed him half way to Cardiff and the St. Mellons
turning. It was at the St. Mellons Golf Club.
He said “I travel from Manchester
to Cardiff each week. That journey we had today not only
kept me out of trouble, it kept my speed limit right. I
thoroughly enjoyed watching every move you did. I’ve
learned a lot from that journey today, come and have a
cup of tea in the golf club. If ever you’re down here
again, always come into the golf club and have a cup of
tea.” We then had to go on to Barry, and always got
back at all sorts of hours, but nobody bothered, no
fuss, it was terrific.” |
