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Hut18 @ Baddow circa 1965/66 ~ Circuit Delineation by Alan Butt

Towards the end of 1964 or possibly in the early part of 1965, I was "loaned" by my Installation Design Office section leader Ron Larner to go and work in another drawing office located in Hut 18 in the field at Baddow. The task was for me to be a Circuit Delineation Draughtsman. I think the duration of the assignment was about a year. The Circuit Delineation team at Baddow formed only a small part of the empire under the control of Ken Hughes (Chief Draughtsman) ably assisted by Gerry Bamford (Deputy Chief Draughtsman). Ken has recently told me that he started the TID Drawing Office at Pottery Lane before he and his group moved to Baddow where they first occupied Hut 23 which was at the far-end of the field. Ken also explained to me that they had moved to Hut 18 some time before I was assigned there; and that in fact Hut 18 was an amalgamation of the previously existing Huts 17 and 18. Other members of Ken's staff at Baddow were the Illustrators and Graphics located in J Block (originally under Monteith before Ken took over on moving to Baddow). In many respects the Drawing Office under Ken Hughes complemented T.I.D Authors under Ken Stoker located in the main A Block building at Baddow with a few more of the authors in a nearby Portakabin.

I joined a small team of Circuit Delineators in Hut 18, we were in one half of Hut 18 and the tracers were in the other. Gerry Bamford showed me the "ropes" of Circuit Delineation, he was both knowledgeable and enthusiastic. The working conditions, as I remember them, were so so; in the winter it could be "parky", especially first thing in the mornings, and extremely hot on a sunny summer's afternoon.

The tracers were led by Joy Horsfall (Chief Tracer) and later by Beryl Willis who took over from Joy when she left. The members of the tracing team included:- Marlene Snowball (who married Jim Beckett), Eileen ? (who later married Alan Bartrup), and Hazel Durrant (who married Rex. Manville). There were probably many other tracers over the years.

The Delineators included:- Dave Collier and myself. There was also Martin Grimwood (who was not a delineator). Later, after I had left Hut 18 the others were joined by Peter Whittaker (Technical Illustrator). Martin Grimwood went on to become a computer programmer and Dave Collier tragically died young. On occasions there would be visits from Ted Holdsworth who was an extremely talented technical illustrator.

For a delineator, the work consisted mainly of taking a rough, often hand-drawn circuit diagram from a design/development engineer and turning it into a finished drawing with the correct symbols and hopefully an optimal layout in accordance with the company requirements. Gerry Bamford normally checked the drawings before they went back to the originator for approval. If the circuit diagram was required for T.I.D/Handbook purposes then once the essential layout had been drafted then it could be handed over to the Tracers for finalizing in ink. These completed drawings were required to be of a standard which resulted in them being filed/archived in the TID secure plan files. They could then be used for Handbooks, Test, Spares provisioning etc.

The tracers, as well as working on circuit diagrams from the draughtsman to finalize them, also took on other tracing tasks directly from the technical authors and illustrators relating mainly to handbooks and sometimes to publicity material.

As a job, it was a complete contrast to that which I had experienced in the Installation Design Drawing Office. After about a year of Circuit Delineation I briefly returned to Ron Larner's section before I transferred to Naval & Military Systems ~ but that is another story.

See also Gerry Bamford

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