Kentish Express Ashford & District
Rail apprentices are finally reunited
A chance meeting on a bus in Morocco has reunited a group of friends 50 years after they last spoke.
The group of six engineers started apprenticeships at the Newtown railway works in 1968 but one, Bob Paddon, had to leave after a year when his family moved to Taunton in Somerset.
While the other five men - Tony Jenkins, Terry Watson, Steve Goldup, David Jenkins and Colin Rich - remained firm friends, they couldn’t benefit from today’s social media and lost contact with Mr Paddon.
But when Mr Goldup was on holiday in Morocco in March a bizarre meeting sparked the reunion.
“I was going on a desert bus trip and started chatting to the woman next to me,” he said.
“She asked about my life and where I’d come from and I said I had worked on the railway at Ashford.
“She was shocked, saying she’d lived in the area and that her brother had also apprenticed in Ashford.
“When I asked her what his name was I was stunned.”
The team - who have attended a number of weddings and events together over the last half century - quickly rekindled their communication with Mr Paddon and decided to catch up in the town where their friendship began.
Earlier this month, they met up at the Wetherspoon’s County Hotel in the high street, where they caught up over drinks and pub grub.
‘I was on a desert bus trip and started chatting to the woman next to me... when I asked her what his name was I was stunned...’ former railway apprentice Steve Goldup
It was the first time the absentee apprentice had seen the town or his old mates since leaving in 1970, but they talked as if no time had passed at all.
Mr Paddon, who remained in the engineering field, said: “I was completely shocked when my sister sent me a text to say ‘guess who I’m sat next to’.
“It was a really good apprenticeship.
“I remember the days when one of them would pick me up on a scooter on their way in.”
The remaining five men went on to be Ashford’s first apprentices to complete the Engineering Industry Training Board scheme in 1972, building a working model steam ploughing engine in the process.
The scheme was the first off its type in Ashford and the working model was a testament to their engineering and manufacturing skills.
This mechanical marvel is now on display at the Ashford Museum in the churchyard after it was donated by the 67-year-olds in March last year.
The group met at the museum to look at the model before heading to Wetherspoon’s.