Wellington House

[Dave H]

I remember the uni students at Stokes and I did a lot of repairs for them on the bangers they bought and did up in the garage, it was handy for them as I lived then in Crawford Avenue and just crossed the avenue with my gas bottles and through the little gate opposite our house into the field then on to the garage, the best one I remember was a Frog Eye for one of them, sills floor pans etc.

[BigT]

My memories of the years I spent working in Stokes Hall are still quite clear and I thought I'd record them for posterity.

I started working from Stokes Hall in April 1976 and used one of the downstairs bedrooms overlooking Church Road as an office. There were quite a gathering of company trainers in that wing at the time. The students by then had dwindled in numbers and we used some of the Hall's rooms for internal training courses. The library was a magnificent room downstairs and projected out towards the entrance circle. Above it was the common room which we only used for large conferences. It had a stage area and lights.

The snooker and table tennis rooms were upstairs and were converted to conference rooms. I can't remember where the tables went. Downstairs, towards the back of the Hall there was a 'sick bay' with provision for two beds. I can't recall it ever being used for this purpose. The beds were removed in my time and the room used for small meetings.

One of the two chefs lived in at Stokes Hall and had his own room at the back of the dining room.

There were other rooms around the place like the training manager's office next to the library that was eventually converted to a bar and opposite it, the secretaries' office that became another meeting room.

So, I've got fond memories of Stokes Hall, as I have of Beechfield House where I eventually moved to. I lived through the 'change of management' of Stokes Hall when the running of the place was handed over to an outside agency - Compass Services? In fact I met up with their chef only recently. He's set up his own business and seems to be doing fine. He's a decent chap.