A Career in Construction - Part 13

The second half of 1978 was a highly dynamic time for Henry Boot in the south of England. We had been hearing rumours that the company wanted to expand and I guess the first realisation of this policy was when a new Contracts Manager arrived to look after Cheshunt and Harlow. Tony Whale was ex Bovis who were specialists in Management Contracting. Could this be what we might be doing in the future? Tony arrived on 4th August. How he fitted in with Peter Horth and Ken Ottley who knows.

The company owned a large mansion on The Boltons in Chelsea. I guess this was used for functions and offices for the Boot family. However in September I was going there for Management Meetings. By this time I think the company had set up a Special Projects team to look for new work, and this was now their base in the absence of any other accommodation. The company was now actively searching for a office, but in the meantime we had to use The Boltons. On 27th October, for what were now fortnightly Management Meetings, we were introduced to the new Managing Director for the whole company. David Woolf had come from .... you've guessed it ...... Bovis. He must have explained to us the opportunities that were open to the company in what would be a brand new Region.

The first of these materialised very quickly. Only a week later I was called to a meeting at The Boltons for a new contract, Kings House in Brentford. Although busy on Cheshunt and Harlow, I was grabbed by a new Contracts Manager called Mike Stafford to sort out the commercial stuff including placing the first sub-contract orders. Guess where Mike had come from? ....... Correct! Mike didn't have his own office so all the initial meetings were at The Boltons. It almost became a second home. Brentford was off to a lightning start in November. It was on a type of fee contract but we were trying to run it as our first management contract. The client was expecting we had all our own labour but the work was all sublet.

November also saw the company signing a lease on new offices on Castle Street in High Wycombe. There was a lot of fitting out required but I think we were using temporary areas during December. The office was finally ready for occupation immediately after Christmas but before then we were told of the structure for the new Southern Division. Instead of Peter Horth heading the Division as expected, we had a new leader in Colin Brooks. He was head of that Special Projects team at The Boltons but now took on Operations too. So the south had it's third man in charge. Peter Horth and Ken Ottley moved to High Wycombe as did Mike Stafford and Tony Whale. I had small office well down pecking order. But it was fantastic to have our own headquarters and the offices were excellent. But come the first week in January, I was in for a big shock.