A Career in Construction - Part 19

The 1st November 1984 and my first day at Farrans Construction where I spent the next three years. The only reason why I would ever have joined a Northern Ireland company was because Mike Ellis had started there as General Manager for the England operations. I did have an opportunity to join Balfour Beatty who courted me quite hard. But the final interview with the MD put me off.

So I joined Mike as his number two as Commercial Manager, running the QS and financial operations. Farrans were (and still are) based in Dunmurry outside Belfast. They were (and still are) the building and civil engineering division of the massive CRH (Cement Roadstone Holdings). In 1984 their building operations in England were quite extensive. There were three area offices: Watford (where Mike and I were based), Colchester and Cambridge. (The latter now their only base in this country). I must have gone a few times to Dunmurry. It was in the middle of the troubles in Northern Ireland so security was huge. Mike and I were always pleased when we were back on English soil.

We had a variety of contracts but predominantly work for the MOD in East Anglia, much of it on American Airforce bases.  Alconbury, Mildenhall, Lakenheath, Bentwaters and Woodbridge, Some of the work was new and upgrade of residential property, some small civils contracts and later a large Commissary Store. There was the new Crown and County Courts building in Norwich, a huge housing contract for troops in Colchester, a major factory for Bespac in Kings Lynne and contracts at Enfield, Romford and Islington and, yes, a medical facility at RAF Halton.

You can imagine that there was a lot of travelling involved. I especially remember the long open roads through the fens to Kings Lynne. Although I don't think that Mike and I were ever welcome in the Colchester and Cambridge offices. We also had a strange relationship with the bosses in Dunmurry. Most of the time they did leave us alone, but management meetings could be a nightmare. However we did have the use of a driver. Lucky used to ferry us about which was real luxury. So there were compensations.

It is hard to describe what I feel about those days. We didn't have to worry where the next contract was coming from, they arrived thick and fast. Consequently we were always busy. We also had a fair amount of freedom managing the three areas. Everything was fine except we (Mike and I) always had the feeling we were not wanted. There was such a close relationship between the bosses in Dunmurry and the Cambridge and Colchester managers (they went back a long way) and this didn't help. So it was only a matter of time (the middle of 1987) before Mike found a position at another company. And I was to follow him again.