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Norman Thompson's career
In 1987 Norman Thompson retired as Parks Superintendent. He had worked for the Borough of Blackburn (later Blackburn with Darwen) for 46 years. These are some of his memories.
In the spring of 1941 it was time for Norman to leave school and find a job. His father and his maternal grandfather both worked for the Parks Department. Norman had always been interested in natural history – at school he'd organized his friends into an interest group called BOEZAG (Botany, Ornithology, Entomology, Zoology, Astronomy, Geology) – so his father arranged for him to be interviewed for an apprenticeship with the Parks Department.
There’s a story that the Superintendent said ‘So you want to be a gardener, laddie?’ to which Norman replied ‘No, Sir, I want to be Park Superintendent.’ Norman describes the story as apocryphal.
Anyway, on April 1 1941 (his fourteenth birthday) Norman began his seven year apprenticeship at Corporation Park. He worked a five and a half day week, with extra duties on Saturday and Sunday every four weeks. The weekend shift included returning to the park at 10 o’clock at night to check that the greenhouse boiler was working. He was also required to attend night school on three evenings a week, studying for the Junior RHS. His subjects were botany, horticulture and geology. He was interested in all three, but geology became a particular favourite. Success in the exams meant an extra 7 shillings (35p) in his weekly pay packet.
On his first day he was issued with a notebook and pencil, and had to pay one penny for his pruning knife. Mr Windsor, the Superintendent, showed him round the greenhouses where he pointed at one plant and said “That’s an ophiopogon – and don't you forget it!’ Norman didn't.
At first he worked in the greenhouses, washing out plant pots (in cold water), mixing soil, making compost, sowing seeds and pricking out seedlings.
In 1941 Corporation Park was the centre of the Parks Department. The Superintendent lived in West Park Lodge, which also housed the Parks office. His Deputy lived in East Park Lodge. One gardener lived in the Gatehouse and it was his duty to lock up the park at 10.00 pm every night, and open up in the morning.
The Parks Department comprised:-
The Superintendent,
Deputy Superintendent
1 clerk.
Outside workers:-
12 uncertificated gardeners, one Foreman, one Chargehand
2 Rangers (uniformed staff who policed the park) plus 1 extra in summer
2 Attendants for the bowling green (+ 2 relief attendants to cover all parks)
2 Drivers (lorry) and 1 Mechanic
Inside (greenhouse) workers:-
2 certificated gardeners
1 uncertificated gardener
2 apprentices (Norman and an older boy who was later called up)
1941 was of course wartime. The emphasis everywhere was on growing vegetables. Park flower beds were turned over to displays of vegetables: attractive patterns formed by turnips, radishes and beetroots. The Superintendent became responsible for the ploughed up Green Lane football pitches and other similar sites, and his team of Landgirls produced vegetables there, using seedlings grown in the five Corporation Park greenhouses. The vegetables supplied the Civic Kitchens on Montague Street, and hospitals. During the war the park had a weather station. Norman would collect the readings and telephone them to the Meteorological Office at 9.00 am every day.
Norman was 18 in April 1945 but he wasn’t called up because he was in a reserved occupation. Of course he still had 3 years more apprenticeship to complete and he hadn’t yet taken his Senior RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) exams. He played his part in the Dig for Victory campaign. Even after the war it was necessary to eke out rations with home-grown food. The Superintendent (Mr Watson) got Norman to construct a wooden tray which could be laid out as the ideal allotment pattern. This was used in demonstrations and talks to horticultural societies and other groups around Lancashire to encourage members to grow their own food.
A reserved occupation might keep Norman out of the war but it didn’t keep him out of National Service. So he completed his Senior RSA studies in Ealing Technical College in London, while in the RAF. Then he was sent to Scotland to work as a teleprinter operator, along with two other lads; they were to run a communications centre, previously run by WAAF's (Womens Auxiliary Air Force). Somehow, despite no training, they kept the communications going. Then they were transferred to Norfolk and sent on the training course.
Back in Blackburn Norman, now a certificated gardener, was put in charge of the conservatory, then he became a charge-hand (heading up work groups), then he was in charge of greenhouses. This was the normal progression route. By now he was married to Margaret and they lived in his widowed grandmother’s house in Audley Range. (The post-War housing shortage was horrendous.) The day that his daughter Judith was born was the day he was given the key to the Keeper’s Cottage at Witton Park. Although he still worked at Corporation Park, in charge of the greenhouses, he lived at Witton. The tiny kitchen, the living room and the one bedroom made a very happy home for the young family.
In addition to the greenhouses Norman did a great deal of work on floral decorations for Blackburn. Every Monday the Mayor’s Parlour would be decorated with flowers. The Registrar’s Office would also be decorated. On Remembrance Sunday after the Mayor placed the traditional poppy wreath in the Garden of Remembrance, the Mayoress also laid down a wreath, created by Norman. It was enormous and made of chrysanthemums – grown in Corporation Park, of course.
Over the years, municipal floral decorations involved extensive displays for royal visits as well as municipal events. In particular, Queen Elizabeth’s visit in 1955 inspired an amazing floral display outside the Town Hall.
When Norman became Head Gardener the family moved to Griffin Park where they stayed for some years. They were very busy years as he had Roe Lee and Queen’s Park to look after as well. Then the Deputy Superintendent’s post became vacant. Norman applied and, perhaps to the surprise of some, got the job.
Another move, this time to East Park Lodge, which was a lovely house. In fact it was nicer than the Superintendent’s West Park Lodge, as Norman discovered when he became Superintendent and had to move there. The West Park Lodge chimneys smoked, and because the Lodge was also the department’s administrative centre, the Superintendent was really on duty 24 hours a day.
Norman followed family tradition by working in the Parks Department. His maternal grandfather and his father had both worked for the Parks Department, and in 1945 his younger brother Harold also joined as an apprentice. Like Norman, Harold eventually lived at Griffin Park.
Norman took early retirement in 1987 he and Margaret moved to Revidge – overlooking Corporation Park.
Norman passed away during Covid and has a bench in his honour of Norman and Margaret on Whitehall Road fields.
In the spring of 1941 it was time for Norman to leave school and find a job. His father and his maternal grandfather both worked for the Parks Department. Norman had always been interested in natural history – at school he'd organized his friends into an interest group called BOEZAG (Botany, Ornithology, Entomology, Zoology, Astronomy, Geology) – so his father arranged for him to be interviewed for an apprenticeship with the Parks Department.
There’s a story that the Superintendent said ‘So you want to be a gardener, laddie?’ to which Norman replied ‘No, Sir, I want to be Park Superintendent.’ Norman describes the story as apocryphal.
Anyway, on April 1 1941 (his fourteenth birthday) Norman began his seven year apprenticeship at Corporation Park. He worked a five and a half day week, with extra duties on Saturday and Sunday every four weeks. The weekend shift included returning to the park at 10 o’clock at night to check that the greenhouse boiler was working. He was also required to attend night school on three evenings a week, studying for the Junior RHS. His subjects were botany, horticulture and geology. He was interested in all three, but geology became a particular favourite. Success in the exams meant an extra 7 shillings (35p) in his weekly pay packet.
On his first day he was issued with a notebook and pencil, and had to pay one penny for his pruning knife. Mr Windsor, the Superintendent, showed him round the greenhouses where he pointed at one plant and said “That’s an ophiopogon – and don't you forget it!’ Norman didn't.
At first he worked in the greenhouses, washing out plant pots (in cold water), mixing soil, making compost, sowing seeds and pricking out seedlings.
In 1941 Corporation Park was the centre of the Parks Department. The Superintendent lived in West Park Lodge, which also housed the Parks office. His Deputy lived in East Park Lodge. One gardener lived in the Gatehouse and it was his duty to lock up the park at 10.00 pm every night, and open up in the morning.
The Parks Department comprised:-
The Superintendent,
Deputy Superintendent
1 clerk.
Outside workers:-
12 uncertificated gardeners, one Foreman, one Chargehand
2 Rangers (uniformed staff who policed the park) plus 1 extra in summer
2 Attendants for the bowling green (+ 2 relief attendants to cover all parks)
2 Drivers (lorry) and 1 Mechanic
Inside (greenhouse) workers:-
2 certificated gardeners
1 uncertificated gardener
2 apprentices (Norman and an older boy who was later called up)
1941 was of course wartime. The emphasis everywhere was on growing vegetables. Park flower beds were turned over to displays of vegetables: attractive patterns formed by turnips, radishes and beetroots. The Superintendent became responsible for the ploughed up Green Lane football pitches and other similar sites, and his team of Landgirls produced vegetables there, using seedlings grown in the five Corporation Park greenhouses. The vegetables supplied the Civic Kitchens on Montague Street, and hospitals. During the war the park had a weather station. Norman would collect the readings and telephone them to the Meteorological Office at 9.00 am every day.
Norman was 18 in April 1945 but he wasn’t called up because he was in a reserved occupation. Of course he still had 3 years more apprenticeship to complete and he hadn’t yet taken his Senior RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) exams. He played his part in the Dig for Victory campaign. Even after the war it was necessary to eke out rations with home-grown food. The Superintendent (Mr Watson) got Norman to construct a wooden tray which could be laid out as the ideal allotment pattern. This was used in demonstrations and talks to horticultural societies and other groups around Lancashire to encourage members to grow their own food.
A reserved occupation might keep Norman out of the war but it didn’t keep him out of National Service. So he completed his Senior RSA studies in Ealing Technical College in London, while in the RAF. Then he was sent to Scotland to work as a teleprinter operator, along with two other lads; they were to run a communications centre, previously run by WAAF's (Womens Auxiliary Air Force). Somehow, despite no training, they kept the communications going. Then they were transferred to Norfolk and sent on the training course.
Back in Blackburn Norman, now a certificated gardener, was put in charge of the conservatory, then he became a charge-hand (heading up work groups), then he was in charge of greenhouses. This was the normal progression route. By now he was married to Margaret and they lived in his widowed grandmother’s house in Audley Range. (The post-War housing shortage was horrendous.) The day that his daughter Judith was born was the day he was given the key to the Keeper’s Cottage at Witton Park. Although he still worked at Corporation Park, in charge of the greenhouses, he lived at Witton. The tiny kitchen, the living room and the one bedroom made a very happy home for the young family.
In addition to the greenhouses Norman did a great deal of work on floral decorations for Blackburn. Every Monday the Mayor’s Parlour would be decorated with flowers. The Registrar’s Office would also be decorated. On Remembrance Sunday after the Mayor placed the traditional poppy wreath in the Garden of Remembrance, the Mayoress also laid down a wreath, created by Norman. It was enormous and made of chrysanthemums – grown in Corporation Park, of course.
Over the years, municipal floral decorations involved extensive displays for royal visits as well as municipal events. In particular, Queen Elizabeth’s visit in 1955 inspired an amazing floral display outside the Town Hall.
When Norman became Head Gardener the family moved to Griffin Park where they stayed for some years. They were very busy years as he had Roe Lee and Queen’s Park to look after as well. Then the Deputy Superintendent’s post became vacant. Norman applied and, perhaps to the surprise of some, got the job.
Another move, this time to East Park Lodge, which was a lovely house. In fact it was nicer than the Superintendent’s West Park Lodge, as Norman discovered when he became Superintendent and had to move there. The West Park Lodge chimneys smoked, and because the Lodge was also the department’s administrative centre, the Superintendent was really on duty 24 hours a day.
Norman followed family tradition by working in the Parks Department. His maternal grandfather and his father had both worked for the Parks Department, and in 1945 his younger brother Harold also joined as an apprentice. Like Norman, Harold eventually lived at Griffin Park.
Norman took early retirement in 1987 he and Margaret moved to Revidge – overlooking Corporation Park.
Norman passed away during Covid and has a bench in his honour of Norman and Margaret on Whitehall Road fields.
