Manchester 1960

By some skullduggery I was appointed to a post at the Rutherford Lab and posted to Manchester in order to help with Sam Devons's Heavy Ion Linac. My brother was married that year in Bridlington and Ursula came with me to Manchester and met Sam and the site of the linac. It had been a garage and was next to the Maths Tower and opposite to the Main University building including the library.

The pay from Rutherford was better than could have been expected from the University. We had a friend in Manchester, Charles Hawke, who had been a member of the Met Vic Erection team in Geneva. He met Ursula at the airport after her hair raising flight from Heathrow. Her plane had to go back after it almost reached Manchester because the undercart wouldn't come down. The stewardess abandoned Ursula to a kind gentleman who helped with the children.

She was installed in a hotel in Altringham while I drove the car back from Geneva and then joined her. Our house was rented from The University, and was cold, not very well decorated and on a busy crossing in Fallowfield. We had hoped to be integrated with the University but alas with Jodrell Bank causing financial embarrasment to the University this linac project in an old garage didn't cut much ice with them. We were virtual outcasts!

Gradually we made friends, especially the Anglican Chaplain to the University and his family. We almost developed together! Also Jackie Pearce, a friend of Judy Chell, who became a great comfort to us. We were visited by Hugh Hereward, who I had heard was visiting, as his hotel reservation was flawed he spent the night on our sofa! Ulf Kracht same once and Charles Hawke was a frequent visitor. Ian Grant was also on the same project and became a good friend.

In due course the accelerator came together and functioned satisfactorily. It was a huge beast, one could walk inside it. It ran at a frequencyof 75 MHz. The low energy end ran at 25 MHz and had been constructed with the help of students. It was a Wideroe parallel line device. Wideroe was working for the Germans in Hamburg during the war whilst the RAF were boming the place. He was starngely enough around at Cern in its early days!

Whilst at the University, David Long came for a week or two to help with the electronics, it was good to have him with us and I think he enjoyed himself!

Devons left for a post in the States and a new Professor was appointed, some of us didn't find him very sypathetic and eventually he disappeared too. George Nassibian was in charge of the Hilac, a good friend and a very competant engineer. I managed to recruit Tony Smith to CERN later on, he and his family came to Geneva. He elped me on the PSB. Sadly Rosemary his wife died a few years later, she told me that Geneva time was a very happy one for her.

I was very happy at Manchester, and my son was born there! Eventually we bought a house in Gatley at a cost of £5,000. 4 bedrooms two reception rooms a big kitchen and half an acre of garden! There were fruit trees and a garage on the Styal Road. We had to rewire, install central heating and decorate the house. The traffic on the Styal Road was so intense that one had to back in, in order to come out frontwards in the busy rush hour every morning.

In Fallowfield we were happy to be next door to Professor Vinaver and his wife. They were very friendly to us. When Christina passed her exam to get a place in Withington, we celebrated with a bottle of champagne and Professor Vinaver opened the bottle for us! There was a time in the winter that we were looking after the Vinaver's house next door. With all the heaters going full blast the main fuse blew. It was the fuse for the two houses and it was in our basement. I shorted it out with a nail as no one was going to come and fix it and the Vinavers were due to arrive any minute. Fortunately I never heard a word about it again! In Gatley we made friends with an optician and his family who lived opposite.

Schools for the children were plentiful and good. First Christina then Helena managed to get into Withington School.

Once the Hilac was commisioned I was posted to Liverpool to work on Nina, a proposed electron synchrotron to be built at Daresbury. I went by train every day, sometimes calling in at the Hilac to see how things were going and offer help! On one occasion the train caught fire and we had to leave the train in a tunnel, I remember a lady with a white coat who come out of the tunnel a bit like a badger. Merrison at Liverpool thought my explanation for arriving late was the nost original that he had ever heard!

Francis Farley paid a visit to Manchester, he thought I had been made a professor and was put out to find I was just another hand to the pump. He became Dean at Shrivenham. He worked on Caesar in Cern but as far as I was concerned he only produced a Methuen monograph on valve circuits, something we knew all about from Malvern days.

Manchester was heavenly. lots to do and a nice crowd of people. I do have some pictures.

Nearly all our holdays were taken in the Lake Distict at Delmar Banner's cottage at High Bield.

George Nassiian was recruited to Cern, he persuaded me to think about returning to Cern to work on the PS Booster. Gradually I became interested and eventually accepted a position in his group. This gave rise to my final endeavour, a 15 year stint in Geneva in the PS Division.