My exit from a career in the construction industry (Part 5)

We have just left the village of Uplyme and are heading towards YAWL, where we built an extension to a property in Yawl Hill Lane. Further up the hill, just before we reach Hunters Lodge, we built a lovely Granny Annexe on a property opposite Hedgehog Corner.

In HARCOMBE we carried out a number of contracts for Miss Joan Sharp, who was our lovely matron for many years at Axminster Hospital. I remember my father telling me a story about one of the matrons at Axminster Hospital – I'm not sure if it was Miss Sharp, or maybe Matron Grant?

As those who knew my father will remember, Tim loved smoking his pipe and on a particular occasion, my father had been asked to visit the hospital to speak to the matron, who wanted a favour from our men who were working on site. The hospital was a no-smoking zone which Tim had overlooked when he arrived there. He breezed into the hospital corridor, when the voice of the matron boomed out - "Who is smoking in my hospital!?" She walked past the workmen and not a cigarette or pipe in sight. She eventually arrived at the hospital entrance, where Tim had arrived with the pipe smoke billowing. "Oh, Mr Moulding" she said "What lovely tobacco you smoke!"

In Harcombe Road, near HUNTERS LODGE, we carried out conversion works for Peter and Sandra Shefferd, who had relocated from the Channel Isles, when Peter took over as manager of Midland Bank, Axminster. We became firm friends with Peter and Sandra, together with their children Natalie and Andrew, who were of similar ages and were at school with our children, Robert and Edward. We had lovely evenings together, usually playing cards, accompanied by scrumptious food and a few drinks.

Sadly, following retirement, Peter passed away at far too young an age – but we keep in regular contact with Sandra, with whom I play bridge at the Seaton and Axe Vale Bridge Club. Natalie loves travelling and moved abroad, whilst I keep in touch with Andrew, who occasionally journeys down from London to join us watching cricket at Taunton.

The firm carried out sundry works for Commander Heath in CHARMOUTH ROAD and, to maintain the maritime link, we built an extension to a fine property on WOODHOUSE HILL for Admiral Roberts.

Further down the coast to SEATON, we transformed a property in Harepath Road for Miss Rattray, sister of Mrs Williams whose bungalow we built at Higher Hampton Farm. Miss Rattray was a senior executive for Clarks Shoes. We even went as far as SIDMOUTH, where we carried out major alterations at Sidmouth Post Office.

Back nearer home, in the COLYTPN/COLYFORD area, we worked at Colyton Grammar School and Colyton Primary School. The firm carried out works on an historic property in Rosemary Lane, Colyton, and the even more historic Colyton Church. I seem to remember that we worked in conjunction with restoration specialists on the south east end of the church.

In COLYFORD, we worked on two adjacent properties in Seaton Road and a little further towards Seaton, we extended a property for Bernie Tunstall, who took over as proprietor of Webster's Garage in Axminster.

Before I move back towards Musbury, my mind has wandered to a couple of projects, I missed in earlier episodes. We built a large two storey extension to a property in HOWLEY, near Chard for Mr and Mrs Tagg, who were involved in the road surfacing business.

In a similar line of business were the Dare family, for whom we built an extension at Oaklands, near the junction of Moorcox Lane, DALWOOD, with Wilmington. Also in Dalwood, I remember working in Lower Lane, building extensions for Robin and Sue Mallett, together with their neighbours, the Blacksalls. The late Robin Mallett was the first manager of Moleavon and Simon Blacksall was a Deputy Head at Axe Valley Community College. I also recall a superb large extension we built in STOCKLAND for John Woollam, who was MP for Liverpool West Derby for 10 years – and retired to the West Country, with his wife Lavinia in the 1970s..

I will complete my tour with MUSBURY, where Mary and I have lived for the past 28 years. The firm of R Moulding & Sons had worked on several properties in the village over the years. I particularly remember working on The Stables for my dear friend Tony Hargreaves and his late wife, Margaret. Tony was a friend from the Rotary Club and I occasionally played bridge with Marg. Tony was also president of Cloakham Lawn Sports Centre for a number of years.

Another farm where we worked was New House Farm in Musbury for George Voysey, uncle of my council colleague and friend Ken Voysey. We also worked at South Cross House, a fine property, overlooking the Axe Valley, which belonged to Pat and June Roberts. I particularly recall conversations on cricket with Pat as his nephews Guy and Andy Whittall played cricket for Zimbabwe.

In the 1980s, a gentleman walked into the office and said that he had retired from the army, moved back to his family home in Musbury and was looking for some building work to be done. The gentleman in question turned out to be Lt Col Anthony Drake, who not only owned a beautiful home, known as Musbury Barton, but owned several other properties in the village.

Subsequently, we worked on Strap Southern at South Cross, Brook Cottage in Axminster Road, and we put new bathrooms and kitchens into the two Rookery Cottages, off Axminster Road. However, we also carried out a significant amount of work at Musbury Barton, to bring the property into tip-top condition on Tony Drake's return from the army.

Tony Drake and I had a mutual interest in local community life and in 1987 we were both elected to serve on East Devon District Council (more on this in a later edition of "Moulding's Memories").

In the late 1980s things were going well for the old firm. My father had retired in 1986, Mary had joined me as my business co-director and in 1989, R Moulding & Sons Ltd experienced its best ever trading year. However, we didn't know what was around the corner!

The recession of 1990/1991 was crippling. Job markets were severely depressed. Interest rates rose to over 10 per cent, mortgage rates to 18 per cent and house prices were tumbling. We had a credit crunch and nobody was borrowing to carry out building work. All of a sudden, we had 24 employees and NO WORK! We had a loyal work-force – but if I had seen this recession coming, I would have made several employees redundant. However, we tried to keep things going – I "sharpened the pencil" to be more competitive and we managed to win contracts – but profit margins were slim and we were sliding towards a sticky end. The problem was that our premises in South Street, not only housed our business, but also our home.

In 1992/93 Col Drake asked me to take a look at Musbury Farm. His "share farmers" had bought a farm in North Devon and were moving out. Tony wanted to change things around and no longer wished to run a "share farm". He had asked me to look at the farmhouse, which he wished to modernise and to find a reliable tenant.

Our move to Musbury

That evening, Mary and I discussed our situation and we agreed that this could be an opportunity for the firm to look at a new way of working. We put our cards on the table with Tony Drake and asked if he might consider us as future tenants of Musbury Farm. Tony was 100 per cent behind the idea, so we renovated the house and planned our move.

We began to realise what a lovely part of the countryside we would be living in – birds and animals abounded the property. I will always remember a comment by the late John Smith, one of our workmen, when he accidentally plunged a builder's fork into a toad which had taken up residence near the house. His swift comment was "You've heard of 'toad in the hole' - this is a 'hole in the toad!"

In order to maintain continuity with our business, we hired a unit at Millwey Rise as our headquarters, whilst we put the proprty in South Street on the market. We sold the property fairly quickly to Thomas, Westcott and Gillard, but in the meantime, we had discussed with Tony Drake, the possibility of running our business from Musbury, utilising some of the redundant buildings at Musbury Farm. Following a rather difficult planning application, permission was received and R Moulding &Sons carried out its business operations from Musbury Farm, where we had converted the farm buildings to plumbers and painters' stores, joinery workshops, etc. However, by then the business was doomed – we couldn't recover from the deep recession and we put R Moulding & Sons Ltd into liquidation in 1994.

In the meantime, Mary and I had taken up residence at Musbury Farm, with Robert and Edward joining us during their holidays from their respective universities. It was certainly a sad time when I pulled the plug on a company which had traded successfully in and around Axminster for 75 years. However, things move on and a new chapter in the life of the Mouldings was about to start.

I cannot leave this section of Moulding's memories without reflecting on my 24 years with the family firm, although I very much regret that it was yours truly who ultimately pulled the plug on the company.

I would very much wish to pay tribute to my loyal employees, who stayed with the company through "thick and thin". I would also thank my parents, friends and relatives, who supported us in all our trials and tribulations.

I would also like to express my thanks to all our many clients over the years, particularly those whose properties we were working on when the business folded.

This is also an opportunity to remember and thank all the companies and suppliers we worked with over the years. Bradfords Building Supplies in Woodmead Road were one of our main suppliers. They were formery R J Luff and Son in Axminster and Miller and Lilley in Honiton. I remember Mr Morris, Les Bull, Ken Hookings, David Heighway, Gordon Beviss, Ray Hoare and Brian Rattenbury, amongst others, offering us superb service at R J Luff & Son.

Other similar suppliers In Axminster, just across the road from Bradfords, were Devon Trading Company, which became United Builders Merchants (UBM) and then Jewsons, before the site was ultimately taken over by Moleavon. I remember that the boss of Devon Trading in Axminster was Bill Beavis, whose son Martin was at school with me. Apparently, Martin and his wife had triplet boys on starting their family – quite a handful!

My father told me a story related to him by Bill Beavis, who had a customer – a farmer, who owed a considerable amount of money for materials supplied by Devon Trading. Invoices had been sent over many months, but no money was forthcoming – so Bill thought he'd better pay the farmer a visit. When he arrived and asked him why he hadn't paid, the farmer told him in no uncertain terms: "Listen Mister, when I get my milk cheque, I put all the bills in a hat, pull 'em out and make out the cheques until I have no money left – and if you come around here worrying me for money, mister – your bills won't even go into the hat!"

I remember many trips with our lorry to Kilmington Quarry for Ready Mix Concrete or gravel. In "the old days" the operation was run by Harold Pratt of "Pratts Quarries", which was eventually taken over by ECC. In more recent years, concrete and precast concrete products were supplied by Westcrete, initially by Henry Theonnissen and then by his son, Michael. We were able to obtain high-quality, bespoke precast stone, ham stone arches, etc. from Richard Lawrence of Chard.

Engineering items were always available from Emrys Pearce of Axe Vale Engineering, who gave superb service. I'm pleased that Kevin and Peter, two of the former employees of Axe Vale Engineering are still trading under the name of "Axminster Ironwork".

I also remember the birth of Axminster Tools – formerly Axminster Power Tools. The company has been a tremendous success and great for Axminster, having started selling tools from its base in Chard Street and now operating from its headquarters in Weycroft Avenue, with eight stores across the UK. The company embraced the digital age, with great foresight and enabled customers to purchase on line, with an extremely swift delivery service. Great credit must go to the late Ron Styles, sons Bernie and Ian, grandson Alan and all the family for their success.

In my early days, joinery products were made locally for us by Roy Munday and Roy Searle of J F Clarke & Sons; bulky items by Woodley's of Newton Poppleford and in more recent years by Smith and Jones of Chard who ceased trading in 2013.

Felt roofing was carried out for us by Ross Dack of Seaton and also by Richard Turner from Shute. Asphalt roofing, tanking and flooring was provided by Constable Hart. I remember John Bradbury who had strong links with Exeter St Thomas Cricket Club and Richard Hobson, whose wife worked at Axminster Community College.

We obtained central heating boilers, radiators and ancillary items from Norringtons of Chard. I remember Keith Gurney providing the necessary advice. In Chard I also remember obtaining specialist decorating materials from Martins, where Bill Plumridge and his son Mark gave us excellent service. I also knew Mark as a very useful batsman for Chard Cricket Club

Our electrical work was carried out over the years initially by Arthur Cornelius and in more recent times by Arthur Sweetland. They were both superb.

I will finish by mentioning Key Scaffolding, where our scaffolding needs were provided by Brian Gardner, his son Paul and Terry Coldridge. They were keen cricketers and in 1982 a match was arranged at North Street between Key Scaffolding and R Moulding and Sons. Several of our employees were useful cricketers, but our side was assisted by four generations of our family! This included my father Tim, my son Robert. who was nine-years- old, my 86 yea -old grandfather and myself. Grandfather George was introduced to the action as 12th man for the last two overs, when one of our players surprisingly went off injured.

In the next edition of "Moulding's Memories" I will consider my recollection of schools and education.

——————————————————————

You can submit your own news straight to Axminster Nub News by using the 'Nub It' button on our homepage. This can also be done for free for events on our What's On page and businesses, groups and organisations on our Local List page by using the 'Nub It' button.

Please like and follow our online newspaper on your favourite social media channel. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. And don't forget to sign up to our free weekly newsletter below!