William ‘Nobby’ Clarke
Turbine Operator
1951-1981
STRESS
“It is really important to emphasize the stress, its not just the discomfort of the work, but actually the sense that something could happen, that the stress they were under while driving the turbines, and watching to make sure it didn't happen, that the steam didn't get to hot or the whole thing could exploded.”
- Norma
(Nobby’s daughter)
WEEKLY WAGES
“They were paid on a weekly basis. At the end of the week you got your money, cash, in an envelope, generally brown, with bits of writing on the front, showing how much had been docked, taken for tax and national insurance. So your wages would be written on it. The wages clerk was probably a woman … So there is an office up there and one of their main jobs is putting the money in the envelopes and handing them over at the end of the week. I have a strong mental image of my father’s wage packet. You know, every Friday this is an important thing and he is taking out of it how much he is giving my mother (which she thought should have been all of it) and then how much he is keeping for himself. Dad’s wages were always at or a little above the national average industrial wage, but it was barely enough to meet the basic needs of a large family. He regularly worked overtime, as did most of the men at the station. Mum supplemented his income by doing casual work as a waitress in between pregnancies and by taking in sewing work.”
- Norma
(Nobby’s daughter)
© Daniela Couling 2016
THE CHIMNEY
“The chimney…a
noble shaft.
Up this noble shaft
my father regularly
went.
The dampers … had
to be turned by hand
every night.
Working the dampers
was not easy...To get
there, you had to
take a lift into a
dismal noman’s land,
climb a flight of
stairs, and then,
perhaps a hundred
feet up inside the
chimney, struggle to
turn the controls.
It was not pleasant
and he wouldn’t risk
delegating it.”
Norma,
Generation.
Generate. 2014
“Every year the men
organised a
Christmas party for
the children. In the
basement canteen,
tables were laid out
in rows and piled
with party food.
There were organised
games; a stage with
curtains was set up
and musical and
comedy acts
performed; Father
Christmas gave
everybody a big
present; and, at the
end, by which time
half of us were half
asleep, Charlie
Chaplin and Laurel
and Hardy films were
shown. My sister
scared herself sick by
climbing to the
highest metal
walkways in the
turbine room and
looking down, a
feeling she
remembered with
shocking clarity the
first time she went
to Tate Modern.”
Norma Clarke,
Generation.
Generate.
2014
“The chimney…a
noble shaft.
Up this noble shaft
my father regularly
went.
The dampers … had
to be turned by hand
every night.
Working the dampers
was not easy...To get
there, you had to
take a lift into a
dismal noman’s land,
climb a flight of
stairs, and then,
perhaps a hundred
feet up inside the
chimney, struggle to
turn the controls.
It was not pleasant
and he wouldn’t risk
delegating it.”
Norma,
Generation.
Generate. 2014
“Every year the men
organised a
Christmas party for
the children. In the
basement canteen,
tables were laid out
in rows and piled
with party food.
There were organised
games; a stage with
curtains was set up
and musical and
comedy acts
performed; Father
Christmas gave
everybody a big
present; and, at the
end, by which time
half of us were half
asleep, Charlie
Chaplin and Laurel
and Hardy films were
shown. My sister
scared herself sick by
climbing to the
highest metal
walkways in the
turbine room and
looking down, a
feeling she
remembered with
shocking clarity the
first time she went
to Tate Modern.”
Norma Clarke,
Generation.
Generate.
2014
THE END of
A POWER STATION
A POWER STATION
“It was a staggered ending … But it meant going
down to other stations after a while. So it meant being bussed down the river,
to somewhere like Graves End and working down there. My father was not really
interested in doing that. But it was troubling because he wasn’t quite at
retiring age. He was still fit and well and still had a child at school … I
remember it as being a gloomy sort of a time ….. And what it’s like in these
sorts of places when people start to leave is that death has its hand on it all
and there are fewer and fewer people and less work to do in a day.”
- Norma
(Nobby’s daughter)
© Daniela Couling 2016
(Nobby’s daughter)
© Daniela Couling 2016