Rediffusion Branches
REDIFFUSION South Shields
Chichester Road, South Shields
TYNE and WEAR NE33 4AF Tel: Tyne and Wear 62671
Rediffusion South Shields was part of the North East region. The offices, workshop and relay equipment were housed in an old cinema building in Chichester Road in the town. The operation was re - located to Washington, Tyne and Wear in 1973 but the wired vision equipment continued to be serviced at this location.
These pictures show the The Building in 1973 and as it appears today, as a Snooker Hall.
The wired vision network in the South Shields, Jarrow, Hebburn, Sunderland area covered almost all of the local authority council estates and about 50 percent of the privately owned properties. At the time the "new towns" such as Peterlee in County Durham where all wired up with underground cables.
There where many subscribers which kept about 20 field service enginers busy most days each working 2 shifts with shared vans. The TV workshop had about 10 engineers and a French polisher. There where 2 workshop supervisors.
There were 2 service control clerks in the telephone room, a stock controller and a janitor.
Network engineering had about 7 staff ( again 2 shifts ) 2 of whom spent most of their time repairing wired vision amps.
Upstairs ther was the managers office, Mr. Pyle Also on the same floor was the maintenance and wiremans supervisors office. There where about 10 of them in the field.
"My time working in the TV workshop was split between mundane tasks ( such as testing the valves the field engineers had fetched back after replacing them ) and general repair work. It was all valves then of course so faults where very simple to fix. 625 lines was the 'in thing' at the time and I spent a lot of time doing the dual standard mods on mark 6 and 7 wired receivers. Whilst doing my bit in the equipment dept. I got to be a dab hand at Reditune repairs and got to do most of the field service and workshop jobs."
I am looking for information on the South Shields Branch. Did you work there ?
Do you have any old pictures, information on the Wired System, Staff etc.
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Branch Picture
Rediffusion South Shields Branch 1973.
George Smith worked for Rediffusion South Shields branch as a service engineer from the early 1963's until the mid 1970's. The following information is based on George's memories.
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 | Poulton Manor |
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 | George ( driver ) and Barry Jarvis ( roof ) 1968. |
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 | ex - Poulton mates 1968. Richard (woody), Barry, Brillington, Terry |
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 | Blackpool Prom. 1968. George ( left ) and Brillo |
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 | The 'lads' outside the ' B and B' on Lord Street 1968. |
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Like so many Rediffusion engineers, George did his " Tour of Duty" at Poulton Manor near Blackpool.
The memories may be little faded these days but the pictures aren't !! Click the thumbnails below.
You can read a lot more about Poulton Manor at: www.rediffusion.info/PoultonManor
