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Hi I am John Gary Guess, I was born in Middlesbrough, a now post industrial town on the North East Coast of Yorkshire, England…
My early life was spent living with my parents Derek and Sylvia Guess.
We lived at the rear of Middlesbrough Fire Station, on Park Road North, Middlesbrough, as my father was a firefighter with Middlesbrough Fire Brigade at the time.
Unfortunately, my mum contracted Leukemia when I was 9 and sadly died. I went to live with relatives along with my siblings Christine and Michael, elsewhere in the Middlesbrough area…
Growing up through my teenage years, I lived in the village of Ormesby which by 1970 was dominated by several new housing estates being constructed by the local council as the inadequate housing in Middlesbrough was being demolished. One of these new housing estates was the ‘Netherfields Estate’…
When I finished school at 16, I gained an apprenticeship as an 'Instrument Artificer' with Imperial Chemical Industries…which at the time was one of the world's largest Chemical Companies, and a bellwether of British Industry…
As a weekend pastime I joined the British Territorial Army, serving with B (The Green Howards) Company 1st Battalion Yorkshire Volunteers…An infantry unit designated for deployment to West Germany should the ‘Cold War’ go Hot…
In the early 1970’s ICI built a huge Ethylene Production unit at its Wilton Site near Redcar. Part of an integrated Chemical industry access Teesside 1979. I was at Wilton Works finishing my apprenticeship in 1979 when JV06, a ‘joint venture’ between BP and ICI to produce Ethylene for the growing Plastics Industry, in Scotland and at Wilton…
I was working on the equipment seen here, which measures and controls the production in various fractionating columns, one of which is seen here…
In 1979 the plant control room (seen above left)was huge. A Foxboro Spec 200 instrumentation system was at the time controlling the plant. In 1992 this all changed and the Honeywell TDC3000 system (seen above right) replaced it. Now a fully digital system instead of the old 1970’s analogue system…
Sometimes however the beast escaped, creating quite dramatic and noisy scenes produced when operations didn’t quite go to plan. The continuous production nature of the plant, meant all products were held to a tight Specification, and when one got outside of those operating parameters all the production had to be disposed of, and was burnt in the 'Twin Flarestacks' that were to become so familiar to the whole of Teesside.
Everyone on Teesside for the next 40years or so was always aware of ‘The Cracker’…Which was a very interesting job most of the time, troubleshooting and repairing various measurement and control systems, which kept production running smoothly, as i said...most of the time!!
By 1992, I was no longer a member of the Territorial Army having been forced to leave due to the shift system I was working, interfering with my Volunteer commitments.
In 1992 I joined the Cleveland Army Cadet Force, as an Adult Instructor.
Eventually running a Detachment of 40 Cadets from age 13 to 18. This ‘youth training’ system was financed by the Ministry of Defence in Britain, and at Dormanstown in Redcar, we were the first Cadet Force in the UK to accept Female Cadets.
I retired in 2018 from Olefins 6, now owned by the Saudi Arabian company SABIC after 43 years of service…
Along with my wife Nicola and our dog Kizzi, it really was time for holidays and ice cream!!
I found a new hobby, with an interest in Local and Military history of the Teesside area and after discovering this bloke on the left. My maternal grandfather, George William Spenceley died in 1952, so the only thing I knew about him was from my brother Michael’s family research in the 1980’s…
Turns out he served with a local Army Battalion the 12th (Service) Battalion Yorkshire Regiment (Teesside Pioneers) during The Great War 1914-18.
So, interest piqued, I threw myself into finding out who and where this Battalion had been and what they achieved. This led to my creating ‘Tales From My Shed’...
Literally local ‘Tales’ delivered from my garden shed, which became my ‘studio’. So welcome to my extension of that project, the website www.talesfrommyshed.com…
I hope you enjoy reading the articles and exploring my recollections as much as I do creating them…
Enjoy…
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