BICC Computer Centre, Warrington Road

[underdog]

 

 

It was known as the blue room because the language used in there when the decollating machines, guillotines etc. destroyed payslips/invoices/statements, etc., causing reprints to be done.

 

Which then had to go back into the blue room to be decollated, trimmed & burst & all you could do was cross your fingers (& everything else you had two of) & hope it didn't happen again!

 

IIRC it was actually painted generic BICC orange - with the occasional blood spatter from banging your head against the wall.

 

It was the ICL 1904 with George III when I was there. I thought it was a bit later than 81 but I've never had much of a memory for dates. Not long after I left I found out they'd managed to lose all the past personnel records.

I must admit I've "slightly" over-estimated how long I was there on my CV.

[stephen nulty]

 

It was the ICL 1904 with George III when I was there. I thought it was a bit later than 81

 

The 1904s was probably there for a bit longer, but in the spring of 1981, we (as operators) were given the option of going to work in Penrith on the new 2900 machines, moving to the programming Team (subject to aptitude test!) or staying inthe machine room at Prescot but just as peripheral operators.

 

I moved to programming

 

Incidentally, I also remember John Mead and his vast collection of vinyl, and how we just listened to his (and your Phil's) LP's throughout the nightshift while we played scrabble (and occasionally did some work).

[underdog]

 

 

Incidentally, I also remember John Mead and his vast collection of vinyl, and how we just listened to his (and your Phil's) LP's throughout the nightshift while we played scrabble (and occasionally did some work).

 

I took a few in myself - we'd given up on scrabble though - too intellectual at that time of night

 

I've narrowed it down to 82 when I was there.

Several of us went to see Neil Young at Birmingham NEC on his "Trans" tour & that was released in 82. Five of us, Meady & his Brother-in-law (both big lads) & three more (Me, our Phil &, I think, Ian Goodwin) all crammed into Meady's mini .. which leaked .. during a rainstorm .. all the way to Birmingham & back with wet feet!

Mr. Young was brilliant by the way.

[gypsygeoff]

Slide rule,brill, still got my 6'' minature one at home.

[DEVON BOY]

I had a boss who always carried a slide rule in his top pocket he always asked people what they made it took his rule out fiddled about with it abit then said thats right it was a standing joke in the workshop

[gervassutti]

At the Liverpool University Conferment of Degrees Ceremony in 1999, which I attended for my son's graduation, the Honorary Graduand opened the proceedings by telling the congregation the brief history of his career. After graduation at Liverpool University he recounted his time in his first job at the BICC Ltd. His name was Nicholas John Earle and he had become, by that time, Senior Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer, Enterprise Computing, for Hewlett-Packard.

[quartz14]

Stephen (and Underdog)

 

Thank you kindly for the reply, most interesting. It's an era in computing I've always found fascinating, I think mainly because I remember seeing TV progs and photos of the huge rooms filled with all this futuristic technology which caught my imagination..I've seen ICL machines at The National Museum of Computing down at Bletchley, which I highly recommend visiting if you haven't already; amazing place. Also, the photo you took of your office at Prescott in the 80s had an eerie resemblance to Hut 3 at Bletchley in the 40s ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/code_breaking/ .) OoOoOo

 

I will look into all the technical information you mentioned. Thanks again!

 

Al

[GeoffB]

In 1965 I was in the 5th form at Prescot Grammar School

 

The BI asked for volunteers to test out their new COBOL training manuals

 

So for the week of the Whit half term holidays I turned up each day in the physics lab to go through a chapter of the manual, completing the test at the end of each chapter

 

Never did find out how I did or if they were ever used in real life

 

Not sure why I volunteered

 

But I suspect it was the £10 I got paid for the week :-)

[Guest]

When our hollerinth bit the dust ,as mentioned previously it was a LEO 3 we were sent to see at BI.However cos of "politics" we ended up with the 1900 ICL series computers as they were funded to help Local Authorities.

[HolliB]

Hello. I was wondering if anybody here knows people who worked in the Computer dept in 1966

[vinceprince]

What I used to like with old technology was when I was at British Sidac.I was a cost clerk and used a Burroughs accounting machine.When I used to have to input all my cost data onto the sheets,the damn machine used to bounce all over the desk.I clearly remember the comp operators as well-must have had sore fingers!!!.I did find in one cupboard one of those calculators where you used to have a handle on right side and used to turn it up and down as you added or subtracted(anyone remember the name?).I know this thread was about computers but think all these machines were incorporated in todays laptops,ipads etc.No Hackers eh.

It was a Facit

[HolliB]

Was anyone on here working there or know anybody who was working there in 1966 ?

[paco1966]

Hi,

 Only just found this website.

I was there in 1966 ! Started as a data control clerk , prepping the masses of invoices etc before they went to the girls who did the punch tape or cards.

I remember Sid Craven ( I think ). I remember looking each day at the guys in the  computer room with envy.

After a few months of this drudge I was given the opportunity to actually get into the room with the LEO 3 as a trainee operator !

Only problem was the 3 shift system. 07:00 - 15:00 , 15:00 - 23:00 , 23:00 - 07:00. Something like that anyway.

Once when the system packed in on the night shift I had to get home to Broadgreen at 5:00 am-- no buses !! 

 I left in June 1967  to go to Leicester City Council to work on the new English Electric System 4/30 they were having installed.

Mr Sweeney wished me good luck.

 

 

[Sharky]

On ‎23‎/‎04‎/‎2012 at 15:24, stephen nulty said:

As late as 1983, when this picture was taken, the Computer Programmers did not have "computers" on their desks. Instead, the office layout as shown has all the programmers sitting at their desks writing programs by hand onto coding sheets.

 

And next came the big technical advance !!

 

Instead of handing the coding sheets into the punch room for data entry, a half dozen "dumb terminals" were placed around the office - you can just about see them at the back of this picture - and the programmers typed their programmes in line by line (mainly COBOL but some FORTRAN and PLAN) before compilation. There were more programmers than terminals so you had to "book" your slot on them !!

 

The room in this picture was on the ground floor of the Computer Building, on the opposite side from that shown on the initial picture.

I've been there (1968/69) - my desk was next to the window where the photographer was standing.

[Sharky]

On ‎29‎/‎09‎/‎2014 at 15:40, HolliB said:

Was anyone on here working there or know anybody who was working there in 1966 ?

I worked on the Warrington Road computer site for a year from 1968 to1969. I was a young 18 yr old trainee programmer, working on the conversion from the Leo III to the new ICT 1900. There was no computer on site and we had to send packs of cards down the East Lancs to Leigh where it was compiled. Took weeks to get a clean compile.

I can remember a few of the people I worked with. Doug Capstick was the DPM. He had his own office the other side of the corridor.  Some of the workers were Ian, Bernie, Bill and Mike who were probably there from the beginning. My memories of those days were all good and some of the best working days of my career.  One of those days though, wasn't quite so good, when three of us was taking boxes of cards to the Leigh centre and we managed to go into the back of a lorry. It just came out in front of us. We all survived, but didn't make it to Leigh that day.

Only stayed there for a year as my dad, who also worked for the BI got transferred to Erith and we all moved south.

Lunchtimes were fun in those days - running across the road to play bowls or table tennis and I was lucky enough to be working when it was the year when everybody was treated to a trip to Blackpool. And Christmas Eve when we had been drinking in the social club until 2pm, then shot off to a pub in St Helens, then back to the social club. Then when I came out it had been snowing heavily and I don't know how I managed to walk up to the Wellie!

 

added 3 minutes later

On ‎20‎/‎04‎/‎2012 at 10:24, stephen nulty said:

The BI systems were originally LEO but by the time I Started it was an ICL1904S, just licards were still used extensively, as was paper tape.ke in the picture below.

 

We mainly used KeyEdit tapes, brought in from the punch room, as input, but cards were still used extensively, as was paper tape.

 

We often had visitors from other companies who were looking at possibly buying mainframe computers. Eeee, those were the days !!

In the Leo III days and before my time, I was told a story of a disgruntled operator taking a gun into the computer room and shooting the console.

Was that a true story?

[RATTY]

I remember visiting that site from an NCC course I did.  I later worked in just such a room at Hatton Garden for  MCC  and later a much larger one at the Liver buildings although by then I wasn't an operator but a shift leader in Data Control. My brother in law worked as a programmer at the BI in the 70s and a mate of mine from childhood name of Leyland.

[Guest]

Stephen and Sharky.

When i left Sidac i went to st.helens corp. They were using a HOLLERINTH ?card reader to run their accounts.

I came in work early jan  one year in 60s and Alf Slocombe was running it and he was in tears as it had completely broken down

We had no machine so everything was done manual.

We went to BICC to see their Leo 3,Beechams as well.

However we were pushed to go for the ICL 1900 series cos it was gov funded and was being supported in Manchester.

So we had the system running upto june that year and looked at it and said sod it we'll not run dual .  So we went live in tbe june of that year.

So that maybe why st.helens council finances are now in a mess!!

Then went onto Nwwa and UU!dont blaim me for what happened then?

 

 

[paco1966]

On 12/9/2017 at 17:58, paco1966 said:

Hi,

 Only just found this website.

I was there in 1966 ! Started as a data control clerk , prepping the masses of invoices etc before they went to the girls who did the punch tape or cards.

I remember Sid Craven ( I think ). I remember looking each day at the guys in the  computer room with envy.

After a few months of this drudge I was given the opportunity to actually get into the room with the LEO 3 as a trainee operator !

Only problem was the 3 shift system. 07:00 - 15:00 , 15:00 - 23:00 , 23:00 - 07:00. Something like that anyway.

Once when the system packed in on the night shift I had to get home to Broadgreen at 5:00 am-- no buses !! 

 I left in June 1967  to go to Leicester City Council to work on the new English Electric System 4/30 they were having installed.

Mr Sweeney wished me good luck.

 

 

 

added 1 minute later

The LEO 3 room would have made a good ballroom !   I started as the "runner"  keeping the  7  Ampex mag tape decks loaded and set to the correct channels

following a tape schedule for each suite of programs. Another role was loading the line printer , those multi copy boxes were a workout. Decollating anyone ?

What about the printer format tapes . Get those wrong and it played havoc with the printouts.I recall a small cathode ray tube screen on the main control panel that enabled you to see the selected memory contents and check when you stacked in changes using the Ericsson keys.

Over Warrington Road was where the oasis was --  "canteen and social club". Decent food,Snooker, darts and beer !