Ludvic Zilor was a polish driver. he could hardly speak a word of English…or so he said! Whenever he would be brought into the office for a dressing down, which was quite often, he would always burst into tears. He wriggled out of loads of stuff by claiming not to understand. Yes, I do think he was the lad who painted his unit at home. I also heard that he virtually lived in his cab and that it was full of rubbish, bottles of wee and left over crusts and Polish meat sandwiches. So much so, or so the story goes, that when his truck came into Urmston for some job to be done and a fitter started chucking out his stuff so he could lift up the engine covers, a mouse dived out through the door!!
Do you remember Sammy Allport and Ted Sharples? They once had a set to in the mess room. Ted Sharples was a big, fat bloke with glasses but as hard as nails. There was a older black bloke who worked as a fitter and he rented out some houses as a side line. He used Ted Sharples as his enforcer when tenants wouldn’t pay or wouldn’t get out.