An early 50s letterhead on which are mounted photographs of the four Abbey Panels partners of the time. All were still working on the shop floor themselves then. Top row; Ted Loades and Les Bean, bottom row; Bill Woodall and Ernie Wilkinson. Ted has this hanging on his office wall at Barford Engineering.
    Searching for better wages and feeling he needed experience in the car industry, Ted next travelled to Coventry and worked for Carbodies before, early in 1939, transferring to Midland Sheet Metal on aircraft again. Then as the war began it was back to Coventry and AP Aircraft, "working all hours, mostly with experienced car people, on sub-contract work for Nuffield, turning Spitfires out, wheeling the panels."
     Ted still felt he could improve his lot. "We were doing very well, but we knew we could do better. There was a limit after which you couldn't earn more. 		You did a job at a certain price in 2½ hours but if you did it in two you weren't entitled to more, so you eased back, and we didn't like that at all, because we were all of the same calibre, people that could manage the job." Hence Ted applied for a job at Letchford Swifts, near Coventry, where a more open system was applied. Some bargaining followed. "They asked me what I wanted per hour. I said '2s 9d.' 'We only pay 2s 6d and that's the top rate in Coventry.' I said, 'I'm sorry, I want 2s 9d.' 'I'm afraid you can't have 2s 9d, we don't pay that sort of money.' I said, 'That's all right,' put my tongue in my cheek and walked out as if it didn't matter."
     But Mr Letchford caught up with Ted: "'Whoa', he said, 'I think I'll pay it to you. When can you start?' And I said, 'Now.' 'You won't start now?' 'I will,' I said, and I started halfway through the afternoon; and as it happened it was a Fairey Battle and I'd worked on that job before, so they thought I was a wonderman. And I said I'd three or four more people like me, if they wanted them. And they all followed me."
MkV rear This is what brought Abbey Panels and Jaguar into contact - improving the saloon body. The offending panel was the rear quarter roof panel and its complex curves can be seen well here. Note the lead-filled seams. This is a Mk V-its predecessor was very similar in this area. Photo: Jaguar Cars.
The original XK 120 styling prototype at Jaguar's Holbrooks factory. Ted's men produced this under Lyons' direction, and made that first batch of alloy-bodied XK 120s.
Photo: Jaguar Cars.		 XK 120

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