THE OFFICE
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In 1957, Harris & Miners acquired a site to develop a proper transport depot in Pottery Road, Bovey Tracey. The former clay pit was derelict and was gradually developed over the following years, but the property never benefitted from any serious investment throughout the company’s life and its traffic office was a flimsy-looking brick building covered by a tin roof. This construction was Brian’s workplace for 46 years.
In the early days, communication with the firm’s head office at Widecombe was via a phone box a few hundred yards up the road, but a dedicated line was installed around 1960. The availability of a phone and the installation of a second line shortly afterwards transformed the business, as work levels to and from Scotland increased year on year.
Entry to the traffic office was via a driver’s tea room that sported a large wooden table and seating. Behind this, a long row of freshly laundered green boiler suits was hung, each emblazoned with the company name in gold stitching. A door gave access to Brian’s compact domain that contained a simple electric heater to keep his feet warm during the winter. Numerous piles of transport magazines and books were joined by the daily traffic paperwork and everything else was stored in the boss’s head. Latterly a fax machine would be the only piece of additional technology.
Brian’s mother Margaret supervised two bookkeepers, who worked from a room in the family home until 2000. In that year, a portable cabin was installed at the Bovey Tracey depot to house the bookkeepers and some recently purchased computers. The PCs arrived, along with a new employee to operate them on a Monday. The next day the poor chap went to Widecombe-in-the-Moor to get the information needed from Mrs Harris to load them, but she did not want to disclose any of it. On the Wednesday he left and the computers were left to gather dust indefinitely.