Description:Engineering Instructor Jim Riding is seen explaining the correct operation of a lift motor brake as part of the training for the safety of maintenance engineers. This photograph was probably taken in one of the Duncan Hall training buildings.
Duncan Hall, Beatty Hall and Howard Hall (all named after Royal Navy Admirals) were built in 1938 for munitions workers relocated from Woolwich Arsenal to work at the Royal Ordnance factory at Swynnerton. However, they were not occupied by muntions workers, and instead were occupied by the United States Air Force during the Second World War.
The General Post Office took over the buildings after the war, and the G.P.O. Engineering Department Central Training School opened in Yarnfield in 1946. In 1984 G.P.O. telephones became British Telecom. Since 2002 it has been under the management of Accenture, an American company supplying training and human resources services to B.T.