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In the mid 50s I worked during the summer school holidays for Grants of St James'. They were wine merchants of some standing and part of the Ind Coope empire. They had a part of the Romford brewery site and traded in wines and spirits - I suspect mostly in support of the various Ind Coope pubs and off-licenses.
Three school casual workers were employed during August - as it happened all from the Royal Liberty School. With a minimum of training we were launched into the world of fine, and not so fine, wines and spirits. Tanker lorries, full of red wine etc. parked in the High Street and pumped their load into tanks on the brewery premises. Then we bottled, corked,labelled and racked the wine into bins in a cellar. The process was part mechanised - bottling for example was a bit like milking a cow in reverse! Only once was I allowed to have a go at laying bottles down in a bin. They were only separated by thin strips of wood and if the weight was wrongly distributed there would be an ominous crack and a seeping red liquid as a bottle at the bottom of the stack gave way.
These wines were Grants "own label" burgundy, Bordeaux and the like although on occasion we bottled British Wine ( an evil concoction!).
We were charged with going into the cellars collecting bottles for pub orders and a magic world of strange names it was too. The regular staff had their own versions of the various wine names, pronounced literally and somewhat strangely. Nuits St George was Newts St Georges for example. Entre Deux Mers was Entray Ducks Mares. We had great fun shaking up the crusted port which had lain there for generations!
This was a world before Health and Safety at work. I remember that lorries would arrive laden with 112 gallon butts of sherry, whisky etc and we had to move them from their position standing on end on the lorry to laying down so that they could be picked up by fork lift truck. On one occasion I was on the lorry wedged between two barrels - back against one and feet against the other - trying to tip it on its side. It went all too easily - flipped over and sailed off the back of the lorry and exploding 112 gallons of sherry as it hit the ground. We all smelt terrible for weeks afterwards.
There were very large stainless steel tanks for blending spirits. They were closed to the atmosphere and accessed by a porthole in the side, complete with pressure seals. In these were blended Invercauld Whisky and various spirits. There was a charge hand who was quite small and he was the only one who could get through these portholes. On one occasion we had been blending rum and he had to subsequently go through the porthole to clean out the tank. Before he went in a rope was tied round his waist. After about ten minutes in the tank amongst the rum fumes he would become unconscious and have to be hauled out by the rope to recover. Not sure whether he got paid or whether he paid the company!
Once I went from the shop floor to the oak-panelled thickly carpeted world of the offices, fronting on the High Street. I doubt that they had changed much in over a century. It was so quiet you could hear the grandfather clocks ticking.
I now greatly enjoy a glass of wine - just think how my education was moved on at Grants of St James'.
Roy Woolley
June 2002
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