Anne Rivett I worked for them on Park Farm in the late 80’s. Nearly everyone was a “temp” so we did not show on the salary account.
Derek Coombes Anne Rivett Do you remember the fire in Springfield House? What year was it?
Anne Rivett Derek Coombes sorry I do not know date of the fire. I was at Park Farm when it was new. We had IBM come for grand opening on the first Red Nose Day. There was a Porsche with a red nose on the front. Caterers came from Goodwood to do the catering.
Dave Handley Anne Rivett Hello Anne - great to hear from you. Was the building called PC retailing or Springfield house ? Do you remember Ivan Bird from there - as I first worked with him at Longbridge in the 70s.
Anne Rivett Dave Handley yes I just about remember Ivan. I worked on reception at Park Farm. It was a showcase place. I had the newest PC on the front desk. I also had a uniform to wear. Navy jacket and skirt with a paisley bow tie.
Dave Handley Anne Rivett hello Anne - yes I remember it being very prestigious and very much a showpiece site . Many years previous I remember Ivan bringing his LPs on nights at Longbridge and introducing me to Steeley Dan
Ian Stott Dave Handley yes Ivan got me into Steely Dan at the same time Dave!
Jan Prosser Did my yts there in Redditch Town centre x
Debbie Wykes Jan Prosser and me! Did my YTS in the Personnel Dept at Grosvenor House, Molly Heath was my mentor - lovely lady. Then worked in the Facilities Planning Dept by CDC - William Henry was my first boss...
Jan Prosser Debbie Wykes I was external sales grosvenor house 1984 x
Dave Handley Debbie Wykes Debbie- now that brings back memories - I remember Bill Henry, Dave Richards and Tony Johnson from those days
Debbie Wykes Yes and Richard Aston and Tony Mellor - when Bill Henry left it was Keith Bellamy who took his place
Debbie Wykes I was there 1984 to 1988 - not long!!
Jan Prosser Debbie Wykes I was only there the year left 1985 xx good experience for me after leaving school x did a week or 2 at the site on moons moat xx
Helen Anderson I did a placement there when doing my business studies degree at the health division.
Sandi Greatbatch I worked for the MD, John Leighfield, as his Secretary. His PA was Linda and his Driver was Dave. Great memories of my time there.
Dave Handley
Sandi Greatbatch Sandi - they were great times . I remember Dave who was a neighbour knocking on my door one night and asking about the drivers job and if he should apply for it . I told him he”d be mad not to and he”d regret it if he did not apply . I don’t think he regretted it
Sandi Greatbatch Dave Handley he was a lovely man x
Dave Handley Sandi Greatbatch most people there were nice - but as you say Dave was a great character
Sandi Greatbatch Dave Handley I loved working with John Leighfield and Linda. I had some good friends there.
Wendy Smith I did my YTS there from 1988-1990 at Highfield House by the water tower in Headless Cross
Michelle Rogers I worked at the Moons Moat site mid 80s.
Peter V James
Yes very successful computer systems etc. Spun off Rover i think, was floated on stock exchange as a separate company. I think took off bigtime & went to around £32.00 per share overnight. Employees had bee given so many shares each according to position in company and some made a lot of money! Remember the office block by the water tower.
Adam Evans
Peter V James last I heard there was an application to convert that building into approximately 60 flats....surprise!!!
Peter V James Derek Coombes .... thats it Derek thank you, weren't they £2.00 & went up to £32.00. My neighbour Paul sold his for £32,000, so i think he possibly bought 1000.
Carlrl Wrightson Peter V James we were offered them at £1 per share and all the banks in Redditch were offering interest free loans when they heard what was going on.
Peter V James
Carl Wrightson
bargain Carl.
Carl Wrightson Peter V James not when you are a 19yr old trainee computer operator doing days, evenings and night shift, including weekends, for a just under £5k per year salary including shift allowance and couldn't afford the load. Imagine my feelings when they went from £1 to £32 overnight!
Peter V James
Carl Wrightson pig sick comes to mind Carl.
Derek Coombes Peter V James Just one point Peter, employee were not given shares, they had to buy them. I had to take out a bank loan to buy some, but glad I did.
Phil Coathup Peter - it wasn’t floated on the stock exchange - it was a Management Buy Out. Employees chipped in to buy the company…and then AT&T dangled some cash as us and acquired the company.
Peter V James Phil Coathup ... is that how the shares went from £1 or £2 went up to £32.00. Don't know all the details of how it happened, just that my neighbour from perhaps a £1000 worth to £32,000 worth. And lost it after being given false promises.
Tracey Wilkes Robert Silvester
Leigh Clucas Walton I’m still friends with some of the girls I worked with there! We were known as the Call Girls working on the help desk! Lesley Ford Josie F - sadly Jan Boardman and Cheryl Skelton passed away in three 50’s
Leigh Clucas Walton Janet Pead
Dave Handley Leigh Clucas Walton hello Leigh - good to hear the surviving call girls are still meeting up. I remember Cheryl from the early days - I think at Aspenwood House before CDC opened
Leigh Clucas Walton Lesley Ford!
Carl Turnbull I worked for western pdi services we prepped all company cars for ISTEL anyone from cleaner to md could have a car depended how high up you were to what you could have cleaner metro auto ...md rover 827 sport all rover cars most were mg montego s
Jo McAfee Carl Turnbull I started work their straight from school
Chris Carpenter Started programming with BL Systems in Oxford before relocating to Redditch in the ISTEL era - worked in many different sites.
Karen Brind I worked at Grosvenor and Highfield good times made some good friends there
Christophe Peppa Karen Brind and me Karen, I'm Jackys friend Pat Dipple.
Karen Brind Christophe Peppa oh blimey how are you Pat ? xxx
Christophe Peppa Ok Thankyou Karen, living in Weston-super-Mare been here since retired 13yrs ago. How are you. X
Karen Brind Christophe Peppa aww lovely we often go to Weston for the day dog loves to run on the beach xx
Christophe Peppa We might bump into each other one day then. Xx
Dave Handley Karen Brind karen - great to hear from you - yes they were happy times
Karen Brind Dave Handley how are you Dave. it all seems a lifetime ago now
Dave Handley
Karen Brind karen yes I”m fine - on tenderhooks awaiting arrival of 6th grandchild . It does seem a lifetime away but working on this project with Derek has rekindled many memories- some which feel very recent - not 40 years ago
Paula D Harvey Yes … very much so … from age 18 … and still work for them now my contract is still with AT&T ISTEL … the name lives on at least on paperwork
Chris Carpenter A couple of tie pins and a celebration coin issue - loads more as and when I get a chance
Derek Coombes Chris Carpenter Fantastic Chris, would love to have more details of your ISTEL days to go on our planned web site.
Lisa Dedman I worked in about 4 different departments and locations including Grosvenor Hs, Walford Walk, CDC Moons Moat, and Studley Castle on the 80s. I’ve still got a screwdriver with the logo on!!
Dave Handley Lisa Dedman lisa - i”d forgotten walford walk - was that the one above M&s ? Interestingly i went to Studley Castle for a nostalgia visit recently . Its a Warner holidays site but anyone can drop in at lunchtime . If you are in the area its worth a visit - just to walk around and see what has changed
Lisa Dedman Dave Handley hi yes it was above M&S. I worked in the training dept at Studley Castle, we had portakabins around the back, I bet they’re not there now lol
Dave Handley Lisa Dedman no they have long gone - replaced by a SPA I think
Andrew Bissell David Cutler
Denise Bennett Phil Coathup
Denise Bennett ISTEL company still going. Joined in 1998 & still there. Lots of changes since then
Derek Coombes Denise Bennett Please tell us more about any current activity. Email if necessary on ISTEL.memories.online.
Dave Handley Denise Bennett - Denise its great to hear from you. When you started I was working on Plant - Solihull and Longbridge, shortly afterwards I was transferred to Softlab and finally Csc . So have lost contact with AT&t my last recollection being where CDC at Moons Moat became the GNMC - global network management control centre . So any you info you have on the current set up would be great . Thanks
Lorraine O'Malley Roger Paul
Lorraine O'Malley Andy O'Malley
Phil Coathup I don’t think ‘In Systems The Established Leader’ was an official tag line. The whole point of the name ISTEL was that it did not mean anything. I sat in front of John Tandy who put lots of tech sounding words - Sys, Tech etc - into his IBM PC and asked it to combine two or three of them. I think it printed out over 10,000 words, and ISTEL was chosen as a fresh start. (Didn’t stop some wag saying it stood for I Stand To Earn Less!)
Derek Coombes Phil Coathup That tag line was certainly on some of the race cars ISTEL sponsored
Phil Coathup Derek LOL! That was CSC!
Sandi Greatbatch Phil Coathup it was British Leyland Systems if I remember correctly before ISTEL. I went on to work for CNT at Highfield House and worked on the sale to ISTEL. I then went on to temp there so went full circle.
Lisa Hall Carl Wrightson didn't you work here??
Carl Wrightson Lisa Hall yep. Started 7th April 1986 when I was 19 and did 7 years there at the data centre in Moons Moat as a computer operator and then moved into support
Lesley Rogers I’ve just retired after 37 years with AT&T ISTEL … many happy memories and hold this paper we received after 10 years, it shows the history
Rob Whelan Tina Whelan
Ella Edwards Louise Morgan
Jacqueline Bird Joined in march 1987 and still there x
Denise Bennett Jacqueline Bird you are Ms AT&T
Jacqueline Bird Denise Bennett bless you I know I’ve been there longer than any of the furniture now x
Amanda Millar Jacqueline Bird - what a fantastic pension you’ll get then.
Jacqueline Bird Amanda Millar I wish
Amanda Millar Jacqueline Bird - oh? That’s a shame then after that long a service.
Jo McAfee Jacqueline Bird I started 1986 thought you were there before me x
Leisha Pennells Jacqueline Bird wow, cannot believe that you’re still there
Lorna Preston Ah brilliant. I still have my ISTEL pin somewhere. Started in Feb 1989 - leaving in July. Brilliant company. Many memories made.
Lesley Ford Yes I worked at ISTEL on the customer help desk and microwave fault reporting desk from 1981 until , after several mergers 2009 ,I worked along side Jan boardman and Cheryl Skelton who have both unfortunately passed away
Leesa Corden Worked at Grosvenor House from 1985 as YTS then worked in Personnel and as a junior secretary for Lorraine Chapman and finally worked in the Quality Dept for Geoff Hutt. Lovely memories of my time there. Left in 1993 when I had my first baby.
Marian Blevin Leesa Corden Thought of you when this came up!
Valerie Brogan Marian Blevin me too xx
Marian Blevin Valerie Brogan great minds!
Lynne Perry I did my placement with the company as part of my business degree at Coventry uni I worked in the town centre in a dept that managed the Austin rover account. I worked for Pauline and Alan had a great time. I remember pulling together the press cuttings every day from the local papers and going to watch the cricket at edgbaston I think they sponsored a box. Great memories.
Jeremy Barker Started at Grosvenor House in 1988 as a trainee programmer with a group of 4 other people. Got seconded to an internal development project after about 6 months and when that folded I moved across to support at the Data Centre in Moons Moat. Took voluntary redundancy at the end of 1994 after seeing several years of redundancies / restructures after the AT&T takeover. That wasn't the end of my connection with the company because about 10 months later I was wandering through the Kingfisher Centre when I ran into one of the Easylink (Edict) managers who asked me what I was up to and asked me if I was interested in a 6-month contract with them! Remember lots of training in the portacabins behind Studley Castle when it was owned by the Rover Group - the Studley Castle lunches were legendary!
Dave Handley Jeremy Barker jeremy - ah the Studley classic cold table . I was fortunate to be there the day after the infamous Fawlty Towers episode - where Basil insisted the waldorfs were fresh . The catering staff could not understand why a line of us queued for the salad each one asking “ are the waldorfs fresh?’
Sam Carter I remember, was there for many years. Did a weeks work experience in the travel dept and they asked me to come back when I finished college. Worked at many locations including the office in the town centre, right next to Poppins restaurant. Happy days!
Jeremy Barker Janet Pead Andrew Waring Sharron James Rachel Farrin James Gillson may have some memories
John Dudek My wife, Caroline Dudek, worked there and was one of the first to work at CDC being secretary to John Palmer, manager DP services and Planning. Later on she moved to Grosvenor House and left in around December 1986 to have a baby, and decided to be a stay at home mum, thereby missing out on the takeover windfall. Caroline occasionally played squash with Wendy Chiles, wife of MD Chris, and also played badminton with John Sansom, one of the other directors. One of my own memories was of the TV crew following John Leighfield around the car park, asking if he could justify the amount of profit he made when AT&T took over. I seem to remember the news report mention a figure of £4million !
Janine Gough My WTS was with ISTEL in Redditch £16.50 per week
Nick Hall When Rolls-Royce decided that all their suppliers were to go online I chose the A.T.& T. (as they were called at the time) software for the company I worked for. Demos and training were done at Grosvenor House.
Bob Sayers Anyone here who worked for iNet, in the dreadful warehouse across the road from CDC? Getting to Virginia and Chicago made up for it a little bit though!
Dave Handley Bob Sayers Bob - I never worked for iNet - but remember on a couple of occasions being forced to decamp from CDC when they had space problems . Unit 5 rings a bell all were very basic after the Data Centre
Bob Sayers Dave Handley I suspect a couple of rooms very suddenly became vacant after the demise of iNet, Dave. Our MD wasn't daft - he stayed in a Portacabin outside!
David Mccombie Derek/Dave, glad to see you are still going! Regards Dave
Dave Handley David Mccombie Dave - hope you are well . Derek and I are on a bit of a mission to keep the name alive . I know as you get older its easy to view the past with rose tinted glasses - but there really was something special about the place and the people
David Mccombie Dave Handley agreed Dave, it was unique in many ways and the people were part of that. It was certainly the best i experienced in my career. Let me know if i can help in any way. Regards Dave
Dave Handley David Mccombie Dave - that is so True for many of us . Once we have the beta test version of the website - we”ll send you the link . As I said its all about human interest stories so would really appreciate your input
David Mccombie Ok Dave will look forward to that, mind you, my memory is not what it was! Regards Dave.
Leisha Pennells I joined the division of Failsafe in 1987 at the age of 16 on a YTS scheme in Grosvenor House to begin with, then we moved to St Stephens House next door. I came across my ISTEL brochure the other day with people’s photos on it, happy memories of starting my working life. Good times x
Lorraine F Crowe Paul Tunbridge!
Carol Phillips Julie Castle have you seen this?
Michael Parker Started in Computer Room Sept 1976 at Longbridge (British Leyland) before moving in to Data Control. Still there when the management buy out took place. As a lowly pleb could not take as many shares as some people but still made £15000 as I remember. as ISTEL I then moved to a site just down the road from CDC before moving there shortly afterwards. Spent many years on shift in ‘Processing Support’ monitoring and fixing ‘Rovers’ batchwork. Once acquired by AT&T and with the demise of Rover I worked and supported Networks until retiring in 2016. Many happy memories of people and times gone by.
Laura Ravenhill Green Becky Silvester Rachel Cain
Adrian Cleary Jackie Pugh
Helen Clews Started there as a yts in the Comet Electronic Sales Office in 1986 went on to marketing and helping organise the customer and sales teams events. Still have my 5 year service award and managed to save this painting from board room before it was scrapped
Lorraine O'Malley I still have one of these
Helen Clews Darren Bayliff David Bayliff Teresa Bayliff
Pam Turner I started working as a temp at 17, secretary to Harry Fenton, then a permanent position as Secretary to Rex Smythe, Communications Director at CDC and eventually working for Transpoll after being taken over by Cap Gemini, happy memories of my time at ISTEL.
Michael James Joanna Stokes Adrian Stokes
Joanne McNerlin Lynn Court xx
Liz Bertie I worked for ISTEL then when it became AT&T, started in Site Services, then Marketing based at Grosvenor House. My husband Steve has worked there for 45 years this year, new office in Studley
Dave Handley Liz Bertie Liz - good to hear Steve is still there, please give him my regards
Liz Bertie Dave Handley I will do
Lorraine O'Malley I joined ISTEL 1984 (Lorraine Pressdee), initially worked on Grosvenor House reception/switchboard. Moved up to 4th floor to work for Ken Humphries PR/Marketing (Lorraine Edwards by then). left for a little while on maternity leave. Returned two years later to CDC Network Operations, onto the GNMC then Customer Services Management HH Final years spent as Operations Manager back at CDC. Think I’ve worked in most of the offices at some point. Left AT&T 2016, most of my working years spent with ISTEL/AT&T … loved it !
Anne Rivett Lorraine O'Malley I remember you and your late sister Michelle. Worked at Lewis Spring with her
Jacqueline Bird
Ken Humphries Never floated on the stock exchange owned by employees. I was there from 1979 to 1994. Great atmosphere and working ethic .
Dave Handley Ken Humphries yes totally agree great atmosphere and everyone had the same work ethic . My dream come true project was when you asked me to work with you and Deborah Turner on the TT race sponsorship- can you remember what year that was ? The highlight for me was Tim Harvey taking our customers round Silversone in the company Sherpa explaining the speeds he would reach in the Metro
Mike West Joined in September 1978 and still there! First week spent at Studley Castle the training centre then. The s of Steve Bertie, Brian Dugan, Colin Tamplain, Mark Makepeace and Bob Kettle also on the same course. I then started work in Data Control working with Sharon James and Mike Parker before moving on to shift at a later time. Had many different roles over the years. Strangely my first week was spent in Studley and now with the closure of CDC and HIGHFIELD House, our office is now in Studley so back where I started!
Ian Stott Hi Dave..... nice to read all these comments. Loved working at Longbridge in the early days I joined in 1972 and worked in the computer room on tape decks..... 'tape monkeys' as we were known. ICL 1900 and IBM 145? Mornings, Evenings and Nights. John Taylor, Charlie Hayden, Ivan Bird, Micky Bird, John Fisher, Trevor Cook, Roger Smith and loads more I could name..... then along came Dave Handley, Phil Chignell, Dave Evans, Paul Bradley, Bobby Madan..... followed by the next generation headed up by Mike West, Colin Tamplin, Mark Brenchley, Sharron James, Mike Parker, Wookie and many other 18-19 year olds. I was 30 by then. We mixed well and played football together and ran B'ham and London Marathons, training around Cofton Park during dinner hour. Great times and memories and plenty of laughs! I was eventually made redundant in 1995. By then the laughs and good times were beginning to dry up. I also benefited from the A.T. & T. ISTEL shares. I remortgaged my house and bought a 1000 shares. Had some great times with you Dave and Micky Bird, Trev. Cook and Charlie Twigg etc., going to each others houses on a Monday daytime, before night shift, having a drink and playing real music by superb bands. I introduced you to Queen and Trev Cook introduced me to Pink Floyd... "which one's Pink?" Wonderful memories!
Dave Handley Firstly I wanted to thank everyone for all of your comments so far . Hopefully we will get a lot more info and if you can pass on this link to any other ex ISTEL colleagues that would be great. Derek and I are on a bit of a mission to keep the ISTEL name alive. I”ve also learned that AT&ISTEL is still going strong thanks to feedback we”ve had here . I think we make a good team - Derek is brilliant at web site design and has started to prepare some great content - watch this space . For my part I worked there for a very long time and can remember a lot of names . We”ve got some content already and thanks to John Leighfield, Chris Chiles , Geoff Hutt and Phil Coathup we have a lot of people trawling through their lofts for memorabilia. What we really need now are the human interest stories , the anecdotes and any sporting or charity work you did . Anything you can send us to the ISTEL memories email would be very welcome . Just to finish off here is a brief summary of my ISTEL days : I was a computer operator at Longbridge and moved to the Triumph factory at Canley working with people such as Pete Shotbolt and Dave Richards . Just before CDC opened we moved to Aspenwood House in Redditch and were the first people to move into Moons Moat . I spent many happy years in Ops, I never changed jobs but my employers change from AT&T through to Softlab and finally CSC . Thanks for reading this and I look forward to any info you give us for the ISTEL memories website