MERCURY reader John Ratcliffe dropped in this class snap of student engineers from Junior Technicians School at the old Bridgwater Art and Technical Institute.

The Blake Street institute was formed in 1946 to teach teenagers aged 13 to 16 building or engineering.

The science laboratory was situated in the upstairs of the library in Mount Street and the engineering workshop was in a prefabricated building next door.

Former student John said: “There was an extensive range of hand tools and we made a variety of tools from scratch.

“The machines had their standard guarding of the driving belts and gears but the tools and cutters of the mills, lathes and shapers were not guarded.

“They were all operated by young teenagers; not a situation that would be permitted today.”

John recalled how he turned lifesaver during one lesson when his pal John Duddridge was working on a lathe when his tie got caught and his head was being pulled down into the revolving chuck.

He could not reach the drive release but John managed to rush across and stop the chuck revolving.

John thinks some of the lads in the picture went on to take apprenticeships but none stayed on the bench and went into management instead.

He added: “Mervyn Welch went in the Merchant Navy and after being chief engineer of the Caltex Canberra became a superintendent engineer of the Caltex Line and lived in Australia.”