ONE of the people who had a key role in developing one of Lydney’s most important industrial sites was given a warm welcome when he returned last week.

Terry Moody was given a tour of what is now JD Norman and declared it “completely different” to the site he remembered in the early 1960s.

Mr Moody spent four years in Lydney during the development of the Brico foundry and although he was officially an architectural assistant, he had a big role in the building of the factory.

He said: “Architectural assistant was my title and I was designing and overseeing the job.

“I had a team working with me but everything was a challenge.

“It was the first industrial project I was involved in and I was left to my own devices most of the time.

“It was an education to get me to know myself. In industry, things have got to be where they have to be and you have work to that.

“Everything had to be totally practical and I think that’s what appealed to me more than anything. I should have been a surveyor.”

One of the most hair-raising moments of the job came as the plant neared completion and he was asked to erect a sign some 70 feet above the ground.

He said: “Not long before they took occupation we had a call from the directors in Coventry.

“They wanted the Brico sign put up and I said I’d do it. It was 70 feet to the top and they were just finishing the cladding. 

In those day health and safety didn’t enter into it and all the two scaffolders had were three railway sleepers tied together, some gas piping around and they hauled tehmselves up. “When we got up there if there was the slightest wind it was all over the place.”

Looking around the plant, which now employs around 190 people, he said: “It looks completely different – but then five decades is a long time in any industry.

“I was overwhelmed when I had an invitiation to come. Its changed beyond recognition and I can’t think of any logical reason why I should be invited back.”

JD Norman maintainance manager Kevin Ball said: “This site owes a great debt to people like Terence and we are recognising the forebears of where we are now.”

Plant manager Susana Fernadez told Mr Moody: “Your legacy is where we are now.”

Mr Moody, who later returned to Lydney to work on a development of 43 houses, was also delighted to see a comme­m­morative brochure pub-

lished to celebrate the opening of Brico which featured some of his drawings.