It was the place where Trade (or Craft) Apprentices were introduced to factory piece-work on machines of their intended trade. Each would have already spent six months in the AEC's excellent Training School, followed by a further six months factory work, usually as a Store Boy. Whether his preference was for turning, grinding, or milling and shaping, each Apprentice began by working on pillar drills, graduating to large 'table' drills, before moving on to heavier machines. The majority of machines in the shop were lathes, mostly capstans, the smallest being Wards, the next size up being Herberts, and so on.

It could sometimes prove to be very tough going in that shop. Whereas there were some very good jobs, meaning that good bonuses could be made on them, there were many of the opposite kind too, where time was forfeited. The kind that the main factory lines avoided ... so that they thus became urgent and would be rushed to the LMS where an already meanly-timed or difficult job would now be the subject of extra pressure. Lads were occasionally tearful working under these conditions.

This photograph was taken by an apprentice during a Lunch hour and shows Trade Apprentices with two Machine Setters and the shop Labourer grouped behind one of the Herbert capstan lathes. Looking south through the windows, chassis can be seen parked on the hard-standing outside, which was opposite the Chassis Inspection & Rectification Shop, or "Skinner's Shop", as it was known; no.27 on the keyed Aerial Photo. Mr Skinner was the larger-than-life CI Shop foreman and performed his duties with rigour, so that he was the champion of the Customer, and sometimes a thorn-in-the-side to Departmental heads.

Getting back to the LMS photo, only a few individual's names are known: Standing on the far left is the shop Labourer and next to him Machine Setters, Sid and Charlie(?). Standing on the far right in sports jacket (since overalls were not permitted to be worn in the Canteen) is Eric Hayles (aged 17), an Apprentice Capstan Operator, and standing next to him with arms folded, Len Gadd, an Apprentice Milling Machine Operator. Both Eric and Len were soon to transfer to the Main Drawing Office as Learner Draughtsmen ... Click here to see

Seated on the far left is Gordon -?-, an Apprentice Grinding Machine Operator. The Apprentice in dark overalls seated next to him had a terrifying experience when heavy swarf from the 'table' drilling machine he was operating caught hold of his sleeve, pulling him towards the large diameter rotating drill-bit. Hearing the lad's shouts, the swift action of a nearby Apprentice in hitting the machine's emergency Stop-button, just prevented a very serious accident.