Former Avon worker seeks memories for new book

A Melksham man who spent 32 years working at the Avon rubber factory is writing a book about the site and is appealing to former workers to share their memories.

Steve Chudley, who has lived in Melksham since 1974 and is partially sighted, is currently writing the 16th chapter of his book, which covers the history of Avon, the manufacturing processes and what it was like to work inside the factory.

After initially typing up his own recollections, Steve used artificial intelligence software to help edit chapters, format paragraphs, and provide historical and technical detail on machinery.

The book traces Avon’s history from its origins in Limpley Stoke in 1875 through to around 2006, which is where Steve’s research currently reaches. It also includes social history, including a chapter about Melksham in 1974 and a walk through the town from the factory gates.

Steve began working at the factory after moving to Melksham following an armed robbery at the garage where he previously worked. During his 32 years at Avon, he worked in several departments, including press stops, quality control, quality audit, quality assurance and as an SPC facilitator, which gave him access to the entire factory.

“I think it’s important to have these memories in some form of a book, because as the years go on, there’ll be less of us that actually worked there,” said Steve. “We don’t want to lose that history, and there’s a lot of people in Melksham that don’t really know what it was like to work in there.”

Steve, who attends the Melksham Men’s Group at the local library and a historic group at the Assembly Hall, said that existing local histories focused on sports teams or specific shops rather than daily life on the factory floor.

Steve is now collecting the names of former employees and the departments they worked in for an index at the back of the book, while also inviting people to share their memories of working at Avon.

Former employees can contact Steve at historyavon@icloud.com