A hearing at last

It gave them their livelihoods but only years later are we beginning to learn just how much the Cowley car factory took from many of its workers. The deafening conditions at the plant robbed thousands of men of their hearing. But, in hundreds of cases, ex-workers have been left to suffer in something altogether crueller than silence.

In their retirement, men like Edward Dandridge are reminded of their years in car manufacturing by the noises inside their heads that echo around their skulls just as the clanging of the presses and the crashing of trip hammers had once incessantly echoed around the factory.

"I hear a large booming sound," said 79-year-old Mr Dandridge, who was exposed to excessive levels of noise without any ear protection for 32 years. "Boom, boom, boom. It stops me from sleeping.

"I remember the first time it happening, I said to my wife: 'What's that?'. But she, of course, could hear nothing. It's a bit like an exceptionally loud heartbeat."

Tinnitus, the sensation of a sound in the ear or head that is not being produced by an external source, can torment sufferers in a variety of ways. It may take the form of an annoying buzzing or high-pitched whistling, ringing or hissing noise that can drive people to distraction. Other Cowley workers have described it to me as being like the roar of the ocean.

Yet, for decades, car workers with tinnitus, or seriously damaged hearing, have quietly put up with their condition without complaint as if deafness, like the monotony of life on the assembly line, was the price of the job.

While in other walks of life people have rushed to tribunals about everything from work dress codes to sexual inuendo, it would seem the compensation culture passed deaf Cowley workers by, with ex-employees prepared to patiently wait for their hearing aids, while urging long-suffering spouses to shout ever louder.

The supreme irony, of course, is that in the strike-torn days of British Leyland and Red Robbo, they were part of a workforce known for its militancy and apparent readiness to walk out over any management provocation.

Yet ex-workers now in their seventies and eighties have, in recent months, slowly begun to recognise that it is never too late to seek redress for industrial wrongs. But it has not been a campaign by a national trades union or health and safety body that has wrought this remarkable turn around locally: it has been a series of articles published in The Oxfoxd Times and its sister newspaper, the Oxford Mail that has brought about a flood of compensation claims.

Industrial disease-claim specialists, BPE Solicitors, based in Cheltenham, say that since The Oxford Times raised the issue of deaf workers, the number of claims on its books rose from several hundred to past the 2,500 mark. For, remarkably, until our first story on the issue in September 2004, it seems the great majority of Cowley workers had no idea that they might be entitled to payments.

The response of Leonard Hudson, 73, of Deddington, a welder at Cowley for more than 30 years, was common. "It had never crossed my mind to make a claim," he said, shortly after being awarded £11,000. "I know many people far worse off than me, who died without ever making claims."

Now Mr Dandridge has become the 1,000th car worker to have been awarded compensation after contacting BPE. He has been offered £7,000, a sum that he and his wife, Alice, are happy to accept, planning to immediately use their unexpected windfall not for a holiday or new car, but to buy a hearing aid.

In many ways, his story is typical of so many workers who arrived at the factory gates as young men looking for work. Mr Dandridge, who still lives in Cowley at Southfield Park, starting working for what was then Pressed Steel in January 1949. "I mostly worked in the A Building near the presses and trip hammers."

He says the memory of the nerve-shattering noise on his first day remains vivid, with the crashing action of huge presses, the rattle of innumerable trip hammers and the clatter of sheet metal being carried on hand trucks.

"I can only say that it sounded like a war zone. But then, after a short while, you stopped noticing it. We never realised what was happening to our hearing. We were never provided with hearing protection or made aware of the risks."

But it was not just the press shops that produced a high level of noise, as Mr Dandridge was to learn.

"I also spent some time working in the Paint Shop in A Building, which was also noisy due to the extraction systems, ovens and overhead conveyors."

When he underwent an examination as part of is compensation claim, the consultant otolaryngologist pointed out that hearing in his right ear was markedly the worse. Doubtless the consultant shook his head as Mr Dandridge patiently explained that, after decades of defeaning machinery, for his last four years in the paint shop he was obliged to sit next to a very large speaker, used for constant staff announcements, close to that ear.

He was already aware of his poor hearing by the time he took redundancy in 1981, continually mishearing and having to ask people to repeat themselves.

Some workers like James MacHenry, of Pinnocks Way, Botley, a car fitter from 1955 to 1989, recall occasionally wearing ear muffs.

"But they were loose and not very effective," he said. "Everything was optional and we were never given any proper advice. Every one of the people I worked with now suffers from hearing problems."

In some cases, after losing their own hearing, fathers came to see the factory taking a similar toll on their sons. That was the case of Alec Clanfield, 91, and his son Robin, whose cases were taken up by the Transport and General Workers Union.

Mr Clanfield, a panel beater, began working in the factory in 1929, only retiring in 1980.

"I have a ringing in my ears all the time. It just never ceases," he had told me. "It had been a devil of a place to work. The conditions were appalling. You would work all week, putting up with the terrible noise, and queue up for your pay packet." He was to receive £6,000 compensation.

Bill Jupp, a former shop steward at the car works and secretary of the Retired Members Association of the TGWU, believes it is impossible to guess what the final total of claims will be. He points out that, in its heyday, there were more than 28,000 workers at Cowley. Mr Jupp said: "People simply do not appreciate what the noise levels were like. It was in excess of 85 decibels and it was constant. I tell you, people who worked at that place all became expert lip readers.

'I was on the safety committee and was always asking for protection which I knew was on the market place. They supplied cotton wool and wax, totally insufficient, and no one was made to use it anyway."

Compensation payments have ranged from £2,000 to £12,000, depending on the level of severity. Mr Jupp is more than satisfied that his own compensation payment of £3,000 is at the lower end.

"It means my hearing has not been as badly affected as some of the others. People want back their hearing. The money is quickly gone."

To be eligible for compensation for damaged hearing, workers must have been employed at the factory between 1963 and 1990. A court case as long ago as 1963 established the precedent about the damage working with or near to noise could cause. But protection was only made compulsory at Cowley 27 years later.

All sides agree that the vastly improved conditions at the modern BMW Mini plant mean the factory would be unrecognisable to men like Edward Dandridge. Yet all the claims for deafness go to BMW, who, as the current occupier of the site, pass on details to the correct historic insurers. Compensation payments have now run into millions and BMW strongly urge people to first contact their trades union or solicitors.

But Mr Jupp is not alone in fearing even more serious claims could ultimately be arriving at BMW, as the German giant is visited by the sins of British car manufacturing's past.

He remembers tricoethylene being widely used for cleaning, while asbestos was extensively used in the factory roof and lagging. He well recalls using wet asbestos around a welding joint to avoid the distortion of the metal panel from heat.

"Only small quantities would need to have been breathed in when the mix dried and flaked off. People only become ill with asbestos-related illnesses much later in life. They simply did not know the risks being taken. Different forms of illness are now being defined in the court."

Almost 200 people are seeking compensation for asbestos-related illnesses contracted in Oxfordshire's factories, with about 50 involving ex-employees at Cowley.

Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner has already forecast an increase in deaths over coming years, while industrial disease claims solicitor Peter Lodge said: "It' s a potential time bomb for large manufacturing plants" with deadly asbestos fibres lying dormant in the lungs for 30 years or more.

A recent Law Lords judgement means the liability of employers to compensate asbestos dust victims and their families is to be drastically reduced, in many cases.

The House of Lords upheld three test appeals, effectively brought by company insurers, in which it was argued that damages awards should be limited in cases involving several former employers, none of whom could be specifically blamed for the onset of the fatal lung disease mesothelioma.

Pensioners across Oxfordshire who spent their working lives at the car factory had good reason to follow the outcome of the case on the news at least those still fortunate enough to have been able to hear their televisions and radios.