Harlow Electronics

 

My first company car in 1975

In 1975 I was 21 and had just finished my apprenticeship in electronics, I decided to move on from my job at Telefusion. I got a job at a small company in Bolton called Harlow Electronics. The name 'Harlow' was derived from the companies original directors - Ken Harris and Kevin Ludlow. They had two shops, one on Halliwell Road in Bolton and the other on Market Street in Farnworth. Both shops sold and rented televisions, mainly Thorn televisions (Ferguson, HMV) Ken Harris later became service rep for Thorn based at Chetham Hill in Manchester. I met him a few times when I worked at Telefusion.



On the roof is a home made mag mount 1/4 wave for 144Mhz inside the car was my Pye Cambridge transceiver.

 



The job came with a company car, which was a green Ford Escort. At first I had a second hand car, but later was given a new one. It was great having my own car, I had only passed my driving test a few months before. The workshop was at the Farnworth shop. Most of the time I worked on field service repairing televisions in the home and also delivering and setting up new colour televisions.
I remember that my service manager was called Kevin, Aziz was the other engineer and the driver was (I think) called Dave.
I worked there for a year. At first I really enjoyed being out on the road in my car, but later I found it quite hard working with a small company. Prospects looked gloomy and didn't want to stay. In the end I returned to Telefusion and later TAM Techserve where I got a company car again. I guess I felt claustrophobic working at Harlow, not for me.

Some years after I left, Harlow set up as an electronics company in an old mill on Chorley Old Road. They did close circuit television systems. After a few years the company seemed to disappear in the turmoil of the electronics industry in the 80s and 90's.