After gaining initial experience at Fleetwood, I moved to a bigger department at Blackpool for more experience.

I worked for quite some time at Gynn Square Gardens on the promenade, under the expert eye of Bob Bradshaw, a giant six footer, who could lift and relay two putting greens in one day. I generally looked after the rock garden side, and Bob the greens. We had a feature bed on a bank at the far end of the gardens, where a butterfly was laid out in carpet bedding. Below it was a panel about six feet long by two feet deep that had the date "written" in echiveria (a grey succulent rosette forming plant) and red altenanthera. Each day my first job was to re-arrange the plants to set the correct "date" for the day.

There was also a spell in what was the affectionately named WG Glass (greenhouses) under the tyranny of ex Regimental Sergeant Major Lenton, (about which, least said is soonest mended) and a time in "the drawing office" that added planning, administration, and depth to my experience. This was the most revered of all apprenticeship postings because it was always warm and comfortable (I managed to avoid the cemetery, which was the most feared and unpleasant).

During my time at Blackpool under the care of Superintendent Norman Leech and Deputy Superintendent Hughie Wilson, I competed the basic craft gardening qualifications. These included the Royal Horticultural Society General Horticulture Examination, and a full time one year course at the Lancashire Horticultural College, then based at Hutton. This included a mixed course of amenity horticulture and turf management, together with commercial crop rearing under glass, such as chrysanthemums, lettuce, tomatoes, carnations and pot plants. The course resulted in both the Lancashire Certificate in Horticulture, and the National Certificate in Horticulture.

I was needed at home for a while in the family floristry business, then moved on to my first time in charge of others as a foreman with a commercial forestry company in Shropshire.