There has always been great camaraderie among apprentices at Morris Radiators.

We recalled (Memory Lane, September 22, 2008) how young apprentices working at the North Oxford factory held annual dinners in the early 1960s.

And the friendship continues to this day, with former apprentices meeting for annual reunions.

The first was held at the Cotswold Gateway Hotel at Burford in 1992 and the 21st was held recently at the Lamb and Flag at Southmoor.

Allan Webb, who organised the early reunions, said: “I am surprised how well it has kept going.”

Among those at the first and many subsequent reunions was Geoff Meades, who went on to play a significant role in creating the famous ‘drooped nose’ of the supersonic aircraft, Concorde. He received the MBE for his work.

The Radiators’ factory off Woodstock Road – known as ‘The Rads’ – supplied a range of parts for cars built at Cowley and provided work for and supported thousands of families for 82 years. It began life as Osberton Radiators in 1919 when William Morris, later Lord Nuffield, creator of the Cowley car industry, asked the Doherty Motor Company, of Coventry, to start a radiator factory in Oxford.

The site in Osberton Road, Summertown - a former roller-skating rink and bus depot – was chosen.

William Morris bought the firm in 1923 and two years later, started work on the former brickworks site in Woodstock Road that it occupied until it closed in 2001. Homes have now been built on the site.

l Ex-apprentices are mourning the death of Les Tubb, a member of the development team at Osberton Radiators, who played a pivotal role in work on heat exchangers for the motor, aircraft, military and chemical industries.