My father Alexander Mark joined the Ditchburn Organisation around 1954 and became a service/salesman, initially supplying his own car for the job. He not only serviced the equipment technically, but also changed the records on the juke boxes, and collected the cash each week, with a percentage going to the cafe owner his job also involved gaining new business for the company. the equipment was initially the MK1 and the cream music maker. eventually company cars were supplied which was a Mk1 ford consul, but during the Suez canal and the introduction of petrol rationing, company cars were laid up and Lambretta scooters were issued. things progressed and the Telematic 100 and 200 Jukeboxes came on stream and the upgraded music maker all proving popular, but competition was taking customers with Seeburg / Bal-Ami etc therefore Ditchburn brought in Wurlitzer to keep up.

My father had gathered around 20 Mk1 and Music Maker Juke Boxes in his garage, we scrapped them, oh dear ! if we only knew what we know now. Eventually my father became sales manager, and was given a new zephyr v6. in the early sixties Ditchburn built a new factory over the road and started to manufacture vending machines, coffee, cold drinks, and snack machines. I joined Ditchburn in 1966, working at Dock Road for a year making vending machines before traveling back to Scotland in my new minivan as a service engineer. sadly in 1972 an American company “national vendors” bought the vending side of the business, they wanted a factory in Britain to manufacture and sell in to the common market all outside sales and service staff were made redundant, and sadly Michael Town (left) who was the sales director took his own life, which was devastating, I think he felt it was his fault for the outcome of the company and job losses.

3. Posted 09-07-18

My father had gathered around 20 Mk1 and Music Maker Juke Boxes in his garage, we scrapped them, oh dear ! if we only knew what we know now. Eventually my father became sales manager, and was given a new zephyr v6. in the early sixties Ditchburn built a new factory over the road and started to manufacture vending machines, coffee, cold drinks, and snack machines. I joined Ditchburn in 1966, working at Dock Road for a year making vending machines before traveling back to Scotland in my new minivan as a service engineer. sadly in 1972 an American company “national vendors” bought the vending side of the business, they wanted a factory in Britain to manufacture and sell in to the common market all outside sales and service staff were made redundant, and sadly Michael Town (left) who was the sales director took his own life, which was devastating, I think he felt it was his fault for the outcome of the company and job losses.

In the late sixties Ditchburn tied up a deal with the Clairtone corporation to import a range of very up market radiograms and sell them under the banner of Ditchburn Clairtone. i and my father each bought one and paid them up on hp they were up to £700 each i think most of the Ditchburn staff bought one, a very up market shop was opened in St Anne’s but after a year or so it dwindled. the Ditchburn background music tape deck division which was for hotels shopping centers etc. i believe Redifusion took over that dept, also the B.E.T group British Electric Traction originally took over Ditchburn, owned by a group capt. Hugh Dundas as prior to my redundancy i was transfered to B.E.T and B.E.L fitments of Accrington.

Ditchburn Clairtone Stereogram, model no: 641 Signature, A contemporary design in oiled walnut, Matched veneers & solids, highlight the clean lines of the long, low cabinet. This has a central lid, Storage space for 25 records, plus Solid State T10E chassis with automatic FM Selector, Garrard Lab 80 changer, Size=70 X 19 X 25 ins. Clive Mark .

Clive has also sent us some additional photos of a Ditchburn Car Badge that he made and also of his pack of Ditchburn playing cards, that used to be given to the pubs for use by customers.