Good man: Paul's reflections on 50 years with our company

Paul Goodman works as an engineer in our East of England Network. On 1 September 2025, he reached 50 years of service with us. Here's his remarkable story.

I knew I didn’t want to work in an office, but apart from that I had no idea about what I really wanted to do, said Paul as he sits back in the meeting room at Bishop’s Stortford depot having just arrived after a quick Services Beyond the Meter detour on the way in.

I can remember going to a careers day at school and knowing that I wanted to do something with my hands. I think being a car mechanic was on my mind, but I was open to suggestions. I remember there being someone from the utilities company and he mentioned joining the gas board and I thought ‘okay then’.

As part of the process I had to carry out an aptitude test and then I went along to the interview with my dad which all went well, and I got offered an apprenticeship.

Work started on 1 September 1975 with Paul set to turn 17 two weeks later. He jumped on the bus to Albert Road, New Barnet, which was the main office for Eastern Gas at the time, and met the rest of the apprenticeship cohorts, and began his week induction.

It was then a case of deciding what you wanted to do. I didn’t want to be digging holes in the road, so I went down the customer service route which meant installing appliances, running gas pipes, service appliances, dealing with gas leaks and things like that.

As well as learning on the job, I ended up spending three years at Tottenham College of Technology. After all the training, I was deemed competent to go out and work by myself which is exactly what I did. And I’m still here today.

A lot has changed since Paul first started his working life and it isn’t something that he takes for granted.

People seem to forget that when I first started out, there were no gas detectors apart from the great big thing in the centre of your face.

We’d also be working in old places that might have four gas fires, a gas cooker, a gas fridge, and two wall heaters. All these had to be installed in some very old buildings, and you had no PPE, no dust masks, no goggles. You'd come to work in jeans and trainers, and that was it.

Another thing that’s changed is that a stipulation in my contract was that I had to have a bicycle and I was given 50p a week to maintain it. Thankfully, I got a van, but I remember seeing these old engineers who had welded paniers on the backs of their bikes that they used to put their toolboxes in. If we ever spotted them out and about, we’d always pop the bike in the van and drive them off to wherever they were going.

On call is also something that’s changed. You used to have to have an interview if you wanted to be on the call out rota, then every four weeks you’d do a normal day's work then, much as today, you’d be on call. Difference is that there were no mobile phones, so the phone in the hallway of my mum and dad’s house would go off instead and I’d be running downstairs trying to answer it.

When I got married, I made sure my wife knew this was going to happen. When new neighbours moved in, I’d always nip around to tell them they may hear my van going off at 3am in the morning and not to worry. I’ve been on call since 1979 and it’s something you just get used to.

Paul spent 20 years working with Eastern Gas and British Gas before the split happened. Following his ‘aspirations’ interview, Paul was assigned to Transco and found himself being based out of Harlow and then Bishop’s Stortford.

Following the split, it turned out that none of our training records had been passed over, so we all had to prove that we were really gas engineers. We jumped through hoops to do so, but I also kept on learning and in 2003, I qualified as an industrial commercial engineer which meant I could deal with large gas meters and pipework. It’s proven to be extremely useful as I still get calls from colleagues who unearth these huge meters and don’t know what to do. They just give me a call.

To this day, Paul continues his learning journey at Cadent with his most recent being with the Services Beyond the Meter (SBtM) team.

It’s taken me all around the East of England and it’s really rewarding carrying out SBtM work as you know you are making a big difference to people who genuinely need a bit of help.

There have also been a fair few highlights across Paul’s career. Getting to cut off Paul Gascoigne’s supply when a carpenter drilled through a pipe was certainly memorable, but the one that really stood out was turning up at Bernie Winter’s home to sort out an issue with the boiler on the same day a photoshoot was taking place with Schnorbitz, the large Saint Bernard dog who was Bernie’s other comic partner.

So, what is it that keeps Paul working at 67 years old following a 50-year career in the gas industry?

I’ve never thought about leaving. There is so much variety in the work we do, and I thoroughly enjoy it. I don’t have any ardent hobbies, pass times or passions aside from my family obviously. I play golf very badly. I haven’t got an MG Midget in the garage. Even my wife says that my job is my hobby, and I’m lucky to have that.

Besides, if I did ever leave and started staying at home, I think my wife would probably kill me!