UNDER a pile of rubbish on a long-disused ward for patients with dementia, a remarkable tale of achievement half a century old lay waiting to be rediscovered.

Two weeks ago while clearing out the building at St Bernard's Hospital in Hanwell, maintenance fitter Graham Evans stumbled upon a dusty binder full of black and white photographs, typewritten notepaper and hand-illustrated cards.

The yellowed pages describe, in laborious detail from start to finish, an innovative project to get 'juveniles' building houses from scratch in Hanwell in 1946.

The apprenticeship scheme clearly had the attention of senior figures in local and central government, coming at a time after the war when housing was in desperately short supply, and the enthusiasm for what was being attempted is evident throughout the folder.

It appears to have been put together by Arthur Scott, chief instructor from a firm called G Holland and Sons, who was brought in to run the apprentice master scheme on behalf of the Ministry of Works.

An introductory sheet proudly states: "With an average of nine Lads, No 29 and No 31, Townholme Crescent, Hanwell, were rebuilt entirely, between October 20, 1946 and August 16, 1947.

"Four flats ready and four more well on the way to completion, in Gifford Gardens, Hanwell. Average

18 Lads from 15 to 18 years of age, and all in less than 10 months."

Under the heading 'dead end boys', it continues: "Without such a scheme, whereby a lad gets fair money during his training, and where during his training he produces something very substantial, where would these lads be today?"

Dozens of photographs illustrate every phase of the construction of the houses and reveal how the young apprentices were given lessons on

site, using a blackboard and a piece of chalk, before attempting the work themselves.

The idea of young men building homes from scratch was clearly daunting for one pupil from the nearby Cuckoo Secondary Boys School, who wrote to the chief instructor after being given a tour of the project, cheekily signing the letter 'A Carpenter'.

It reads: "To be quite frank, when most of us chosen were told that we were to visit the site we were not very keen to go.

"After all, we thought, who wants to tramp about a muddy building site listening to lectures all afternoon when we should be having our organised games period (football) which we only get once a week?"

But it continues: "Inside the first house which we entered, we were told it had been constructed entirely by apprentices. This completely amazed us. All of us had visions of ourselves and friends building such a house, but we could not imagine the boys with whom we grew up tackling such a

task, as had happened with the apprentices, not much older than ourselves."

Among the other episodes charted in detail in Mr Scott's account are a visit by Sir George Gater of the Ministry of Works, an indoor training session about the complexities of roofing, and the proud raising of the Union Flag as the final touches - the chimney pots - were cemented on to one of the houses.

The recovered history remains for the time being at St Bernard's, having been pieced back into chronological order by Mr Evans, who hopes to reunite it with the family of whoever left it on the ward. He believes it may have been brought in to try to help

jog the memory of a patient suffering from dementia years ago.

"It was in a cupboard under a sink, under piles of rubbish, and it looked like it had been there for donkeys' years," he said.

"Looking at the lads in the pictures and the way they dress, it reminds me of my uncle on building sites years later. The fashion didn't change for 20 or 30 years.

"Anyone who was an apprentice then must be long-time retired, if not long-time dead. But there must be some relations out there."

Do you have any connection with the Hanwell apprenticeship project? If so email danhodges@trinity south.co.uk.