History of Neville Apprentices

At Neville’s we have been offering apprenticeships since 1881 – our first apprentice was Arthur Cawdell – a carpenter joiner – who was indentured at the time for a 50 hour week at three shillings a week.

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His indenture is typical of the time, stating that he must not ‘waste the Goods of his Master nor lend them unlawfully to any, he shall not contract Matrimony within the said term, shall not play at Cards or Dice Tables or any other unlawful Games whereby his said Master may have any loss … he shall not haunt taverns or playhouses…’

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Whilst the group is still a sixth generation family owned and run business, today’s apprentices join a modern and forward thinking group of companies that remain committed to training and development, and we want all of our teams to have the opportunity to develop their existing skills and continually develop their own knowledge and skill base to be the best that they can be.

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It’s a testament to that fact, that we have a significant number of staff working for us that joined us as apprentices and have remained with us for their whole career – in March 2024, 34% of our 187 strong workforce have either trained or are training with us as apprentices, trainees or are new to their profession.