Manufacturing history of Wales

Coal, iron ore, copper and tin were the raw materials that made Wales key to the British industrial revolution. Slate from North Wales covered many British roofs. Before all of this Wales was predominantly agricultural with an economy revolving around annual fairs and periodic local markets. Woollen cloth was woven from locally reared sheep in very much a cottage industry. There were big land owners but no great wealth.

There was a massive coal field bordered by Merthyr Tydfil in the north, Kidwelly in the west and Pontypool in the East reaching the coast in the south around Swansea bay and then heading inland eastward toward Caerphilly. Iron, copper and tin ore were also to be found. Landowners and occupiers would access coal and other minerals close to the surface essentially for their own use; there was simply not the transport to trade further afield. War changed this settled picture with increased demand particularly for iron. Technical developments were crucial: the blast furnace, Darby's discovery of how coal could be used to smelt ore and Cort's puddling method for wrought iron. In relation to coal, it was Newcomen and then Watt who enabled the sinking of ever deeper pits. The canals offered vital transport; the image is of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. A.H. John in his The Industrial Development of South Wales 1750-1850 highlights the remarkable fact that the capital to develop coal, tin and copper mining came from England as did the funding of most of the iron industry. One result of this was that the Welsh iron industry in particular was in much larger units that the contemporary businesses in industrial England.

Further reading: A.H. John, The Industrial Development of South Wales 1750-1850 (Cardiff: Merton Priory Press,1995, 1950)

Thomas Telford's Menai Bridge

Merthyr Tydfil

Once known as the Iron Capital of the World, Merthyr was home to the Dowlais Foundry and Engineering Company which made iron using the Northern Coal measures some twenty miles inland of Cardiff and Newport. It became part of GKN and I write about this in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World. In the nearby village of Hirwaun, Radio and Allied had a manufacturing base in a former Royal Ordnance Factory; this would be the start of Arnold Weinstock's long relationship with GEC and I write of this in Vehicles to Vaccines. I write more on Merthyr in this link.

Ebbw Vale

Ebbw Vale Steelworks was at one time the largest in Europe. It had moved from using local ore for iron production to ore from Middlesbrough and Northampton to make steel, the local ore being unsuitable for steel making. In 1920, the steel works had employed 34,000 people but had then declined and closed in 1929. As a result of a government initiative, Richard Thomas & Co, the biggest tinplate manufacturer, took over the steel works and production of tinplate expanded not least for the growing canning industry. In the thirties it introduced a wide strip mill which revolutionised production. The production of 5,000 tons a week was used in the adjoining tinplate works but also to be galvanised and corrugated. It was at one time under the control of the Darby family and had fought Bessemer over patent rights.

Newport

At the mouth of the river Usk, Newport remains a general cargo port. It has one of the few remaining transporter bridges which crossed the river. Historically, it exported coal and tinplate. Richard Thomas and Baldwins of Spencer Works, Llanwern was set up to produce tinplate taking advantage of the proximity of the coast and hence the ease of imports. The Inmos semiconductor factory was built here and later became Newport Wafer Fab.

Cwmbran

A new town designated after the Second World War. Ferranti based their software development, naval and civil computer systems there. Lucas managed a shadow factory making aircraft turrets, and later Girling made shock absorbers. As a new town it provided home for some workers at the nearby Panteg steelworks.

Pontypool

British Nylon Spinners opened a factory in 1947 to produce nylon yarn. Pilkington Brothers had a glass works there.

Glascoed

BAE Systems' former Royal Ordnance munitions factory is the major manufacturing employer.

Cardiff

The capital city of Wales. In 1891, the Dowlais Company set up steel making at East Moors to have better access to imported ore, its reserves at Merthyr Tydfill being unsuitable for steel making. The company had acquired suitable iron ore reserves at Bilbao in Spain. A Royal Ordnance engineering armaments factory was based here in the Second World War and produced 21,200 guns including 7,250 tank guns and 1875 anti-tank guns. Matsushita TV factory was set up in the sixties. Robert Bosch set up a factory in nearby Pontyclun Miskin Business Park but left in 2011 when the space was taken by Renishaw for Healthcare product manufacturing. Also in healthacre, Amersham International had a presence here. The Royal Mint is at Llantrisant.

Bridgend

Sony set up a TV factory here. I write in Vehicles to Vaccines about the encouragement government gave to Japanese manufacturers. Ford set up a motor factory here in 1980 and a supply chain gathered including machine tools makers, mostly SMEs.

Swansea

The home of tinplating and related steel production largely because of its status as a major commercial centre. You can read much more by following this link

Port Talbot

The Steel Company of Wales's Abbey Works at Port Talbot was huge. It stemmed from the success of Siemens in steel making for tinplate at nearby Swansea. In 1831 William Llewellyn founded the Aberdulais tinplate works. The steel works now owned by Tata is in process of conversion to smelting with electric arc furnaces.

Llanelli

A centre for lead, copper (after 1804), and tinplate (after 1847). Llanelli also became a port for the anthracite coalfield. South Wales produced nearly all the anthracite mined in the UK. A large cold-reduction mill at Trostre, using steel strip from Port Talbot, made Llanelli again a centre of tinplate manufacture, primarily for packaging. The town also has a small steel fabrication industry. TNT was manufactured in the Second World War at the Royal Ordnance factory at Pembrey on the South Wales coast between Llanelly and Kidwelly. Covering five hundred acres of dunes, it was originally owned and run  by Nobel before being taken over by the War Office in the First World War. Pembrey also had a shell filling factory. The Japanese Calsonic Kansei (Marelli) set up a car components plant.

Pembroke

For over a century of active service, the Royal Dockyard saw the construction of five Royal Yachts and 263 other Royal Naval vessels. The last ship built there was launched in April 1922. The Valero Oil refinery was established by Chevron in 1964 and taken over by Valero in 2011.

Milford Haven

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the town was one of the main UK fishing ports employing some 4,000 people. The Suez crisis of the fifties led to the use of much larger oil tankers for which new terminals were required. Milford Haven fitted the bill and the Esso Oil Refinery opened in 1960 to be followed by BP in 1961, Regent (now Valero) in 1964, Gulf in 1968 and finally Elf in 1973.

Newtown

The wool industry had been significant in Wales since the time of the Cistercian monks in the twelfth century. Fulling mills began to appear wherever there was fast running water and by the late nineteenth century there were 250 mills in west Wales. Also in the nineteenth century Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones opened a large woollen mill in Newtown selling by mail order. I wrote of current wool manufacture in Melin Tregwynt in Vehicles to Vaccines. Foxford woollen mills founded in 1892 in county Mayo is one of the few remaining mills.

Flint

The first artificial silk mill, the Aber Works, was opened in Holywell by a German company in 1907. The First World War saw its German employees interned and the mill was taken over by Courtaulds to manufacture rayon as it became known. Further mills were added: the Castle Works and Deeside Mill. The mills employed thousands so much so that the Flint football team were known as the Silkmen. Production ceased in 1980.

Deeside

There was John Summers and Son’s Steelworks on Deeside which closed in 1980. Toyota engine plant built in the early 1990s to supply the Burnaston assembly plant.

Broughton (North Wales)

Vickers set up a factory at Broughton in 1940 producing Wellingtons and Lancasters. A Broughton built Lancaster now forms part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. After the War, the factory was bought by de Havilland, producing the very successful Mosquito. In the 1960s, the company became part of Hawker-Siddeley Aviation, before becoming part of British Aerospace in 1977. Today, the Broughton facility is owned by the multi-nationally owned Airbus and is one of the biggest employers in the area, producing wing components

Wrexham

The town boasts the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal designed by Thomas Telford (shown in the image). The steel works at nearby Brymbo was founded in 1796 and was only closed in 1990. At one time it experimented with a method of making steel from high phosphorous ore. The Royal Ordnance factory producing cordite closed after the Second World War. Wrexham attracted new industries, including engineering, packaging, pharmaceuticals, electronics, optical fibres and chemicals. In 1978 Kellogg created a new manufacturing plant which was to take over production from Trafford Park in Manchester. JCB manufactures transmissions at a factory here.

Llandudno

Some of the first British copper mines were on the Great Orme, one of the hills bordering the seaside town. Inland was the great slate mining district.

Anglesea

Once the largest copper mine in the world. There is evidence of a Roman presence here for it was the place they defeated the Druids. Robert Stephenson built the bridge over the Menai Strait connecting London to Dublin by train and sea. He followed the wrought-iron and stone suspension bridge built by Thomas Telford in 1826 as part of the post road linking the two capitals.

200,000 visits to British Manufacturing History

 Thank you, my many visitors. I hope that you find my logs of interest. This is my quest to understand the story of British manufacturing and how it shaped this island nation. 

You can find more on this link

Coming soon will be an index to companies and industries

The site of the First World War shell filling factory at Chilwell near Nottingham which would be re-purposed as the Army Centre for Mechanisation in the Second World War. Like so much  of industry this covered green fields. It has since been repurposed once more for housing.

Manufacturing in southwest England

 Cornwall was the source of valuable metals, until more accessible reserves were found elsewhere and so a very much part of the Industrial Revolution. The image is of South Cornwall. Continuing the metals theme, I am taking the Southwest to include the English part of the Forest of Dean as well as the counties south and west of Bristol.

Cheltenham and Gloucester

The Romans installed garrisons at strategic towns across England and Gloucester was one. In medieval times and probably earlier, iron ore was found and was smelted with charcoal from the nearby Forest of Dean. At nearby Temple Guiting the Knights Templar set up one of the first fulling mills in the twelfth century. The two towns were later famous for their contribution to aircraft production. Read more by following this link.

Wotton-under-Edge

Home to Renishaw plc and McMurtry Automotive

Dursley

RA Lister made agricultural machinery and diesel engines

Bristol

Home to the early days of shipbuilding through its trading links and from these to WD & HO Wills cigarettes and Fry’s Chocolate. In the eighteenth century, Bristol was a centre of Zinc production from ore mined in the Mendips. You can read more in this link.

Bath

Harbutts plasticine was made at Bathampton. In the Second World War Bristol manufactured aircraft at a shadow factory built in a disused quarry in nearby Corsham where there was also an underground ammunition storage depot. Rotork's Brassmill Lane factory was built in 1961 and is now the HQ of a global business serving the energy industry. I also spied a Rotork motor powering locks on the River Nene. The Bathford paper mill dating back to the eighteenth century became owned by Portals the security printer and is its last remaining mill in the UK.

Trowbridge

Former home of Bowyers sausages, later joined with C&T Harris of nearby Calne as part of Northern Foods. Not to be confused with Harris sausages of London, the sausage king. Nestle and General Foods make Shredded Wheat and Cheerios.

Melksham

Home of the Avon Rubber factory. G Plan Upholstery moved here from High Wycombe.

Malmsbury

In the twelfth century one of the first fulling mills was established at nearby Heycroft.

Chippenham

Evans O'Donnell set up a railway signal works in 1897 and six years later merged with the Kilburn firm of Saby and Farmer which moved all manufacturing to Chippenham. Westinghouse Brake and Signal bought the combined business and moved from their London factory in 1932. It was bought by Hawker Siddeley in 1979 subsequently becoming part of BTR, Invensys. It is now part of Siemens Mobility rail infrastructure

Weston Super Mare

Bristol Beaufighters were produced at a shadow factory in the Second World War at nearby Old Mixon

Bridgewater

British Cellophane manufactured here from the 1930s until 2005. I was a joint venture between Courtaulds and La Cellophane SA

Taunton

Home to cider. Read more in this link.

Axminster

Carpets have been made here for over 250 years and are still woven in Devon. Machine tool manufacturer JH Shand moved from London in 1940 and carried out crucial tooling work including for the Spitfire.

Honiton

A Drake and Gorman, Skull Ltd company made switchboards. Radio-Intercom made baby alarm systems.

Newton Abbot

Centrax, with 2,000 employees, made gas turbine blades for Bristol Olympus aero-engines and mobile transformers and generating sets. The area is also a major producer of ball clay.

Paignton

STC moved here from Ilminster where it had moved during the Second World War.

Street

Where Clarks shoes were manufactured. I write more in this link.

Chard

Home to Numatic International manufacturer of the Henry vacuum cleaner

Yeovil

Home to Westland (now Leonardo) Helicopters and BAE Systems digital intelligence. You can read more in this link.

Cheddar

Home to Showerings Babycham, once again owned by the Showerings family. Cheddar cheese is made in a number of places including Redruth and Froome. The major producer Dairy Crest is now owned by the Canadian Saputo. It was previously the processing arm of the milk marketing board.

Wellington

Home to woollens manufacturer Fox Bros.

Weymouth

The first recorded incidence of the Black Death was recorded here in June 1348. The plague spread and killed perhaps half the population. With too much work for too few people and strict control of wages the poor suffered

Exeter

Was a major centre of the wool trade. It now is home to a top university and a vibrant service economy.

Tiverton

Home to John Heathcoat textiles.

Oakhampton

In the nearby Taw Valley the farmers co-op Arla are investing in a creamery to make Mozzarella.

Launceston

In nearby Lifton, Ambrosia Creamed Rice has been made since 1917. It is now owned ny Premier Foods.

Delebole

Slate is still extracted here

Plymouth

In 1859 Isambard Kingdom Brunel extended his Great Western Railway across the Tamar bridge into Devon and Cornwall. The Royal Naval Dockyard, later known as Devonport Dock Yard, was created in Plymouth in the late seventeenth century. As well as shipbuilding the city attracted technology companies. You can read more by following the link.

Appledore near Bideford

Home to Appledore shipbuilders currently owned by Harland & Wolff

St Austell

English China Clays was the major producer of china clay in Cornwall and also manufactured related building products. The Eden Project now occupies former clay mining quarries. Before china clay the St Austell area was extensively mined for metla. I write more in this link.

Camborne and Redruth

Cornwall was exporting the tin mined here as early as 1,300 BC. Copper and silver were also mined. In the eighteenth century Cornwall was mining the metals demanded by the industrial revolution. You can read more in this link. At nearby Upton Towans from 1888 the National Explosives Company manufactured dynamite and other explosives. They later joined 29 other companies in Nobel Industries Limited

Callington

Ginsters pasties and sausage rolls made here, now owned by Samworth Brothers of Melton Mowbray.

Truro

The cathedral city of Truro is home to Kensa Ground Source Heat Pumps. These pumps are already installed in a number of projects including the replacement of night storage heaters in three tower blocks in Thurrock, Essex.

Falmouth

The town was the busiest port in Cornwall importing wine and timber, exporting tin and pilchards. Along with this, the town's businesses supplied services to shipping including the Packet Service set up on 1689 to take post to Spain and beyond when the overland route through France was disturbed once more by war. Alongside ship repair, ships were built until 1930. Now A&P operate the largest ship repair facility in Britain, and Pendennis Shipyard offers a specialist repair facility for yachts.

Manufacturing in central southern England

 The central strip of southern England running south from Milton Keynes to the Isle of Wight has a surprisingly ancient manufacturing history as well as being home to much contemporary hi-tech innovation.

Milton Keynes

A new town designated in 1967 hosts the Red Bull motor sport team. You can read more about the Milton Keynes story by following this link.

Towcester

Plessey opened their R&D facility at Caswell House. Silverstone circuit with Aston Martin F1 and a host of small supporting hi-tech business are nearby. Silverstone is very much the heart of 'Motorsport Valley', stretching from south of Birmingham through Oxfordshire and which contains most of the British motorsport industry.

Banbury

Home to Haas F1 motor sport team. Follow this link to read more of what came before.

Bedford

At nearby Old Warden is Shuttleworth Hall which exhibits old aircraft and other production of the Lincoln firm of Clayton & Shuttleworth

Brackley

Historically a staple and then coaching down. Now home to Mercedes motor sport and supporting engineering business. Also food companies including Avara Foods formed in 2018 from a merger between Cargill Uk and Faccenda.

Kidlington

YASA, a subsidiary of Mercedes is developing electric motors for EVs.

Oxford

Just outside Oxford, at Cowley, William Morris set up Morris motors. It became a major car making centre, adding specialist Pressed Steel and a whole supply chain. The site is now occupied by BMW Mini. The University is a major collaborator with British industry. Read more in this link.

Harwell

Harwell is home to the Space Cluster a centre of research built on seventy-five years of research beginning with the Atomic Energy Research Establishment.

Didcot

Once home to a vast Ordnance Depot, It is also the caretaker of the Great Western Railway heritage.

Abingdon

The town was home to MG cars before manufacturing and ownership left for China. It is now home to Oxford Instruments who manufacture hi-tec research equipment.

Wantage

Birthplace of Alfred the Great. Now Williams motor sport F1 team is based at nearby Grove.

Leighton Buzzard

In the twenties the American foundation garment manufacturer, Gossard, set up in the town. It would later achieve independence as a British public company only to fall into the hands of Courtaulds some years later. In the late twentieth century Hone All Precision set up here to provide high specification parts for aerospace and related industries.

Aylesbury

Ecko relocated part of is manufacturing during the Second World War. Glaxo set up manufacturing here after the war.

Swindon

Famously a railway town. I tell much more in this link.

Reading

Home to Huntley and Palmers biscuit factory. I tell its story in this link.

Guildford

Home to Dennis Commercial vehicles famous for their patented worm-driven rear axle, introduced in 1904. . The successor company which manufactures electric buses has a new factory in Farnborough. Like Godalming and Kingston, it was a centre of tanning.

Godalming

In 1881, Siemens Brothers installed a small generating station at Godalming in Surrey powered by water from the river Wey.

Woking

In the nineteenth century a number of paper mills and print works were founded; one became part of the Staples Group. Ken Wood began his kitchen appliance business here before moving to Havant. The Maclaren Technology Centre is based here.

Weybridge

Home to Brooklands Race Track aircraft manufacture and testing. Read more in this link.

Kingston upon Thames

A Surrey town close to London. Historically home to tanners. In the twentieth century it was aircraft and support for the war effort that re-created the economy. Home to Hawker-Siddeley. Read more in this link.

Farnborough

Home to the British aircraft industry with the Royal Aircraft Factory and subsequently the Royal Aircraft Establishment. Vickers had their Balloon factory there for early airships. I write more in this link.

Farnham

In nearby Waverley Abbey Cistercian monks made their first settlement in the twelfth century. Their impact would be huge for they were skilled at agriculture particularly the breeding of sheep. Sheep had been brought from the Middle East at around 3,000 BC and were present in many parts of the country. As the Cistercians spread they cleared the land sometimes of whole villages to expand their flocks. They became the most significant woolgrowers in the land. In the fourteenth century there were estimated to be eight million sheep in England compared to five million people.

Bracknell

One of the new towns designated after the Second World War. ICI set up its agricultural research laboratory here, now owned by Syngenta. ICL had a presence in the town with a large office block, now the Fujitsu HQ. Now a technological hub and the home to Rowney Artist materials. Read more by following the link.

Basingstoke

Original home to Burberry raincoats. Thornycroft commercial vehicles were made here. Read more by following the link.

Winchester

The ancient capital of King Arthur and Alfred the Great was buried in the cathedral. Winchester, like many English towns, was a centre of the wool industry which drove the English economy in the Middle Ages. It was a staple town as indicated by the presence of wool weights dating from the 1350s. Nothing lasts and as elsewhere wool work moved from the city to the surrounding rural areas. In the fifteenth century there was a move away from narrow worsted cloth to much heavier woollen fulled broadcloth. This much larger cloth required more space and more people. It also attracted a higher price and was in demand in export markets as well as at home. This was good for the English economy but less so for the towns and cities which lost workers.

Salisbury

The city was a centre of the wool trade and at nearby Wilton carpets are still made.

Gosport

For centuries, home to support for the Royal Navy. The town’s shipbuilding skills were importantly directed also to the building of yachts. Related maritime electronics brought necessary skills to Ferguson television.

Havant

Kenwood kitchen appliances were made here, later bought by Thorn. They moved from Woking in 1962.

Fareham

A town supplying the shipyards of Portsmouth. Read more in this link.

Romsey

Plessey's Roke Manor Research opened in 1956 with a focus on military communications.

Southampton

A major port not least for the age of the great transatlantic liners. Read more by following the link.

Eastleigh

Railway workshops were built here at the end of the nineteenth century and found increased activity in the interwar years with the southern region electrification.

Portsmouth

The Royal dockyards were by the mid eighteenth century the 'greatest industrial power in the world'. Read more by following this link.

Chichester

Rolls-Royce Motors have a large manufacturing complex on the Goodwood Estate. Chichester itself was home to Shippams producer of meat and fish pastes.

Bournemouth and Christchurch

Plessey took over the site of the MOD Signals Research and Development Establishment.

Isle of Wight

Plessey Radar was manufactured here. Britten-Norman began manufacture of light aircraft in the sixties then moved overseas and have recently re-shored production. Saunders Roe manufactured seaplanes and hovercraft. Vestas manufacture wind turbine blades. Read more by following this link.

South East England manufacturing history

 The south east, mirroring Metroland, welcomed businesses moving out of London and the many new businesses setting up with good access to airports and seaports, plus importantly inward investment largely from the USA. Historically Kent and Sussex had contained the Weald which was the birth place of Britain's iron industry. In common with much of the country these counties were also home to millions of sheep and so wool played a big part in their economy. The image is of the Brighton pavilion domes depicted in one of the windows on Brighton pier.

Reigate and Redhill

Home to Windmills, Redland Tiles and Monotype. I write more in this link.

Crawley

One of the new towns designated after the Second World War. These towns were intended to have a good number of SME manufacturing businesses and looking at Dun & Bradstreet, Crawley would seem to be an exemplar. I write more on Crawley in this link. In nearby Brockham, in 1945 the Beecham Research Laboratories were established and in 1947 moved to a bespoke site open by Sir Alexander Fleming.

Chiddingford and Wealden Glass making

It is possible that Romans made glass in Britain but the evidence points more to its being imported. The first evidence of British glass making is to be found in 1226 in the village of Chiddingford where Laurence Vitearius was granted 20 acres of land in which he made window glass probably for Salisbury Cathedral. I write more about the British glass story in this link.

Heathfield and Wealden Iron and Gun casting

Home to the iron foundry of the Fuller family where they cast cannon for the Board of Ordnance. I write more of the Wealden Iron and Gun casting industry in this link.

Buxted

The first blast furnace to be installed in England in 1491. Much later the mass production of poultry.

Horsham

At one time home to five breweries.

East Grinstead

At nearby Gravetye, iron masters cast cannon. Rolls-Royce manufactures mtu engines for military vehicles.

Brighton

A classic nineteenth century seaside resort much loved by Londoners with easy access by railway. The town did try to attract manufactures. Allen West electrical engineers was probably the largest with 4,000 employees during the Second World War, working on radar and other electronics. It became part of the American GE. Brighton is now home to a good number of designer makers.

KENT

Crayford

Crayford was first home to Maxim Nordenfeldt and machine gun production in the First World War. I write more in this link.

Erith

Home to British Insulated Callender's Cables which created much of the national grid. You can read more in this link.

Dartford

In 1889 the Wellcome Chemical Works set up their first factory in Dartford in 1889 and that remained their main UK manufacturing base. Home to the Portland cement industry. I write more in this link.

Gravesend and Northfleet

Home to a Bowater paper mill, now part of Kimberly Clark, and more generally on the Thames the Blue Circle cement works.

The Medway Towns: Gillingham, Rochester and Chatham

Chatham was home to the Royal Dockyards with everything needed to build and maintain naval ships. HMS Victory had been built there. Shorts built Stirling bombers in Rochester in the Second World War. You can read much more by following this link.

Sittingbourne

Edward Lloyd set up a paper mill here once the water of the Lea became too polluted for the original mill at Bow. DS Smith Kemsley Paper Mill formerly Bowater manufactures from recycled paper.

Canterbury

Nearby Chartham was home to paper making owned by Wiggins Teape.

Maidstone

Birthplace of the Rootes Motor Group. Nearby Harrietsham was home to Marley tiles. I write more in this link.

Horsmonden

Brass cannon were cast here largely for the navy because they were lighter than iron. Later iron took over on the grounds of cost.

Cranbrook

Famous for its heavy woollen cloth

Ashford

Railway workshops were built here in 1847. With the introduction of diesel electric in the 1950s the future of the worksop became uncertain and other industries were encouraged to move to the town.

Margate

Home to the Hornby factory from the fifties making model railways, Dinky toys and Meccano.

Dover

The major cross-channel port.

Metroland manufacturing history

 John Betjemin used the term to describe those areas made accessible to London by the building of the extensions to the London Underground. For me it also describes those areas just outside and to the north of the Thames in what were in my childhood referred to as the Home Counties. The image is of a model of a tube station at Bekonscot in Beaconsfield. From the point of view of manufacturing history, it was where many business moved out of London. It was home to New Towns.

Luton

Where Vauxhall moved from south London; in the Second World War, they manufactured Churchill tanks here. Commer trucks were made here and later became part of the Rootes Group. Also Lucas Aerospace had a presence along with a former English Electric factory beside Luton Airport. The town's origin was in hat making. You can read more in this blog piece.

Dunstable

Home of Bedford, the commercial vehicle arm of Vauxhall with a main base at nearby Luton.

Hertford and Ware

Glaxo bought Allen & Hanbury which had its main manufacturing facility at nearby Ware having moved from Bethnal Green . Follow this link to find out more.

Letchworth

The first Garden City before the First World War. You can read more by following this link

Baldock

A town founded by the Knights Templar with the intention of making it the English Baghdad. Nonetheless it was a busy market town known for its malting and brewing.

Royston

The world’s first catalysts to control vehicle pollution were produced at Johnson Matthey’s Royston plant

Hitchin

A town, the product of its soil. Read more by following this link.

Stevenage

One of the new towns designated after the Second World War. Now home to GSK, Airbus and MBDA the missile joint venture between BAE Systems, Airbus and Leonardo. Stevenage has been given the nickname Space City recognising its role in satellite manufacture. You can read more by following this link.

Radlett

EMI set up a factory to manufacture its CAT scanner. Handley Page aircraft moved to nearby Radlett Aerodrome from Cricklewood and manufactured many great aircraft before falling into voluntary liquidation in 1969.

Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield

One of the first designated new towns which became home to Shredded Wheat, Murphy television and a Unilever research laboratory for food stuffs. Nearby Hatfield was home to de Havilland aircraft which later became part of Hawker Siddeley and then BAE Systems; production ceased in 1992. Read more by following this link.

Harlow

One of the new towns designated after the Second World War, former home to the Edison Swan Laboratory as a legacy of their joint venture in incandescent bulbs. In the sixties Gilbey's Gin built a striking new factory moving its production from London. Follow this link to find out more.

Hemel Hempstead

This was one of the new towns designated after the Second World War building on the substantial and long standing John Dickinson paper mill at nearby Aspley Mill You can find more by following this link.

Watford

The home of printing. You can read more by following this link.

St Albans

Before the Roman invasion, Verulamium (St Albans) was capital of Catuvellauni under king Cunobelinus (brought to life for us by Shakespeare in his play Cymbeline). It was occupied by the Romans and destroyed by Bodeca.

Waltham Abbey

The Royal Gunpowder Factory was here.

Borehamwood

During the Second World War the Admiralty enabled Elliott Brothers to take a redundant fuse factory in order to increase their production of fire control systems. Elliott Automation, as it became following a merger, was in 1957 the largest automation and instrumentation company in Europe, with some 35,000 employees. They are one of the few companies still active in the fifties who exhibited at the Great Exhibition; then they offered drawing instruments, theodolites, transit instruments, slide-rule, azimuth and altitude instruments. During the war, Elliott had worked with the navy on fire control and had developed electro-mechanical devices. In 1947, Elliott created their Borehamwood Research Laboratory and there pursued an advanced digital system building on their earlier naval work. They became part of GEC Avionics. Ugo Foods, manufacturers of pasta, moved from Holloway in 1998 where the company moved in 1952 having set up in Soho in 1929.

Slough

Home to light industry and much inward investment. Read more by following this link.

High Wycombe

Home of furniture making including Gomme with their famous G Plan, and William Hands. You can read more by following this link.

Princess Risborough

Ercol furniture moved their offices, design and factory here from High Wycombe in 2002.

Denham

Home to Martin-Baker ejector seats for aircraft and Bosch UK.

Beaconsfield

Rotax (part of Lucas) moved magneto production here after its Willesden factory was bombed in the Second World War. Wiggins Teape research centre was founded at Butlers Court. Perkin Elmer made instruments in the town.

Amersham

Home to the nuclear diagnostic company that bore the towns name and which became part of GE Healthcare whose UK HQ is at nearby Chalfont St Giles.

Hayes

Fairey Aviation was founded here in 1915. The Gramophone company set up in 1906 and would become part of EMI. You can read more by following this link.

Uxbridge

The town that made the flour for London's bakers. You can read more by following this link.

London region manufacturing overview

 London was the first and largest urban area in the world and naturally attracted industries that would serve the needs of its ever growing population.

I write of the growth of London in the context of improvements in communication in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World (HBSTMW)

The image is of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and I include it because it marks a beginning of London as an entrepreneurial city as I explain in this blog piece.

Inner London

Where it all began with trade. Wool and silk occupied many Londoners as did clock making and furniture. Follow this link to discover more.

East London

Docklands and the East End. Trade needed ships and London built many. Along with ships, London made armaments at Woolwich. Follow this link to discover more.

South London

Tanning by the Thames created a stink. Flour and beer nourished the population. Huguenots produced more fine silk. Follow this link to discover more. .

East London 19th and 20th century

With yet more trade the docks expanded. Furniture making spread with the influx of skilled Jewish makers. Industry gathered along the Thames. Read more in this link.

South London 19th and 20th century

A hive of cutting edge engineering with Maudslay. Pharmaceuticals, much loved toys and the Stanley knife. Read more in this link.

Inner London 19th and 20th century

Pianos but also many of the basic needs of life, but then the new Industries before they moved out to pastures new. Read more in this link.

North London

Manufacturing moved north from inner London and there a raft of different industries from electronics to aircraft, furniture and motor components. Read more in this link.

West London 19th and 20th century

American companies flocked to Western Avenue and the Great West Road. Our iconic aircraft were built in Kingston and then radar to spot their enemies. Read more in this link.

Further reading

Francis Sheppard, London: A History, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)

Jerry White, London in the Twentieth Century, (London: Viking and Penguin, 2001, 2002), also his  book on Nineteenth century London

West London manufacturing history

 The twenties and in some cases earlier saw the establishment of the new motor and electrical industries on the periphery of London and near to the river. Investment by foreign companies became more visible. The thirties in particular witnessed strong growth in manufacturing in London and its surroundings and I explore these and related population increases in an essay I wrote entitled Which urban areas did well in the interwar years and why. The companies employing the growing population were in the new industries.

Greenford and Northolt

London had an estimated 400,000 horses and the three parishes supplied hay and received in return the horse manure.The borough gained importance with the arrival of the Grand Junction canal and brickworks sent many thousands of bricks for the house building boom. The Paddington basin acted as distribution centre.

The beginning of factory production came with William Perkins aniline dye works where he produced purple, mauve and magenta which were much in demand. The business was succeeded by the Purex Lead company making paint and the Peerless Wire Fencing company. The Rockware Glass Syndicate was located by the canal and was joined by the British Bath Company and Lyons Tea. Sanderson produced fashionable wall paper including designs by William Morris. The Aladdin Factory made lights and heaters.

In the Second World War there was a vast Central Ordnance Depot handling armaments. It would play a key role in the invasion of northern France. I write about it in this link. In the First World War there had been a shell filling factory employing the latest techniques.

in 1947 Glaxo Laboratories, which had outgrown its parent company Joseph Nathan & Co, became a significant business in its own right. It had built a strong balance sheet with production facilities at Greenford but also Barnard Castle, Stratford and Aylesbury. It then built a factory for the production of penicillin at Ulverston near Morecombe.

By 1939 Lyons employed more than 42,000 people and made 3.5 million gallons of ice-cream a year. It supplied the forces, but it too maintained the morale of the nation as well as lending its management expertise to the Royal Ordnance Factories.

Brompton bicycles are made here

Brentford and the western approaches to London

Brentford had been an early industrial area benefitting from good communications. The Grand Union canal meets the Thames at Brentford and handled a huge amount of trade between the Midlands and London. So there were market gardens, tanners, soap works, brewers and distillers, jam makers, kilns and mills.

Much later, the Western approaches to London attracted inward investment including Hoover and Gillette, but also Firestone, Pyreen, Smiths Crisps, Alvis and Macleans at Brentford. The Firestone factory was considered the finest of the Art Deco buildings on the Great West Road. Western Avenue was also home to radio maker Ultra's art deco factory. The American car makers Packard had their vehicles assembled by Leonard Williams. Brentford Nylons was a late arrival in 1970 but closed six years later.

Chiswick was where John Thornycroft began his ship building business and built for the navy the first torpedo boat. He went on to manufacture steam and then petrol powered wagons. The shipbuilding business moved to Southampton and vehicles to Basingstoke.

Isleworth is home to the Unilever research laboratory for toiletries.

Hammersmith

Barbara Denny’s Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush Past reveals industries that were probably to be found in many of the outlying areas of London. To meet the demand for lighting before gas and electricity there were large candle factories. To feed a hungry population, there were rabbit sheds which provided a regular supply to Leadenhall Market. Textiles were made is so many places and there had to be dye houses. In Hammersmith there was A. McCullock and Sons. The building industry was of course huge. Hammersmith had had its brick works and George Wimpey founded his stone masons company in 1896. There were gas engineers, crucible manufacturers supplying the Royal Mint, chair makers and pharmacists.

Lyons, Salmon and Gluckstein's, bakery and restaurant chain, at Cadby Hall were aware of developments in the new world of computing. They struck up a positive relationship with Wilkes and Cambridge mathematicians working on early computers. However the needs of academics were not those of a business seeking to process a large number of small transactions. Lyons therefore went their own way and this resulted in the Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) which proved effective but once more in this story failed to convince much of the commercial market. LEO was later bought by English Electric from which it would join with ICL.

Hammersmith also had an industrial alcohol distillery run by the Distillers Company. de Havilland began in Fulham before moving out to Hendon. Mullard radio components were at Hammersmith where also Osram light bulbs were made. In 1920 GEC had the Robertson Lamp Works, Hammersmith and the Osram-GEC Lamp Works, Hammersmith.

Paddington

A village at one end of the New Road which led into the northern part of central London where the Euston Road is now. It was also the link between the Grand Junction canal and the Regent Canal which follows a semi-circle north of London Zoo through to the East End where it meets the Thames. Paddington was also the terminus for the Great Western Railway. It followed that a large canal basin was built to handle the huge volume of trade.

Clement-Talbot were at nearby Ladbroke Grove (later the Rootes revolutionary service depot, Ladbroke Hall - see the post image)

The iconic Abbey Road studio, part of EMI, was further into London near Baker Street. EMI was also at Hayes. Bush set up their first television factory in Shepherds Bush.

Southwest London

To the southwest of London, the famous Brooklands race track near Weybridge, became the home of Vickers Armstrong Aircraft. It was there that Barnes Wallis designed the Wellesley bomber and then the iconic Wellington. I write more of this in this link.

Kingston upon Thames became home to Sopwith Aviation before the First World War and played a large part in the war effort in the air and on land in both world wars. It was later home to their successor Hawker Siddeley. I write more in this link.

Motor manufacturers included AEC at Southall and AC Cars at Thames Ditton where Willans & Robinson had made steam engines. The Associated Equipment Co Ltd had been registered on 13 June 1912 and took over the already busy bus chassis manufacturing business from its then owner, The London General Omnibus Company Ltd. In 1914, LGOC suffered the same fate as other vehicle manufacturers and operators, when 1,185 of its buses were pressed into use and soon could be seen transporting troops in France and Belgium. AEC began producing on its own account in June 1916 ,and, by the end of the war, had supplied 5,200 heavy duty 3 ton vehicles using the Tyler engine. In the Second World War AEC turned its production in wartime to Matador and Marshall heavy trucks which were used, amongst other things, for transporting pipes for the construction of oil pipelines.

Addlestone became home to Plessey Radar after its takeover of Decca in the mid sixties. The marine radar part of the Decca was taken over by Racal and they had a manufacturing presence in New Maldon. New Malden is also home to BAE Systems visualisation, experimentation, and design

Further reading:

• Barbara Denny, Hammersmith and Shepherd’s Bush Past (London: Historical Publications, 1995)
• Gillian Clegg, Brentford Past (London: Historical Publications, 2002)
• Frances Hounsell, Greenford, Northolt and Perivale (London: Historical Publications, 1999)

North London manufacturing history

 As Inner London turned its attention more and more to finance and service industries, manufacturing moved north, much of it into the Lea Valley which, hitherto, had market gardens working hard to feed a growing population. There was also brick making to house that population.

Enfield

Manufacturing came to Enfield in 1809 in the form of the Grout and Bayliss factory for dyeing and finishing black crepe for mourning wear.

Enfield became home in 1816 in the wake of the Napoleonic wars to the Royal Small Arms Factory of which I wrote in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World and Ordnance and which Jim Lewis explores in detail in his London's Lea Valley - Britain's best kept secret. The factory has recently been restored to 'its former glory'. Lewis highlights the shortcomings in small arms manufacture and how the Factory first sought to impose quality standards on the many manufacturers. I found it both interesting and disappointing that the Board of Ordnance looked to American machine tool makes when the factory took on its own production. I write about London's machine tool companies in this blog piece. Graham Dalling in Enfield Past adds that Joseph Whiteworth had a hand in planning the factory. The development of the rifle was key and was witnessed in action in Africa as the European nations struggled for supremacy and which I discuss in my blog on the Scramble for Africa.

Brimsdown, Enfield was the former home of the Edison Swan Laboratory. Joseph Swan moved from Newcastle where he developed the incandescent lamp and joined with the American Thomas Edison in exploiting their invention at Ponders End in 1886. They manufactured under the Mazda brand. I write of Edison in this blog. Working with him, Ambrose Fleming invented the first thermionic valve, a diode, from which the development of wireless grew. Also in Brimsdown was Cosmos, valve manufacturers.

In 1890 Frederick Walton bought the former black crepe factory to exploit a French invention of flexible metal tubing which was met with high demand from the railway manufacturers with their need for steam pipes and airbrakes.

Enfield was where Cornishman, Charles Belling, in 1922 set up to manufacturer domestic appliances and he also worked with Edgar Lee to produce one of the first wireless sets using Edison valves. In the Second World War this company switched to radar components and VHF aerials. Their successors, Thorn Industries, were at Enfield as was their television manufacturing subsidiary, Ferguson. They later became part of Thorn EMI of which I wrote in Vehicles to Vaccines.

Warburton have their massive crumpet factory in Enfield

Edmonton was home to CAV, part of Lucas and to MK the manufacturer of electrical fittings set up by Charles Belling's business partner.

Ponders End was home to Wright's Flour Mill which dated back to the seventeenth century. Its story is interesting for it took good advantage of developments. It used the Lea Navigation and then steam road vehicles. It moved from stone milling to electrically driven roller mills. It now offers speciality flours.

Coca Cola built a plant in Edmonton in 1975

Walthamstow

Walthamstow was home to Britains Toys. In 1914, William Britain had developed a technique for the hollow-casting of toy figures, which leant itself perfectly to all manner of toy soldier. Phillips Records and Ever Ready batteries were also in Walthamstow. It was where the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) began manufacturing buses before the company moved to Southall.

In the First World War, Peter Hooker Ltd in Walthamstow developed a speciality for forging components from a new alloy of aluminium 'Y alloy' which had been used for the pistons of aircraft engines. The business collapsed with the failure of the airship programmes and was succeeded by High Duty Alloys in Slough run by their former employee Wallace Devereux. The company would have a fundamental impact on aero engine manufacturing.

The Royal Gunpowder Factory was at Waltham Abbey and closed in 1967. I write about the factory and its place alongside Woolwich Arsenal in Ordnance. Matchbox Cars were originally made in Chingford.

Hackney was the place where the first British plastics were manufactured. The material, Parkesine was invented by Alexander Parkes and then exploited by British Xylonite which later became know as Halex. It was a challenger to the American Celluloid. Clarino in Hackney had 2,000 making sweets. Marconi had a factory at Dalston. Also at Dalston was one of the two Siemens English Electric Lamp factories.

Tottenham

Tottenham was where John A. Prestwich set up (JAP) motor cycles employing 'the very latest of machinery'. Prestwich was a gifted inventor and his engine was used by Avro in the first flight of a British aircraft piloted by a Britton. Colin Chapman set up his Lotus company in Hornsey in 1952 before moving to Cheshunt in 1959. The fifties and sixties had seen the focus on motor racing with victories with Stirling Moss and Jim Clark at the wheel. Tottenham was also where Lebus manufactured furniture after moving from the East End. The Thermos Flask was manufactured in Tottenham. It was said that whenever there was a thousand bomber raid in the Second World War there would also be some 12,000 thermos flasks in the air at the same time. Much later Amstrad’s head office was at Brentwood House, Tottenham, although it had started life in Hackney. I write of Amstrad in Vehicles to Vaccines.

In 1906 David Gestetner moved the manufacture of his duplicating machines to Tottenham. He was Hungarian and had lived in the USA but moved to Britain in 1881 where he registered a patent for 'Improvements in Cyclostyle pens'. He developed his ideas and eventually became the largest manufacturers of duplicators in the world.

R.W. Munro was a precision engineer with a business in Bounds Green where in 1892 he made an anemometer which was used to measure wind speed for the next century. He also manufactured presses for the Bank of England. His successors were commissioned by IBM to make a replica of the Babbage Difference Engine which Babbage had conceived whilst at school in the Lea Valley.

Hendon

Moving west from the Lea Valley we come to Standard Telephones which were at Hendon and Jim Lewis offers some history. It was the American Western Electric that bought a 2.7 acre site in Southgate in 1922. This company then manufactured telephone equipment under license from the Bell Telephone Company. It was from a hut next to the factory that the first trans-Atlantic telephone call was made. Western Electric was bought by ITT and the Southgate company changed its name to STC and became one of the main suppliers to the GPO. Hendon was also where Geoffrey de Havilland designed his first aircraft for Airco in 1912. Geoffrey de Havilland founded the de Havilland Aircraft Company at Edgware on 25 September 1920 with financial assistance from his old boss at Airco.

Stanmore attracted many industries including GEC Research Laboratories and Solex Carburettors (my first job!). Wealdstone was where Winsor & Newton artists paints were made.

Islington

George Bassett founded a sweet factory in Islington in 1848 but expanded into the former Allsopp piano factory in Wood Green in 1880. The company expanded further making its famous Liquorice Allsorts amongst much more. It merged with Trebor to become Trebor-Bassett in 1966. I wrote of another Trebor merger in my piece on Maidstone. The Wonder Baking Company began making Wonderloaf in 1937. In 1936 the first television broadcast was made from the nearby Alexandra Palace.

In nearby Highbury, Stephen’s ink was produced

Finchley, Willesden, Acton and Cricklewood

Finchley was home to F.R. Simms who obtained the rights to build Daimler cars in England and I wrote about this in How Britain Shaped the manufacturing World. Simms went on to invent armour plating for Vickers and Maxim and the first powered lawn mower for Ransoms, Sims and Jeffries. In 1907 he took the rights to manufacture magnetos to Bosch design and from there set up the company that would later merge with CAV and become part of Lucas as I wrote in Vehicles to Vaccines.

Rotax manufactured in Willesden shifting their focus to aerospace. They moved to Hemel Hampstead and became part of Lucas Aerospace.

New Southgate was the place to which Robert Paul moved from Hatten Garden to partner Cambridge Instruments which made measuring instruments and was bought by Brown Boveri in 1974 and at its peak employed 750 people. Paul also exploited the invention of the kinetoscope which Edison had failed to patent in the UK. It made very short films of sporting events. Cambridge Instruments which had been founded in Cambridge had a distinguished history in advanced instrument making. Paul was also known as a film industry pioneer.

The North Circular Road attracted a good number of factories. Jack Olding supplied earth moving vehicles and during the Second World War prepared and modified tanks in their art deco factory known as 'tank central'.

Willesden and Cricklewood were home to Staples whose owner John Heal designed Ladderax furniture which also made mattresses at Staples Corner.

Hadley Page at Cricklewood produced in the Second World War, first the Hampden bomber and then the more successful Halifax which were manufactured by a production group comprising: English Electric, Rootes at Speake (Liverpool), and Fairey in Stockport. At peak production there were some 660 subcontractors and 51,000 employees completing a new aircraft every working hour, some 6,177 aircraft in all.

David Napier motor company was at Acton and had re-emerged near the beginning of the era of the motor car, as manufacturers of high quality vehicles. By 1914, they were making seven hundred cars a year from their Acton factory and selling from their New Burlington Street Showroom, including many to the London Taxi trade. David Napier & Son continued to develop aero-engines culminating in the Napier twenty-four cylinder Sabre, which, at 3,500 hp., powered the Hawker Typhoon and Tempest. The company was bought by English Electric in 1942. Famously Napier developed the Deltic diesel engine which was used in railway locomotives and other applications including electricity generation in remote places. The Deltic had originally been designed for naval use.

Lucas Diesels and CAV were also in Acton.

Thomas Wall made sausages and came up with the idea of making ice cream in the summer months when sausage sales dipped. The idea took off and production began at the Acton factory soon after the end of the First World War. The company became part of Unilever in 1922 and expanded by building a factory in Gloucester in 1959..

Nearby Neasden had NCR and British Oxygen. In Willesden, Rotax had a factory and Rolls-Royce acquired Park Ward and H.J. Mulliner coachbuilders. In the 1920s British Thomson Houston built a large engineering works in Neasden which was later closed when it became part of GEC contributing to the run down of manufacturing in that part of London. In 1928 F.W. Hall built his factory for making the telephone equipment for the iconic red telephone box (buttons A and B!)

Harlesden was home to McVitie's biscuits, which became part of United Biscuits, the formation of which I write about in Vehicles to Vaccines.

Decca's recording studios were in West Hampstead.

Wembley was home to GEC Research laboratories set up in 1923, and Johnson Matthey. Wembley had a Marconi components factory and Cricklewood had Smiths Industries.

Dollis Hill was home to the General Post Office Research Establishment and Tommy Flowers, a senior engineer of the General Post Office which then had the monopoly of telecommunications in the UK and probably the greatest concentrating of electronic engineering expertise. Flowers brought into reality the concept behind the Colossus which was the successor to the BOMBE which Alan Turing designed to crack the Enigma code.

Park Royal

In the First World War this area had a huge munitions factory. In the twenties the site was cleared and a huge industrial estate built. In the years of depression elsewhere, the estate bucked the trend with a steady stream of new tenants to replace those who left. Park Royal had the English home of the Guinness brewery. Heinz had a factory there but more so smaller companies in the new industries.

Further reading:

• Jim Lewis, London's Lea Valley - Britain's best kept secret (Chichester: Phillimore, 1999)
• Len Snow, Willesden Past (Chichester: Phillimore, 1994)
• John Heathfield, Finchley and Whetstone Past (London: Historical Publications, 2001)
• Albert Pinching, Wood Green Past (London: Historical Publications, 2000)
• Graham Dalling, Enfield Past (London: Historical Publications, 1999)
• Stephen Inwood, A History of London (London: Macmillan, 1998)

Inner London manufacturing history 19th and 20th century

 Inner London, having been for manufacturing a place where the many made things for the few, changed as technology advanced and became home to many young industries before they moved to more spacious pastures. Stephen Inwood in his masterly A History of London makes the point that in the interwar years it was not just London's new industries that prospered against the national trend but the old industries too. By this he doesn't mean the heavy industries, which were never really in London, but industries which met the needs and wants of a population that was growing not only in number but in prosperity. So, food and drink, tobacco, clothing, furniture and furnishings. The principle remained the same, London's focus was on the finishing trades in high value goods, so jewellery, musical instruments, printing, book binding, fine clothing and furniture, clocks and fur hats.

Camden

The principal product of Camden factories were pianos. The names of the factories read like a roll call of distinguished makers: John Brinsmead & Son, Collard & Collard, Gunther & Horwood and Chappells. There was also the organ maker Zewadski and the workshop of Henry Willis famous for organs such as that in Lincoln Cathedral.

Furniture making was a little further south on Tottenham Court Road with Heals and Maples. Goodalls and their rivals de la Rue made two thirds of the playing cards sold in Britain. The companies merged in 1922. The nation was also hungry for the things of literacy with De La Rue employing 1,300 in Finsbury and Waterlow 4,000 at London Wall. Wiggins Teape originated at Aldgate.

Mornington Crescent was home to the 'Black Cat' Carreras cigarettes factory built in an Egyptian style and later sold to Rothmans which manufactured in Darlington. Benson & Hedges were made in Oxford Street before production moved to Ballymena. Lambert and Butler were produced in Drury Lane.

There were bicycle makers in Holborn and jewellers around Fitzrovia. Holborn was also home to George Kent and his household equipment including his famous knife cleaner. Thrupp & Maberly built carriages in Oxford Street. They became part of the Rootes Group and moved to Cricklewood in 1924.

The Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company manufactured in York Road, Kings Cross before moving to Chippenham in Wiltshire in 1932. The conurbation was being built at a rate of knots and Cubitts employed 3,000 in their workshops in Grays Inn Road.

‘On 25 July 1837, William Fothergill Cooke, an English inventor, and Charles Wheatstone, an English scientist, made the first electric telegraph communication between the station rooms at Camden Town – where Cooke was stationed, together with Robert Stephenson, the engineer – and London Euston, where Wheatstone was situated. The directors of the London and Birmingham Railway were their audience, and their goal was to improve safety on the railways.’ Wheatstone subsequently developed his invention further to enable the transmission of text. Telegraph needed cables and the story moves Woolwich.

Clerkenwell and Finsbury

Clerkenwell became the home of scientific instruments and from there of electronics. Cossor made radio at Clerkenwell during the First World War before moving to larger premises at Highbury. Charterhouse Square was the original home of Ferranti Ltd. Hatton Garden, apart from being home to gold and silver and Johnson Matthey, was where Hiram Maxim perfected his machine gun before joining with Vickers and moving to Crayford. Elliott Automation originated near the Strand.

Of larger enterprises there was the United Electric Wire and Telegraph Company, the Albion Button Company, the Never Rust Plate Company, Bovril and Ingersoll watchmakers. There was also a significant American presence: the Grape Nuts Company, the Columbia Gramophone Company, Thomas Edison Phonograph Makers, the Singer Sewing Machine Company and the Glass Lined Syphon Company.

Finsbury, although London’s smallest Borough, had the greatest concentration of manufacturing among which were Colletts hatters, Ormond hairdryers, Whitbread brewers, Thomas De La Rue security printers, English Gin Distillers, Harella ladies coats, Coates Brothers printers, British Drug Houses, L.E.B. Engineering (Paper Tubes), Temple Press, Ferranti Radio and Television, Comoy’s Pipes, Alba Radio, and Union Glue.

Westminster

London's growing population needed feeding, so for example, in addition to flour mills, market gardens and countless small businesses, Crosse & Blackwell employed 2,000 people making pickles in the Charing Cross Road. The British Electric Telegraph Company exploited the patent of Cooke and Wheatstone in developing the telegraph. I wrote about this in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World. Key to this was insulation provided by F. Wishaw near the Adelphi.

Electric lighting had arrived with Humphrey Davy's arc lamp, much improved by the incandescent lamp invented by the American Thomas Edison and Newcastle's Joseph Swan. Siemens Brothers provided the generators, wiring and lamps for the lighting of the Savoy Theatre. Other names, long associated with electricity, entered the field: Edison set up the Holborn Viaduct scheme in 1882, and, in 1886, Sebastian de Ferranti built the Grosvenor Gallery Station. Ferranti had worked for Siemens in their very new experimental department.

Humphreys & Glasgow of Victoria Street carried out major projects in petrochemicals and process engineering for ICI, BP, Beecham, Boots and British Steel, as well as plants in the USSR and other eastern block countries and India and Pakistan

There were still clothing factories in Soho and Westminster as well as Saville Row. The Royal Army Clothing Factory was in Pimlico employing 2,000. Pears Soap was made just off Oxford Street. Dunhill cigarettes are made in Westminster.

W and B Cowan made gas meters and appliances and later became part of Parkinson and Cowan.

The City

The massive improvements to communications with the railways and telephone and telegraph allowed manufacturing to move away from centre of the ever growing metropolis to make way for service industries and the growing importance of the City as the world’s financial centre. Crucial to this was the work of Joseph Bazalgette who master minded the London sewers to remove 'the great stink' at the same time creating the Thames Embankment and the extension of the Metropolitan Railway. There were businesses making everything that the growing number of offices in the city might require. I write elsewhere about finance for manufacturing in which London played a perhaps surprisingly small role. The Pharmaceutical Society was formed in London in 1841, one of its founding members was William Allen who was a partner in the Plough Court pharmacy, whose origins can be traced back to 1715. In 1856 Allen joined his nephews in Allen & Hanbury which grew particularly through it renowned cod liver oil. Scammell originated not far from Liverpool Street station in London where its vehicles served the local markets. It manufactured gun carriages and vehicle bodywork for the War Office in the First World War.

In his London in the Twentieth Century, a phrase from Jerry White stuck in my mind. ‘From the middle of the sixties London’s manufacturing industry virtually bled away, along with the port that fed it.’ He offers some telling figures: between 1959 and 1974 London lost 38% of its manufacturing jobs so by 1996 only 10% of the London workforce was employed in manufacturing.' A good deal of manufacturing moved to the north, east, west and south of London and in due course out to Metroland and into the South East.

Further reading:

• Stephen Inwood, A History of London (London: Macmillan, 1998)