A small village on the road to the west of England was how Bracknell was described in the mid nineteenth century. It then set about growing. Thomas Lawrence founded a brickworks producing twelve million bricks a year by the end of the nineteenth century, bricks that would find their way into buildings including Eton College, 10 Downing Street and Westminster Cathedral.
Its designation as a new town came in the late forties with work beginning in 1950. The plan was ambitious and provided for employment as well as homes and leisure. Work on the first factory for Fluidrive began in 1951 followed by Kent Bros. & Phillips. In 1961 the numbers employed in factories passed 6,000.
George Rowney & Co, founded in 1783, opened their factory in Bracknell moving from units in Chalk Farm and the Euston Road. Rowney became part of Morgan Crucible and set up their head office in Bracknell. They were later bought by Dale Board, another artist materials business, and still manufacture in the town. Rowney are one of the few companies at both the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the Festival of Britain a century later.
The American Sperry, with their artificial horizon equipment for aircraft, moved their whole UK establishment from Brentford in 1968. Sperry would remain the largest employer until the plant was closed under the ownership of BAE Systems.
Racal set up their first factory in the fifties bussing their workforce of one hundred daily from Isleworth until houses were completed. By 1981, Racal had a worldwide workforce of 18,000. Racal spun off Vodaphone which continued a presence in the town.
Expandite, a supplier to the construction industry, bought Secomastic in 1956 and manufactured alongside operating a contracting division. ICI's agricultural research centre was nearby at Jealott's Hill. Ferranti digital systems and aircraft design was based here.
Honeywell Control Systems, ICL (now Fujitsu), 3M, Dell, NetGear, Panasonic, Hewlett Packard Techologies and Micron Technologies semi-conductors are some of the companies with a presence in Bracknell making it a technological hub and part of the Thames Valley 'Silicon Valley'.
Further reading:
Henry and Judith Parris, Bracknell - The making of a New Town (Bracknell Development Corporation, 1981)
.jpg)
