Erith was not on Watling Street (unlike neighbouring Crayford) and so until the arrival of the railways it was restricted in industrial activity to that enabled by the Thames, so brick works and loam quarrying principally to provide ballast for ships.
The first manufacturing industry was the engineering factory of Easton, Amos and Anderson in 1864; the last named being also Director General of Ordnance Factories and I wrote about him in the context of the modernisation of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. The factory closed in 1904 but left well made pumping engines some of which were still working after the Second World War.
A significant early industrial newcomer was the Callender Bitumen, Telegraph and Waterproof Company in 1880. At this time electric cables were being run for telegraph and soon power transmission. A little further upstream at Woolwich, Siemens was much involved in the same area. The company became Callenders Cable and Construction Company and in 1945 merged with British Insulated and Helsby Cables itself a product of the British Insulated Wire Company which had been founded in Manchester in 1890 by Sebastian de Ferranti, Colonel Pilkington of St Helens and others. British Insulated Callender Cables or BICC (as the combined company became) and its predecessors can claim credit for much of the national grid. In 2000 BICC changed its name to that of its construction subsidiary Balfour Beatty. It had previously disposed of its cable interests.
In 1887, the Nordenfeldt Gun Company built a factory in Erith and a year later combined with Maxim at Crayford. The combined business was then bought by Vickers. The business was renamed Vickers, Sons & Maxim and manufactured many machine guns during the First World War including the heavy 'PomPom' which had been used in the Boer War. Production was moved to other Vickers factories in 1932.
Fraser and Chalmers were to be another Erith manufacturer. They had originated in the USA and had focused on the manufacture of mining machinery. They set up in Erith in 1891, but by 1903 severed all US connections and expanded their range of products into steam plants, milling machinery and general engineering. In 1918, the business was bought by GEC and its was repurposed into manufacturing turbines. In the mid twentieth century it employed 4,000 people in a site extending to thirty-four acres.
Turner's Asbestos Cement Company set up in 1912 to manufacture asbestos roofing material, guttering, piping and fireproof and thermal insulating material. The company was owned by Turner and Newall of Manchester. The subsequent discovery of the dangers of asbestos effectively ended the business.
Continuing with construction, Royal Doulton Potteries made salt glazed stoneware piping. British Plaster Board processed imported gypsum. The Hercules Powder Company and Borax Consolidated Ltd provided raw materials for glass enamel and pottery.
Further reading:
- John A Pritchard, A History of Erith Pt III 1837-1894 ( London Borough of Bexley Libraries and Museums Department 1978)
- John A Pritchard, A History of Erith Pt IV 1894-1965 ( London Borough of Bexley Libraries and Museums Department 1978)
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