Crayford manufacturing history

 The main route running through Crayford was Watling Street offering evidence of Roman occupation. It was also where Hiram Maxim built his first factory. In nearby Dartford Heath there is evidence of iron smelting using ores from the Weald.

An early industry was silk printing and in the nineteenth century David Evans won a reputation for the excellence of his product. The skill expanded into textile printing more generally. The Swaisland company was said to have made Crayford the 'Mecca of the printing industry in Britain'. The company was bought by G.P. & J. Baker which created iconic designs for their fabric printing. Their archive has been preserved in private hands and inspires some of today's fabric printers. In the nineteenth century this was big business employing massive steam driven machinery. The Calico Printers Ground became a well known place in Crayford where printing had grown out of the bleaching industry, itself the product of Hugenot weavers making their homes here.

Frederick Braby worked with sheet steel in the Euston Road in London and set up a works in Crayford in 1867 to take advantage of the transport facilitated by the Surrey Canal. The works lasted until 1964 latterly supplying the food industry.

Sir Hiram Maxim was also a Hugenot but came to Watling Street, Crayford in 1888 via Hatton Garden and America to which the family had fled. He would be best known for his machine gun, but William Carr also suggests that he took to the air in a steam powered aircraft. Nothing came of this. What did come was an amalgamation with the Nordenfeldt Gun Company which in 1887 had built a factory in nearby Erith. In 1888 Nordenfeldt and Maxim combined their businesses which results in Maxim-Nordenfeldt Gun and Ammunition Company close to St John's church in Erith. In 1897 Vickers acquired the Maxim factory and there developed the Vickers Maxim machine gun.

In the early 1900s the armament works were repurposed to manufacture Wolseley Siddeley motor cars. This came about because John Siddeley was looking for someone to put his all British 100 h.p. car on the market. To do this he joined with Wolseley, then run by Herbert Austin, and Vickers. Austin left to set up on his own and the motor business was moved to Birmingham.

Crayford closed until 1912 when Vickers reopened it for arms production. Crucially they designed a synchronising gear which enabled a machine gun to be fired through the revolving propellor of an aeroplane, also manufactured by Vickers in Erith. After the war, the Crayford factory assumed a key part of Vickers manufacturing capability and I write of this in Vehicles to Vaccines.

Of international significance, a Vickers Vimy bomber built at Crayford but modified at Weybridge made the first trans-Atlantic crossing with Alcock and Brown. The Vickers Vimy powered by a Rolls-Royce Eagle engine proved a success but then a decision was taken to focus aircraft production on Weybridge.

In the Second World War in Crayford, Vickers manufactured armaments including military fire control and aiming equipment and after the war diversified into petrol pumps and packing and bottling machinery.

Given its location much of Crayford's business derived from imports. This the Vitbe Flour Mill was in Crayford. A good deal of timber was imported and at Crayford a portion of this was made into a whole range of different plywoods by the Tucker Armour Plywood Company.

Dussek's Oil Refining and processing works, later bought by Burmah Castrol, had a range of products from which I infer a range of raw materials. Before the drilling for hydrocarbons, oil was derived from plants and seeds, from coal tar and from animal fats. Dusseks specifically used tar and, I infer from their production of putty, linseed oil. This oil is derived from flax and in the nineteenth century the seed was imported from Russia. There is evidence of its processing also in Maidstone. There was a large trade in palm oil from West Africa which was used in making margarine and soap. I wrote about this in the context of Lever Brothers and the United Africa Company in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World.

Further reading:

• J.D. Scott, Vickers - A History (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1962)
• William Carr, The Spot that is called Crayford (Crayford Urban District Council, 1951, 1965)

Kingston upon Thames manufacturing history

Kingston was possibly the most important market town in Surrey. Like so many places, its history was built on the wool trade. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it supplied London first with Surrey Whitewear pottery and then with Redwear. As London grew, Kingston supplied many of its needs using the Thames as the vital transport link. Turnpikes were built, but the Thames reigned supreme until the railways arrived in 1838. This first Kingston station was in Surbiton, but Kingston was becoming a centre for the growing residential areas of Surbiton, New Malden and Chessington.

Manufacturing came in earnest in the First World War, first with Thomas Sopwith manufacturing aircraft which would become iconic for the part they played in the war effort. It was all about the internal combustion engine. Racing driver, Kenelm Lee Guinness formed the KLG spark plug company to manufacture the version of the spark plug which he had invented. Bus and lorry manufacturer, Leyland, built their vehicles for the war effort.

Harry Hawker, who was Sopwith's chief test pilot, formed his own Hawker Aircraft Company after the war and it was agreed that the companies should be joined. Tragically he died in a flying accident in 1921 the year his company merged with Sopwith. Thomas Sopwith became chairman of the combined company which continued to develop aircraft in Kingston. In 1934 Hawker Siddeley was formed which drew together Hawker, Gloster of Cheltenham, Sir William Armstrong of Elswick, Newcastle and Armstrong Siddeley of Coventry.

In the Second World War, Hawkers manufactured their equally iconic Hurricane Fighter using also factory space at Langley near Slough. Leyland manufactured lorries and also tanks including Churchills, Centaurs and Comets. They built bombs at a rate of 400,000 a month. John Perrings made radio sets in a secret workshop above his furniture shop using employees seconded from the Hoover factory at Perrivale to teach his staff the necessary skills. Siebe Gorman in nearby Chessington made rubber suits for navy divers.

After the war Hawker Siddeley went on to produce further acclaimed aircraft not least the Harrier and it became part of the British Aircraft Corporation and then British Aerospace. The successor, BAE Systems, closed the Kingston factory in 1992. I write of the post war aircraft industry in Vehicles to Vaccines. The Hawk jet, produced by BAE Systems flown by the Red Arrows, was developed under Hawker ownership.

Decca Radar had a significant presence in Chessington and Tolworth and also in nearby Addlestone. The company emerged from the Decca Record Company in 1947 and moved to Tolworth in 1951. Three years later premises were taken in Chessington. Heavy radar for air traffic control and air defence was based in Tolworth. In the mid fifties, government informed the company that any further expansion had to be outside the immediate Surrey area and a site was taken on the Isle of Wight. Heavy radar was sold to Plessey in 1964. The remaining Surrey operations were focused on marine radar and this was bought by Racal in 1979. The legacy of Decca radar is now within BAE Systems.

Further reading:

• Shaan Butters, The Book of Kingston (Cardiff: Baron Books, 1995)
• https://woottonbridgeiow.org.uk/decca-legacy/index.php

Weybridge and Brooklands manufacturing history

Brooklands Motor Racing Circuit was close to Weybridge and brought motor racing enthusiasts and manufacturers including the Itala Automobile Company. It was the first purpose built race track in the world and had banked curves, very much the place where enthusiasts of the internal combustion engine gathered whether on the track or in the air. Alliot Verdan Roe carried out his flight trials there as did Sopwith of Kingston which had a training school there.

In 1915, the Itala factory was taken by Vickers to manufacture aircraft. They began with the Bentley designed BE.2 but then the government decided on the Farnborough designed SE5a and production began with a Hispano-Souza engine. Some 1,000 were produce exceeding the number of aircraft produced by any of the National Aircraft Factories. Vickers were in the aircraft business.

In the interwar years, the Brooklands track became the venue for many races including the British Grand Prix and the British Racing Drivers Club 500 mile race. Drivers including Malcolm Campbell and John Cobb raced there.

Another arrival in the twenties was the Airscrew Company which manufactured propellors. Over the years the business developed to include propeller blades for variable pitch aircrews. An artificial wood was developed called Weyroc. The company diversified into all manner of fans.

During the Second World War, the Vickers Weybridge factory manufactured Wellesley and Wellington bombers. The airfield was also where the Hawker Hurricane was brought for testing from its Kingston factory.

The Vickers design team at Weybridge came up with one winner in particular in the post war world: the Viscount passenger aircraft which was flown by BEA and many other operators.

The Vickers research department was headed by Dr Barnes Wallis who had created the Dam Busters bomb. His team went on to design some of the early missiles.

Aircraft production came up with the Valiant as a stop gap before the V Bombers came into service and then the civil Vanguard and VC10 neither of which lived up to the success of the Viscount. The factory closed in 1986. I write much more about Vickers in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World.

Further reading:

J.D. Scott, Vickers - A History (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1962)