Industrial / Business
Heritage
| A few business names / businesses
that get
mentioned from Letchworth's past, in no particular: order, size, date,
or importance. This section is new and and needs more research. Some of
these may be alternative names for the same company and what they did
may
be incomplete or inaccurate, this is based on what I have found in
books,
directories, seen in photographs or heard about from local people so
far.
The idea is to give viewers an idea of the diversity of the working environment over the years in the garden city. I will be working on this part of the heritage pages and I am open to corrections and additions / refinements to this page, especially access to ( and possibly including on the web site ) any photographs taken in any works, or around the working or living areas of Letchworth area in general up to 1960. Notes from a talk by Allan Lupton about The motor industry in Letchworth can be found here To see what's here now look at the business index. |
| Standard Company | Photo Paper Manufacturers |
| Sigma Instrument Company Ltd | Equipment for the gas industry and fine measuring equipment |
| The Country Gentleman's Association | Landowner advisors and testing and propagation of seeds and cuttings, supply of all manner of products |
| Vickers & Field | Asphalt manufacturers |
| The Garden City Press | High class letterpress printing of catalogues, bookwork, Artistic colour printing and periodicals |
| Heatley Gresham Engineering Works | Motor car chassis and cab manufacture |
| Wheeler, Odell and Company | Printers / publishers |
| Brooks & Co | Scientific Instruments |
| Garden City Embroidery Company | Embroidery |
| The Bowyer-Lowe Company Ltd | Radio set manufacturers exported world-wide based in The Sheds 1923-1927 |
| Dairies - T Squire, Coles, and various local farms | Several local milk producers and distributors were established |
| Messrs Idris & Co | Mineral Water Manufacturers |
| Letchworth Bacon Company | Sausages pies etc. |
| Abattoir | Centralised slaughter house in works road handling cattle, sheep, pigs and calves together with processing all waste and by-products. |
| Letchworth Printing Ltd | Printers including local newspaper |
| W H Smith | Newsagents / booksellers |
| Bennett's | Ford car importer US models and dealer selling UK models also in Station Road 1919, Demolished 2000 to make a McCarthy & Stone Home development, after the Ford dealership moved next door. |
| Arden Press | Printing and Bookbinding |
| Mason's Garage | Car maintenance and repair and selling cars and motorcycles in Eastcheap in the 20's and 30's |
| Hayes (Universal) Printing Machinery Co Ltd | Colour lithographers |
| Ewart and Company | Geyser Manufacturers |
| J T Openshaw & Co | Builders and Contractors |
| Garden City Tennants Ltd | Housing |
| Howard Cottage Society | Housing |
| The St Edmundsbury Weaving Works | Manufactured banners etc. |
| The Lacre Motor Company | Chassis builders |
| Gas Works - subsidiary of First Garden City Ltd. | Started 1905 - Production from coking coals, gas holders and retort houses producing up to 50 million cubic ft of gas by the first World War |
| Electricity Supply | Started 1907 - industrial area only until 1909 |
| The British Tabulating Machine Co Ltd | Early computer company, went on to be or be part of ICL / Fujitsu / Nortel , involved with wartime code breaking |
| Kryn and Lahy Foundry
Kryn and Lahy Steel Founders and Engineers Ltd |
Started 1915 by Belgian refugees to aid the war effort WW1. Metal workers / foundry - carbon steel castings, for all manner of heavy industrial applications, cars , bridges, cranes, railway engine wheels and parts, in wartime tank parts, shells, large bombs, portable bridges etc. I have seen pictures showing blast furnaces, convertors, and large cooling towers connected to the railway by sidings. |
| J M Dent and Sons Ltd ( Temple Press ) | Printers |
| The Spirella Corset Company | Corset Manufacturer massively successful until the 1950's when fashions changed |
| Notts | Bakery and Confectionery |
| Herz and Falk Embroidery Co | Embroidery |
| Marmet Prams | Pram manufacturer est. 1912 |
| Foster Instrument Co Ltd | Industrial pyrometers |
| Chater Lea | Bicycle parts and motorbikes If you scroll down on the linked page you might find |
| Jones Cranes | Subsidiary of K&L |
| Irvin's Airchute | Parachute manufacture now largely moved away from Letchworth after a merger |
| Phoenix Motor Car Company (Later Ascot ) | Motor car manufacture |
| Ascot Motor Company | Motorcyle and small car manufacturers |
| Letchworth Polishing and Plating | . |
| Anglia Match Factory | . |
| T J Dixon & Co | Since 1912 Coatings for the photographic industry
Their web site explained it better when I looked |
| Lloyds & Co Ltd | Lawn mower manufacturer |
| Ascot Training Centre | Teaching all sorts of trades, hairdressing, building etc. |
| Shelvoke and Drewery | Inernationaly successful manufacturer of Refuse Collection equipment - Dustcarts, and other Utility vehicles, wartime manufacturer of miniature submarines |
| Westinghouse Morse Chain Company | Timing chains for engines and other precision applications in industry, also made a significant contribution to war effort |
| D Meredrew Ltd | Cabinet makers |
| The Iceni Pottery | Formed by Miss Lawrence and W H Cowlishaw using an unusual glaze technique |
| Kinora Limited | Producing a means of viewing moving films at home approx 1911-1914 |
| Borg Warner | Gearbox manufacture |
| Stoddard Brushes (renamed since the 60's) | Dental laboratory brush products etc. |
| Full Fashioned Hosiery Company - ( Later Kayser Bondor now Tesco Direct ) | Not in Letchworth but very close and a popular place of work for many looking for work around the Letchworth area. |
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