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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Berkshire => Topic started by: Teresa in Wirral on Saturday 13 November 10 20:57 GMT (UK)
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Hi, does anyone know of a munitions factory in Reading during WW2?
Teresa
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Huntley and Palmer
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Really? Never knew that before :)
I know they made biscuits and that they were famous for their biscuit tins. It was in WWI that they used their tin-making skills to make artillery shells, but not the explosive part.
Not sure about WW2 :-\
Nell
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A bit off track, but interesting.
Their famous tins were boldly embossed in the metal "Huntley and Palmer Reading"
As soon as war was inevitable every tin had "Reading" squashed flat - for some reason they thought it a security risk to "reveal" that H&P were at Reading!
The tins never did reveal their contents - whether biscuits or not!
So at least some secrecy was preserved
esdel
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:-\ ???
There is nothing on the timeline to indicate that Huntley & Palmer were involved in munitions during WW2. Biscuits for the army, but not munitions.
http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?a=file&p=huntley&f=huntley.htm
Nell
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Interesting!
(1) Still "official secrets Act" when timeline written?
(2) Teresa had access to the same source I had - that the word "Reading" was obliterated during the war. (same way we removed all the milestones and signposts!)
esdel
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Prestcold, formerly known as Pressed Steel at Theale a few miles west of Reading was a munitions factory during WW2. My mother was employed there on war work.
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I wonder what was at Burghfield and Burghfield Common in WW2 ?
Was there a ROF there?
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ROF Burghfield built early 1930's
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Hi there was a munitions factory at Henley on Thames,Oxfordshire which is about 8 - 9 miles from Reading, people would be transported there from
various places. My mother worked there. It was built on the berkshire side of the Wargrave to Henley road and was surrounded by trees, so knowbody knew it was there.
Sheila
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Hi there was a munitions factory at Henley on Thames,Oxfordshire which is about 8 - 9 miles from Reading, people would be transported there from
various places. My mother worked there. It was built on the berkshire side of the Wargrave to Henley road and was surrounded by trees, so knowbody knew it was there.
Sheila
Are you meaning the underground aircraft components factory at Warren Row?
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Hi there was a munitions factory at Henley on Thames,Oxfordshire which is about 8 - 9 miles from Reading, people would be transported there from
various places. My mother worked there. It was built on the berkshire side of the Wargrave to Henley road and was surrounded by trees, so knowbody knew it was there.
Sheila
Are you meaning the underground aircraft components factory at Warren Row?
There was also one on the Wargrave - Henley Road about a mile from Henley - built into the side of the hill and invisible from the road. In the 70s it was (I think) called Sir George Godfrey and Partners.
Harry
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Hi that's the one I was talking about Henley, the building are still there and I believe it is now a underground archive secure storage unit. My mother told me about it and I used to deliver newspapers in my younger day near there.
Sheila
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My granny worked at a munitions factory in Reading, she says there were tents or something, and dormitories. Her name was Doris (aka Doll) - from Pimlico - would anyone out there know of her or maybe which factory she was talking about? She's 93 this year and I'd love to hear her stories :-)
Thanks!
V
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Could be anywhere.
Anyone manufacturing tins - cases for ammo
Any engineering co - taken over for "war effort"
MIGHT have been VERY informal - did you know they had us gathering ACORNS (at 10 shillings a hundredweight!). Used for Munitions (explosives) manufacture!!
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.
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Thanks for the reply - funny about those acorns!
I'll ask granny if she did the same, it might help to jog her memory as it's really going :-[
Cheers,
V
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Yes and they took away our railings and fences round our houses "to make tanks". (all lies!)
Granny is sure to remember that. Was she in the ATS or WRAC? or a WREN?
And a loaf of bread was 8d - that is 2 p
And you got 1 oz of butter per person on your "ration book" (tear out the "coopongs!") And all clothes (etc etc) were "Utility" (= poor quality)
And every time you went to the shops the answer was the same "Don't you know there's a war on!"
And NO ICE CREAM
And sweets rationed for 5 years AFTER we "won" the war!
And in 1946 Lyons ices (cylindrical ones) two and a half pence (=1 p) and Walls (the pork butcher, ugh!) were 3d and new-fangeled "choc ices" 4d
and ten shilling notes and £1 had colours but £5 was plain black and white: none bigger than that! And Lyons Tea Houses everywhere (Lyons Corner House at the Strand)
And Lyons, yes that same co, the VERY FIRST to use computer anywhere!
And Britain ACTUALLY MANUFACTURED things!!!
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Thankyou SO much for all this information! I'm sure this will all help, as her best memories are from the war years. I will see her in 3 weeks for her birthday and can't wait to try out your ideas :)
Thankyou!
V
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Hi,
There was an ammunition factory at Burfield. My mother was a leading charge hand there during the WW2.
She is 90 now but has a good memory of how the ammunition was made, the compounds used and of several accident that unfortunately happened.
I have often asked her to write down as much of the memory as possible as it will be lost one day.
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Burghfield is still active but nowadays it assembles nuclear weapons.
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Hi there was a munitions factory at Henley on Thames,Oxfordshire which is about 8 - 9 miles from Reading, people would be transported there from
various places. My mother worked there. It was built on the berkshire side of the Wargrave to Henley road and was surrounded by trees, so knowbody knew it was there.
Sheila
Are you meaning the underground aircraft components factory at Warren Row?
There was also one on the Wargrave - Henley Road about a mile from Henley - built into the side of the hill and invisible from the road. In the 70s it was (I think) called Sir George Godfrey and Partners.
Harry
Back in the 1950s I bought a Roots supercharger (ex Vampire jet cabin pressuriser pump) from a chap (Mr Parkes) in Monmouth Wales.
I used it to supercharge my dear Mum's Hilman Minx
I was just a student at Oxford and so naive I rang up on a Saturday to ask questions about it (it had manfacturer's name plate on it)
Spoke to a most refined and knowledgable gentleman (who must have been Sir Godfrey himself, I now realise!) who was so interested in what I was doing he almost volunteered to come and help me!
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I have tried to find this information before on RC but with no real luck. There seem to be new people on this thread who may be able to help.
Lawrence Dobson (aka Laurence), my father, was noted as an Aircraft fitter on my birth certificate in 1942.
He lived in Maidenhead and his only transport would have been his bke.
Previously he was in the Royal navy but not as anything like a mechanic. Although he did work for Holdens in Adelaide Australia for a while.
After leaving the navy he was employed as a Chauffeur/gardener . So I can't really see where any training came in.
Any thoughts much appreciated,
Abiam2 :)
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Hi Abiam2
I should think the most likely place your father worked would be White Waltham Airfield - see link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Waltham_Airfield
It's about three miles from the centre of Maidenhead. Also see this link
http://www.wlac.co.uk/files/Pilot_Article_2007.pdf
which includes
"The government took over the
airfield in 1938. Waltham was home to Fairey
Aviation, constructor of the Fairey and Gannet
– and Rotodyne, the world’s first VTOL airliner.
Nothing remains of that factory or the 1930s
airport terminal, except the art deco Fairey
signs which adorned the gates – they now hang
over the fireplaces in the club bar."
Heather
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According to Google (Naval Aircraft near Maidenhead) we have:
Fairey Aviation Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Aviation_Company
The aircraft manufacturing arm was taken over by Westland Aircraft in 1960. ... Postwar, Firefly and Gannet naval aircraft were supplemented by sub-contracts from ... Maidenhead, Aerial and geophysical survey and mapping;; Fairey Surveys ...
West London Aero Club - Home
www.wlac.co.uk/
Set in 200 acres on the edge of a picturesque estate in the beautiful Berkshire countryside, ... Windsor, Ascot, Henley, Reading and Maidenhead are all within easy reach
BUT ASSUMING YOU HAVE PETROL FOR A CAR - which NOBODY had unless their travel was vital for the war effort
History of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) from the ATA Museum ...
www.atamuseum.org/about-the-ata.html
Often they were presented with a type of plane they had never seen before. ... headquarters was at White Waltham airfield near Maidenhead from February 1940 ...
Aichi D3A - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(This Google included because the info authour was from Maidenhead!)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_D3A
It was the primary dive bomber in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and participated in almost all ... In December 1939, the Navy ordered the aircraft as the Navy Type 99 Carrier Bomber Model 11 (kanjō .... Maidenhead, UK: Sampson Low, 1978. ...
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Thank you both. White Waltham does seem the most likely. I may try contacting the Maidenhead Heritage site again - I didn't get much help from them last time. New year, new luck, perhaps?
:) Abiam2 :)
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Closed for refurb at the moment until 1 March.
But the office is open for e-mail/post enquiries.
http://www.maidenheadheritage.org.uk/
Nell
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thanks nell, will email in the new year
Abiam2
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It is possible that he could have worked at Woodley Aerodrome (sadly now a housing estate) which was pre WW2 and during the war home to Miles Aircraft 1930-1961 which is just 8 miles west along the A4 from Maidenhead so an easy bike ride
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Aircraft
See also
http://home.comcast.net/~aero51/html/airfield/map.htm
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Thanks PaulC. Will investigate further.
:)Abiam2
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Hello,
Sorry this is a bit late.
Wargrave (Opposite Marsh Mill on the A321) : Underground Factory run by Sir George Godfrey and Partners making hydraulics and gearbox assemblies for the Phillips Master trainer. 30'000 sq ft of manufacturing space. Surface buildings ran as a private engineering works until early 1980's. Underground space became a covert Army Communication Centre during Cold War. Now used for archive storage.
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/h/henley/
Warren Row: Old chalk quarry converted to Underground factory made superchargers for aircraft engines. After 1958 became RSG6 until exposed by CND in the "Spies for Peace " debacle.
http://www.monkton-farleigh.co.uk/sc_warrenrow1.htm
Now a wine storage facility.
Theale: Was a Royal Ordnance Engineering Factory. I believe they made sten guns, and the 20mm shells which went to ROF Burghfield for assembly on the filling line.
Spitfire production: Many garages, bus garages, car showrooms and some purpose built factories in the Reading and Newbury area were making components for Spitfires, which were assembled on the airfields at Aldermaston and Crazies Hill near Henley.
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Never too late! Maybe Wargrave or Warren Row will try and find out.
Thank you
Abiam 2
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I remember White Waltham. I went solo in an RAF glider 1st August 1960. I was vaguely aware of some light industrial usage but didn't take a lot of notice. Being in the ATC (153 Squadron Slough) we were encouraged to sign up for glider training as a half way house to becoming RAF pilots. Sunday mornings, one could go to WW (in uniform of course) and book in and sit in dispersals, hoping for a pilot to smile on you and invite you to fly with him. I don't know whether they're so free and easy now.
They had DH Chipmunks and Avro Ansons. I remember one flight in each of them particularly. First was an Anson that had had engine trouble. Pilot was taking it down to Selsey Bill and back to check it out. I was in the back until after takeoff. Soon, he looked round and beckoned me up front. Explained the controls and instruments. Hands on, he said 'you have control'. Apart from taking over when we had to fly through some black clouds and the turn over Selsey Bill, I flew it most of the way. What an experience for a 17 year old.
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They also had "Shadow Factories" They had more than one factory making the same components, as a back up in case one factory was bombed or put out of action.