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Post by Tubeboy on Aug 12, 2006 9:55:05 GMT
In LNER days, were there any Level crossings on the East Finchley- High Barnet section? I have always noticed that some roads, look like they crossed the railway, but dont know for certain.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2006 15:37:01 GMT
Lots. The four-track bridge at East Finchley removed a level crossing IIRC.
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Aug 12, 2006 16:18:31 GMT
Here is an extract from an Ordnance Survey map of 1912. The LNER line is shown clearly but there do not seem to be the level crossings mentioned above. (WARNING - large pic). i21.photobucket.com/albums/b300/rbruce1314/OScrp.jpg(Can be zoomed in to get clearer idea)
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2006 6:10:00 GMT
Lots. The four-track bridge at East Finchley removed a level crossing IIRC. Don't think so: that would have meant a level crossing of a tramway over the railway, and that would be sufficiently unusual to warrant a mention in books on London tramways. I used to cycle under that bridge twice a day in the early 60s. From my memory, I think that probably the road was lowered under the northern part of the new bridge, presumably to provide clearance for trolleybuses under the wider structure.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2006 20:37:38 GMT
Got a piccy of EFY with the trolleybus wires in place....
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Post by mandgc on Aug 15, 2006 6:06:17 GMT
The four track bridge at East Finchley replaced an earlier double line bridge, used by the steam trains, in 1939. I do not think a Level crossing existed when the Tramway was extended to North Finchley in 1904. From what I remember if the site I wonder if there ever was a Level Crossing at this point.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2006 12:28:07 GMT
According to RJ Harley in Barnet and Finchley Tramways (Middleton Press), Metropolitan Electric Tramways opened a line from the Archway bridge (LCC boundary) to Whetstone on 7 June 1905. It met the LCC tramways when it was extended to Archway Tavern on 22/12/05.
This book does not mention a level crossing at East Finchley and, like mandgc, I don't think there ever was one.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2006 17:32:26 GMT
Heh, goes to show how poor my memory is I was thinking of the other LNER line that LT took over - namely, the lines to Epping and Hainault.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2006 23:50:43 GMT
Yes indeed, there were a number of level crossings on the lines taken over in the eastern extension of the Central, and the locals were not best pleased when they closed.
Another thought has occurred to me. I don't know what roads Tobeboy was referring to in his initial post, but they probably didn't exist before the railway was built. The area was quite sparsely populated then, and the stations were built to serve existing villages. Finchley East End, Finchley Church End, and North Finchley were separate villages so each had its own station (Woodside Park for North Finchley). There was nothing at West Finchley: that station was built by the LNER in 1933.
So all the housing in Finchley and north towards Barnet followed the railway, starting in the late 1800s around the stations. Then in Edwardian times the trams came to exploit the traffic created by the railway, and in turn they encouraged more housing and shops along their route.
The influence of the railways can still be seen in the empty land between Totteridge and Mill Hill.
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Post by mandgc on Aug 15, 2006 23:53:18 GMT
Ongar Line Level Crossings.
Yes there were quite a few on that line. In a number of cases the under- or over-bridge replacement were not ready on Electrification which must have causes some traffic congestion.
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Oracle
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Post by Oracle on Aug 16, 2006 8:29:31 GMT
I have made studies of the area around Edgware Road/Colindale and have a couple of large scale OS maps. My interest is in the history of the Hendon Aerodrome and the aircraft busineses that established themselves along The Hyde, and down Edgware Road during WW1. It is amazing how quickly the green space filled in. There are few photos around of the period before the aircraft factories but after they were built around 1917 it is quite amazing to see the numbers of workers and of course they relied on the trams and trains to get them to and from work. I hope that this is of interest. If the Mods want it can be edited down further, transferred or deleted! This is an experiment to see if I can post my resreaches here.AERODROME SITES
Mr Montague Grahame-White was born in 1877, and died 21 July 1961. His brother Claude was born two years later, in 1879 and died in 1959. Montague had a City desk job, but gave it up in 1898, and “talked his way” into becoming the personal assistant to J.S. Critchley, the Works Manager of the Daimler Company in The Motor Mills at Coventry. This job entailed testing, reliability trials, and customer driving instruction. In 1902, he left Daimler to become an occasional racing driver, co-driving Herbert Austin’s Wolseley in the 1902 Paris-Vienna Race.
Claude Grahame-White owned one of the earliest petrol-driven cars in England, and ran a motor engineering business in Albemarle Street, London W. before turning to flying in 1909. That year he became the first Englishman to gain a “Certificate of Proficiency” as an aviator, and as a professional, started the first British School of Aviation in Pau, southern France. In 1909, a small monoplane was constructed in Colindale by Messrs. Everett and Edgcumbe, and a shed was constructed to house it in a field at the end of Colindale Avenue. In January 1910, newly-qualified pilot Claude Grahame-White tested a Farman aeroplane from the same field. That same year, Claude took his 100 h.p. Blériot monoplane to New York and won the Gordon Bennett Trophy race for aeroplanes. Claude Grahame-White won a prize of £10,000 from the Daily Mail from London to Manchester on 28 April 1910: Frenchman Louis Paulhan had taken off from Colindale on the 29th for Manchester to make the first flight from London to Manchester in 24 hours. Grahame-White had failed once, and on this occasion made the first recorded NIGHT FLIGHT in order to overtake Paulhan, though the Frenchman ultimately won. However, the honours were divided equally. After having set up a flying school in France, Claude turned to the possibility of locating a flying school in England, close enough to London, but strategically located. Claude spent a week searching for a suitable area for his project, and found an ideal location looking out from Hendon Hill down Hay Lane, in several hundred acres of pasture bounded on one side by the Midland Railway embankment: Claude Grahame-White by Graham Wallace, January 1910, per pro Mr C.R. Smith. After the successful Daily Mail race, by October 1910, Grahame-White acquired 207 acres of the pasture lane which was an open space two miles in circumference, to start the “London Aerodrome”, in [at the time] Colindale. Grahame-White had previously been using Wormwood Scrubs for his flights, but subsequently moved to Colindale and became involved with the company that was to develop the airfield. It is possible that at this stage, that Claude and Louis Paulhan, established their flying school as business partners, then persuaded Louis Blériot himself to set up his own [L. BLÉRIOT] Flying School. Finchley & Hendon Times of 7 October 1910 reported that the Aerodrome had been inaugurated the previous Saturday, and that eight aircraft sheds had been built. Three were occupied by another syndicate who were setting up a flying school: Horatio Barber’s Aeronautical Syndicate with their Valkyrie canard monoplanes, two by the Blériot school, and the other three for the purposes of the Aerodrome company. Blériot’s school was joined by accomplished aviator, Pierre Prier. However, when the Aerdorome first opened, there was a footpath that ran from the bottom of Hay Lane, under a railway bridge, to the hangars. This then met up with what was called at the time Collindale Avenue, note two “l’s”, which provided the only vehicular access at the time.
By October 1910, Grahame-White and his friend Richard Gates had the land levelled and trees felled to crate an oval-shaped airfield, two miles in circumference, with an office block, workshops, and 17 hangars in a line on the west side by the following year. A new company was incorporated, LONDON AERODROME COMPANY LIMITED, Company Number 111981, PRO BT31/13396 in 1911. The GRAHAME-WHITE AVIATION SCHOOL established the previous year, had offices at 1 Albemarle Street, London W 1, which might have been Claude’s previous motor business address], and “Works and Flying Ground”, The London Aerodrome, Hendon N.W. In May 1911, Grahame-White demonstrated the scouting, bomb dropping and dispatch carrying abilities of the aeroplane to the Parliamentary Aerial defence Committee, one of whose members was Winston Churchill, MP.
With the airfield development completed, various famous aviators performed to huge crowds of thousands in staged air races and displays. There was only one road in, the muddy and potholed Collindale [later “Colindale”] Avenue, which ran and still does, to the right, off Edgware Road north of The Hyde proper, and then becomes Aerodrome Road. Colindale Avenue is almost directly opposite Grove Park. A 1912 photograph shows that at this junction there were trees lining the road, with motor, horse-drawn traffic, and electric trams to Edgware. On the north-east corner could be seen houses in Annesley Avenue, and hangar-like buildings, which were the M.E.T. tramway buildings. On the left was the Shoelands Farm. There was a sign indicating that the LONDON & PARISIAN MOTOR COMPANY LIMITED had their Repair Works down the road, L. & P. being Agents for Hotchkiss and Delage cars. This company had in fact been established a few years, and had offices at 87 Davies Street, London W., and in 1914, their Motor Works was on the right a short way down Colindale Avenue: O.S. maps show that there was a “Motor Works” on that site until at least 1933. London and Parisian Motor Company Limited were still Hotchkiss and Delage Concessionaires in 1923 at 87 Davies Street, London W.1. had their Service Depot and Repair Works at Newcastle Place, Edgware Road, London W.2. By 1921, their premises were occupied by the Hendon Jig & Tool Company Limited.
It appears that there were other motor, cycle and motor-cycle agents down Colindale Avenue, near the main entrance to the Aerodrome proper [later at the junction of Colindale Avenue and Booth Road. However, at this time, Booth Road was a cul-de-sac in 1914, leading to a works, but in due course, “Booth Road” was the name allocated to a road which served new housing on the right of Colindale Avenue, to the south of the boundary with the Aerodrome.
It can thus be seen that the automotive industry had a presence in this area, located strategically. It appears that after the London Aerodrome was finished, Grahame-White, with backing from the Dunlop company, formed in August 1911 GRAHAME-WHITE BLÉRIOT & MAXIM LIMITED later THE GRAHAME-WHITE AVIATION COMPANY LIMITED, Company Number 1134953, at the same time as the London Aerodrome Limited, and started building their own aircraft “on site”, with offices at 166 Piccadilly, London W [1]. A number of flying schools with pilots from around the world set up at Hendon as well, including Farman. Apart from Grahame-White’s own designs, Breguets, Moraine-Saulniers, and Nieuports, were all built under licence. A circa 1912 photograph shows a sign referring to motor car enclosures, and from the time when the Aerodrome opened, it was arguably7 the first attraction to specifically cater for, if not encourage, motor cars since when watching the displays, the car passengers could sit in comfort and with tops down, enjoy the spectacle. Motoring and aviation accompanied each other in unique way, and was a portent of what was to come.
THE AIRCRAFT COMPANY LIMITED later AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING COMPANY LIMITED (or “Airco”) Company Number 122418, PRO BT31-20713, was incorporated on 6 June 1912, combining the 1911 Aeroplane Supply Company and also Airships Limited, based in Merton south-west London. The stated capital was £14,700 in 14,000 preferred 1 shilling Ordinary Shares and 14,000 deferred Ordinary Shares. The company acquired the business carried on by George Holt Thomas of St. Stephens House, Westminster and Hendon as the Aircraft Supply Company [the ASC took over the vacant premises of the Aeronautical Syndicate in April 1912 when the A.S. went under. The first directors were Thomas [Managing Director], and A.F. Thomas. The new company took over hangars at the London Aerodrome next to Grahame-White, and also to Louis Blériots’s Flying School.
In the Great War, Hendon became a major manufacturing centre. When war was declared on August 4 1914, Hendon Aerodrome together with the Grahame-White aircraft and facilities were requisitioned under the DEFENCE OF THE REALM ACT 1914, and Hendon was designated a Royal Naval Air Service Station. The R.N.A.S. established a delivery centre for new aircraft on the aerodrome: No. 2 Aircraft Acceptance Park. 14 Storage sheds were erected to accommodate the aeroplanes. The R.F.C. then started flying from Hendon from February to May 1916.
The Government realised that the Aerodrome was ideal as a centre for aircraft manufacture, and as a consequence, requisitioned huge amounts of former farmland to set-up various munitions and aircraft factories in Colindale on the east side of Edgware Road, and also in Kingsbury, on the west side: Handley-Paige established their Kingsbury factory to assemble 0/100 and 0/400 bombers: the prototype 0/100 was towed with wings folded along Colindale Avenue to Hendon Aerodrome on the night of December 9 1915 with Frederick Handley-Paige himself climbing tress along the road to saw off obstructing trees along the way. Subsequent H.-P. bombers were tested at Cricklewood and then flow to Hendon for storage. Airco benefited tremendously from the orders for thousands of aircraft, and one Geoffrey de Havilland was appointed as chief designer by the company Airco built DH2’s, DH4’s, 5s, 6s, 9s, 9A’s and BE2c’s, Avro 504Ks and Farman “Longhorn” trainers. Further down the Edgware Road, the Handley-Page Company was located at Cricklewood, and land was requisitioned to provide a take-off area. Post-war this would become the “Handley-Paige Airfield”. In the latter part of the War, Grahame-White produced Avro and de Havilland aircraft under licence, and these were joined by the products of the British Aerial Transport Company whose aircraft were built in Willesden and then flown to Hendon. In order to build these aircraft, AIRCO had numerous buildings spring up alongside the Edgware Road on both sides, with hundreds of workers transported in by tram, or accommodated in nearby housing. All of this work was undertaken in 1915, and the landscape changed permanently as a result. Grahame-White Company accommodated the growth that they experienced in a new factory which was erected in 1916. On December 4 1917 the King George V and Queen Mary visited the works. The pioneering motorist William Letts, who had been associated with Oldsmobile and Buick importation from 1902 to 1910 was appointed during the Great War to be responsible for aircraft production. He was rewarded by the C.B.E., then advanced to K.B.E. for military aircraft and motor production, the C.B.E. being awarded in respect of the No. 6 National Aircraft Factory at Gorton, new Manchester. This former aircraft plant was acquired by WILLYS-OVERLAND-CROSSLEY MOTORS LIMITED, in 1919 or 1920, and assembled Crossley cars and Overland commercial chassis. The No. 2 National Aircraft Factory at Heaton Chapel, Lancashire was also managed by Crossley Motors during the War, Letts being a director of course!
In addition to the Hendon and Cricklewood airfields, another manufacturing facility was built in 1915, in Kingsbury, evidenced today by De Havilland Road, which is just off Stag Lane. These aircraft manufacturing hangars were occupied by Handley-Paige. The “Stag Lane” Aerodrome was located on former pastureland to the north-west of the Hendon Aerodrome, bounded on the right by Stag Lane. Post-War, the Stag Lane Aerodrome, was taken over by the De Havilland Aircraft Company when the company was formed by Geoffrey de Havilland in 1920. The London Aeroplane Club, Stag Lane, was also located there, and Amy Johnson learnt to fly there. Amy Johnson’s house was at the point where Stag Lane meets Hay Lane, the site now occupied by Roberts Court, a little to the south of the Aerodrome site. A photograph shows that it was very active in 1924, the significance of this year being explained below. However, it appears that Stag Lane Aerodrome was still active in 1930, but understandable saw building development, as did the Cricklewood Aerodrome.
Claude Grahame-White himself attempted to move into peacetime industry after the wartime aircraft production ceased, and initially at least, assembled very small light cars, alongside aircraft, under the “Grahame-White” name from 1919. Aircraft began to disperse by May 1919, which left the Aerodrome once more in civilian hands but still under military ownership. Grahame-White failed to sell any new aircraft in the tiny post-war market, and turned his factory over to the manufacture of car bodies and furniture instead. By January 1920 over 100 cars per week were leaving Hendon. Grahame-White moved into peacetime after the wartime aircraft production ceased, and built instead very small light cars, the 1921 Models using the Coventry Victor horizontally-opposed two-cylinder engines, otherwise all used a vertical single-cylinder engine, all using chain drive. Production ran from 1920 to 1924/5 when all car production ended, under the “Grahame-White” name. The address of The Grahame-White Company Limited address was at The London Aerodrome, Hendon, London N.W.9. However, Grahame-White Company Limited exhibited at the 1920 London Motor Show, address “Hendon, London N.W.9”. The standard 2-seater was a 3.5 h.p. single-cylinder 348 c.c., price £160. The 1921 Models were 7 h.p. 2-cylinder 689 c.c., a standard 2-seater being £265. The Autocar 13 November 1920 referred to the exhibits and also featured a photograph of the chassis of the 7 h.p. light car. Another source states Grahame-White built Cyclecars starting with a 348 c.c. single-cylinder vehicle, later with a twin-cylinder engine and lastly with the Dorman four-cylinder engine.
Then, in 1924, Grahame-White sold all but 100 acres of the Aerodrome, PLUS the London Country Club to the Government for around £800,000. In fact, the London Aerodrome Limited was sold to the Government, and all its assets were transferred as well. However, buildings comprising the Grahame-White factories on both sides of the extension of Colindale Avenue were evidently left out of the acquisition for the aerodrome for the R.A.F. De Havilland had moved out of Hendon to Stag Lane in 1920, and Handley-Paige transferred to Cricklewood in 1918/1919. By the time that the aerodrome was sold, the only tenants on the Aerodrome were the London Flying Club and the Skywriting Corporation, based there from 1922 with smoke-generator S.E.5A’s. However, it was in 1920 that the first R.A.F. Tournament was held, later known as the Pageant, and then finally the Display in 1937.
The 1923 Commercial Directory shows that: W.C. GAUNT & COMPANY, motor car manufacturers, were at The London Aerodrome, Hendon, London N.W.9 Telephone Kingsbury 110 [W.C. Gaunt had Works at Hendon by November 1922] GENERAL MOTORS LIMITED, motor car importers, The Hyde, Hendon, N.W.9 Telegrams Genmotexpo, Hyde; Telephones Kingsbury 222 to 225
The 1924 Street Directories show that the following were resident at The London Aerodrome, Colindale Avenue, The Hyde, Hendon, London N.W.9: note full postal address: GRAHAME-WHITE COMPANY LIMITED, Aeronautical Engineers [1921-4] FRANCO-BRITISH ELECTRICAL COMPANY LIMITED, electrical signs [“Franco Works”, south side of Aerodrome Road, first building going eastwards] DELCO-LIGHT COMPANY, electrical dealers GENERAL MOTORS LIMITED TYLOR ENGINEERING COMPANY LIMITED, engine manufacturers ANGUS-SANDERSON LIMITED, motor body builders AEROFILMS LIMITED, aerial photographers, Company # 154995, PRO BT31/33801, 1919 founded THE W.C. GAUNT COMPANY, Packard motors….their Showrooms were at 198 Piccadilly, London W.1, Manager Leonard Williams [Packard Concessionaires] LONDON COUNTRY CLUB….south side of the road, nearest the railway line Angus Sanderson Ltd., London Aerodrome, Hendon, Middlesex built cars at County Durham, later at Hendon (despite their Scottish sounding name), by the firm of William Angus, Sanderson & Company. This marque was not a great success with only three models available. A press report of 1921 stated: “It was intended that there should be a mass production of this car that it might be placed on the market at a reasonable price. The mass production is yet to come but the price is not high”. A further statement in 1928 read: “this car is not being manufactured” and so it seems that this was another wild idea for the post-war world that came to nothing. The W.C. Gaunt Company had been importing Packards, including from 1920, commercial chassis, trucks and buses/char-a-bancs.
The 1924 Commercial section shows that General Motors Limited, motor engineers were at Edgware Road & The London Aerodrome, Colindale Avenue, The Hyde, Hendon, N.W.9
Then in 1925 GRAHAME-WHITE COMPANY LIMITED, Aeronautical Engineers FRANCO-BRITISH ELECTRICAL COMPANY LIMITED, electrical signs [“Franco Works”, south side of Aerodrome Road, first building going eastwards] DELCO-LIGHT COMPANY, electrical dealers GENERAL MOTORS LIMITED WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY LIMITED, electrical engineers, in succession to Tyler? G.H. WELSH, motor engineer, in succession to Angus-Sandersen? AEROFILMS LIMITED, aerial photographers THE W.C. GAUNT COMPANY, Packard motors….their Showrooms were at 198 Piccadilly, London W.1, Manager Leonard Williams [Packard Concessionaires] LONDON COUNTRY CLUB….south side of the road, nearest the railway line
The 1925 Commercial section shows that General Motors Limited, motor engineers were at Edgware Road & The London Aerodrome, Colindale Avenue, The Hyde, Hendon, N.W.9
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Oracle
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Post by Oracle on Aug 16, 2006 8:47:14 GMT
EDGWARE ROAD SITES
The documents at Companies House show that the Conveyance of the freehold to GENERAL MOTORS LIMITED was dated 18 October 1928, and made between H.M. Principal Secretary of State for the War Department of the one part and General Motors Limited of the second part. The land was described as being 22 acres 2 roods and 1 perch, bounded by the land owned by the Lamson Paragon Supply Company Limited, formerly owned by GEORGE HERBERT THRUPP and others [Thrupp & Maberley of course], and to the south-west by the ROYAL DENTAL HOSPITAL and the Daimler Company Limited, and also by land owned or formerly owned by the Warden and College of the Souls of All Faithfull People deceased of Oxford [“All Souls College, Oxford], and also by land to the south still owned by the War Department.
Then, on 2 July 1929, an extra portion of land of 2 acres was purchased by General Motors Limited from the War Department, adjacent to Stag Lane, bounded by land in the ownership of Kingsbury Urban District Council, which was in fact the sewage works! Thus, there were two Conveyances of two pieces of land.
Both pieces of land were said to be on Edgware Road, in the Parish of Kingsbury, in the County of Middlesex. This then led to the enquiry of the solicitors of All Souls College Oxford, which still owns a considerable amount of land and property in the Kingsbury area. The agricultural land, as it was, was originally called Shoelands Farm.
South of Shoelands Farm, and abutting thereto, also on the western side of Edgware Road, there was a large house, which by 1906 was a nursing home, with extensive gardens, Grove House. This was at one time the home of Field Marshall The Lord Roberts. The site was bought by the Hendon Council in 1934, the house demolished, and the grounds became Grove Park. However, in 1914 there was a private trackway which ran from Edgware Road to Grove House, and then another roadway ran westwards from the House to Stag Lane. In 1914/15, as explained below, this became a metalled road, called Grove Park.
The factories on the left side of Edgware Road running north were in what was at that time, Kingsbury [now in the London Borough of Brent], though for address purposes, those facing directly on to Edgware Road were in Kingsbury, as were those facing on to Stag Lane, and those to the right of Edgware Road were in Colindale. In 1914, Thrupp & Maberly Limited, later a Rootes subsidiary, were building motor bodies at Shoelands Farm in Edgware Road, Kingsbury, in buildings that show up on the 1914 O.S. map. The land sold to George Herbert Thrupp was conveyed by All Souls College on 6 April 1914. The next year [1915] saw factory hangar-like buildings located immediately to the south as land surrounding Thrupp & Maberly was requisitioned. However, in 1920, Thrupp & Maberly moved to Acton in West London, and their premises were acquired by Lamson Paragon Supply Company Limited, makers of paper goods in their factory from 1922, when the Postal District London N.W.9 was allocated. [The London Aerodrome was also placed in N.W.9., but the Midland Railway line delineated a boundary with the N.W.4. Postal District]. The Lamson Paragon factory was situated immediately to the north of large hangars, with fields behind. Lamson’s factory was named “Papercraft Works”, manufacturing bags and wrappings. Immediately to the north of Paragon’s was Holmstall Avenue which ran Edgware Road to Stag Lane, until the 1930’s when Carlisle Road was added in between, which paralleled Holmstall Avenue. Thrupp & Maberly were later acquired by the Rootes Brothers and seem to have bodied some Canadian Buicks for instance.
At the outbreak of war, AIRCO were initially located on the Colindale, or Aerodrome side of Edgware Road, however, in 1915, as mentioned above, they extended their premises, and by the end of the Great War had taken-over all the area between Hay Lane and what is now Carlisle Road, stretching westwards across part of the grounds of Grove House which had been requisitioned as an extension to the Aerodrome facilities, in order to create a take-off field. This area was on the eastern side of Stag Lane, whereas Stag Lane Aerodrome was on the north-western side. This therefore places this area on the Kingsbury side of Edgware Road: the AIRCO premises extended from Hay Lane to what is now Carlisle Road, bounded on the left by Hay Lane running up and becoming Stag Lane, forming a rough semi-circle. The main entrance to AIRCO on the Kingsbury side was the new roadway constructed along the former footpath to the House, and named “Grove Park”. AIRCO had found that they had needed to increase production and so acquired the Grove Park Estate alongside Stag Lane ½ mile from AIRCO’s existing premises. By the end of 1915, the company employed more than 60 personnel and had over 100,000 square feet of factory space. Head Office was at 47 Victoria Street, London and later 27 Buckingham Gate. All Souls College conveyed land on the south east side of Carlisle Road to the AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING COMPANY LIMITED on 10 September 1917, although there may have been a Conveyance by All Souls College to the H.M. Principal Secretary of State for the War Department under the DEFENCE OF THE REALM ACT 1914 of other land. The land conveyed to AIRCO was probably for the take-off area??? By the Armistice on 11 November 1918, the AIRCO workforce had grown to 4,400 and the factory area had increased seven-fold!
Behind the AIRCO buildings, between Stag Lane and Bacon Lane was the 24-acre Roe Green Garden Village, which was not completed until 1920. Roe Green ran between Kingsbury Road and the junction between Stage Lane/Hay Lane. Roe Green Garden Village was built to accommodate hundreds of factory workers, and was again built on former agricultural land.
By 1920, the Street Directory shows that The Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited had their Works and Head offices in Edgware Road & The Hyde, Hendon plus premises in Annesley Avenue, Hendon [opposite side of Edgware Road from the main entrance] and The Broadway, West Hendon. Annesley Avenue is just to the north of the junction of Edgware Road and Grove Park, on the opposite side of the road, and runs in a right-angular shape to meet Colindale Avenue. Hendon Broadway, as it now is forms part of the Edgware Road, and just off thereto to the east was the Midland Railway’s Hendon Station.
The World’s Carriers of 15 January 1929 commenting on General Motors Limited’s plant stated that the original AIRCO aircraft hangar which we are interested in was built covered six acres and had cost £250,000, and that there were 15 acres of land adjoining. The aircraft built there had been for the R.F.C., Royal Navy, and R.A.F. This seems to be borne out by photographs. Behind this main aircraft manufacturing building, there were evidently several aircraft hangars which served the aircraft take-off area, and these were still extant in 1922 as shown by an aerial photograph. Motor Transport also stated that the Edgware Road factory was a six-acre building erected during The Great War at a cost of £250,000, plus there were an additional 15 acres of land and that the square footage was in 1929 261,360 square feet, so say 250,000 sq. ft. when built
Post-war, AIRCO could not adjust to peacetime production, though it seems that they did manufacture aircraft at least initially, the company was bought by the Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (B.S.A.) in 1920, manufacturers of B.S.A. and Daimler cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles and bicycles as well as firearms. The AIRCO management team then rented the Stag Lane Aerodrome, and incorporated the de Havilland Aircraft Company Limited on 25 September 1920. We know that in 1920 the BSA directors were not interested in aircraft manufacturing; if they retained the original premises then they either leased [let] them off as detailed below although AIRCO had their Head Office until say 1922. However, the G.M. Limited factory was possibly never actually sold to AIRCO, but acquired by the War Ministry and rented to AIRCO. At some stage, certainly by 1921, it had become the No. 1 Aircraft Salvage Depot, which must have been responsible for rebuilds and reconstructions of aircraft. Whether this activity was carried on from 1917, the likely date for the completion of the factory, is not known.
This is what the collective Directories say about the part of Edgware Road, The Hyde, we are interested in:
1921 HAY LANE EDGWARE ROAD or THE HYDE SHEFFIELD SIMPLEX LIMITED, MOTOR WORKS THE AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING COMPANY LIMITED WORKS & H.O. [WITH THE ROADWAY LEADING TO GROVE PARK IN THE MIDDLE] NO. 1 AIRCRAFT SALVAGE DEPÔT UP TO 1920, SHOELANDS FARM, OCCUPIED BY THRUPP & MABERLY LIMITED LETTERS THROUGH EDGWARE: W. BERTRAM MILLS, RED HILL FARM LEWIS STANLEY, HALVERGATE CHARLES ELLIS, OAK LODGE STAG LANE
1922 HAY LANE EDGWARE ROAD SHEFFIELD SIMPLEX LIMITED, MOTOR WORKS [WITH THE ROADWAY LEADING TO GROVE PARK IN THE MIDDLE] THE AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING COMPANY LIMITED WORKS & H.O. NO. 1 AIRCRAFT SALVAGE DEPÔT [LAMSON PARAGON SUPPLY COMPANY LIMITED, PAPER GOODS MANUFTRERS.] LETTERS THROUGH EDGWARE: JOHN JOHNSON, RED HILL FARM LEWIS STANLEY, HALVERGATE CHARLES ELLIS, OAK LODGE STAG LANE
1923 HAY LANE EDGWARE ROAD BEARDMORE MOTORS LIMITED, MOTOR WORKS AIRCO EMPTY?PROBABLY PART OCCCUPIED BY NEW COMPANY AIRCO AERIALS LIMITED, AIRCO HOUSE, COMMERCIAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS, 1923 COMPANY, COMPANY # 181863 PRO BT31/27224 [WITH THE ROADWAY LEADING TO GROVE PARK IN THE MIDDLE] AIRCRAFT SALVAGE DEPÔT LAMSON PARAGON SUPPLY COMPANY LIMITED, PAPER GOODS MANF. LETTERS THROUGH EDGWARE: JOHN JOHNSON, RED HILL FARM LEWIS STANLEY, HALVERGATE ARCHIE McINTYRE, OAK LODGE STAG LANE
1924 HAY LANE EDGWARE ROAD BEARDMORE MOTORS LIMITED, MOTOR WORKS WINDOVER AVENUE BRITISH AUSTRO-DAIMLER LIMITED, REPAIR WORKS WINDOVERS LIMITED, MOTOR BODY BUILDERS AIRCO AERIALS LIMITED, AIRCO HOUSE, COMMERCIAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS, 1923 COMPANY, COMPANY # 181863 PRO BT31/27224 ALFRED NORTHWOOD, THE LODGE, CONFECTIONER PHOENIX TELEPHONE & ELECTRICAL WORKS LIMITED ROADWAY LEADING TO GROVE PARK HERE DAIMLER COMPANY LIMITED, MOTOR ENGINEERS GENERAL MOTORS LIMITED, MOTOR ENGINEERS LAMSON PARAGON SUPPLY COMPANY LIMITED, PAPER GOODS MANF. LETTERS THROUGH EDGWARE: JOHN JOHNSON, RED HILL FARM HERBERT LLOYD HIND, HALVERGATE ARCHIE McINTYRE, OAK LODGE STAG LANE 1925 HAY LANE EDGWARE ROAD BEARDMORE MOTORS LIMITED, MOTOR WORKS WINDOVER AVENUE BRITISH AUSTRO-DAIMLER LIMITED, REPAIR WORKS WINDOVERS LIMITED, MOTOR BODY BUILDERS AIRCO AERIALS LIMITED, AIRCO HOUSE, COMMERCIAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS ALFRED NORTHWOOD, THE LODGE, CONFECTIONER PHOENIX TELEPHONE & ELECTRICAL WORKS LIMITED DAIMLER COMPANY LIMITED, MOTOR ENGINEERS GENERAL MOTORS LIMITED, MOTOR ENGINEERS LAMSON PARAGON SUPPLY COMPANY LIMITED, PAPER GOODS MANF. LETTERS THROUGH EDGWARE: JOHN JOHNSON, RED HILL FARM HERBERT LLOYD HIND, HALVERGATE ARCHIE McINTYRE, OAK LODGE STAG LANE
With the coming of peacetime, the government were faced with a large skilled workforce which were facing massive unemployment: the Government decided to dispose of “The Dump” at Slough, which had been intended to not only employ men demobbed from the War, but also try and recuperate money spent on military vehicles; the result was the Slough Estate. Another answer, it was decided, was to encourage new concerns, mostly motor and engineering companies to the Hendon area and soak-up those made idle by the collapse of war industries. The War Department Signal Factory moved to the Edgware Road in the 1920’s, becoming the Phoenix Telephone & Electric Works Limited, employing ultimately 1,600 workers. They occupied former AIRCO premises at the junction of Grove Park and Edgware Road, and on the opposite corner of Grove Park was another former AIRCO hangar, and then the Daimler Company Limited. Parts of the Government-owned land previously occupied by AIRCO must therefor have been re-let on favourable terms to various new engineering companies, as by 1923 there were 23 factories employing thousands of men and women in the area. Beardmore Brothers, Windovers the coachbuilders [in what was named Windover Avenue, a cul-de-sac to the left off Edgware Road, between Hay Lane and Grove Park], and Desoutter Brothers located in The Hyde, as well as Daimler, which was as just mentioned, a B.S.A subsidiary. Subsequent companies of importance to General Motors history were Duple Bodies & Motors Limited and by 1931 Spurling Motor Bodies Limited, who moved from their premises [“Bedford Works”] adjacent to Lendrum & Hartman’s Buick Works in Old Oak Lane, a major contractor to General Motors Limited and also Vauxhall Motors Limited for commercial and bus bodies. Duple Bodies & Motors Limited were on the east side of Edgware Road south of the junction with Kingsbury Road on the left side and Rookery Way on the right. Spurling Motor Bodies Limited were on the corner of Rookery Way with Edgware Road, both in what is now known as The Hyde, again on the east side.
In addition to the extensive factories adjacent to Edgware Road, the war production requirements saw further hangar-type factories built on land adjacent to the Hendon Aerodrome in 1916, with the former footpath becoming a metalled road, an extension of Colindale Avenue, which was built by German Prisoners of War. Factories were built either side of this new road, and also backing on to the Aerodrome itself. Grahame-White on the back of the massive wartime contracts, as mentioned above built these. In addition, Grahame-White constructed between the factory buildings and the Midland Railway embankment, a substantial brick building which became the Officers’ Mess and Quarters in wartime, and then, post-war, the London Country Club, which is mentioned above. The Club had tennis courts and other facilities, and became a famous social scene.
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Post by Tubeboy on Aug 16, 2006 15:21:39 GMT
Is that the longest and most detailed post ever? Just scanned quickly through that, lots of interesting info there, will read it properly later. Thanks for that Oracle.
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Oracle
In memoriam
RIP 2012
Writing is such sweet sorrow: like heck it is!
Posts: 3,234
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Post by Oracle on Aug 16, 2006 15:31:52 GMT
COUNTRY CLUB The Country Club referred-to was built by Grahame-White on Colindale Avenue as the London Flying Club, and was a large, luxurious, brick building with tennis courts, etc., and was located immediately next to, and opposite aircraft hangars, and bounded on the south-west by the railway line to Edgware. In 1924 the Manager was R. Samet, general manager and secretary.
The Underground line, owned by the London Electric Railway, extended from Golders Green to Hendon Central in November 1923, and then from Hendon Central to the Edgware terminus in August 1924. The nearest station to the Aerodrome was the new “Colindale” one in Colindale Avenue. The extension to Colindale Avenue, Aerodrome Road, passed under the main Midland Railway Line, and then became Hall Lane, later Greyhound Hill, up Greyhound Hill, to St. Mary’s Church. The Club formed the basis for the HQ building for the Hendon Police Training College.
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Oracle
In memoriam
RIP 2012
Writing is such sweet sorrow: like heck it is!
Posts: 3,234
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Post by Oracle on Aug 16, 2006 17:09:51 GMT
This is the sort of thing I was hoping to introduce to these forums. This is from my history of General Motors in the British Isles draft. However you can see how things grew up rapidly.
The former GM Ltd plant became a Vauxhall export boxing plant and Frigidaire white goods factory. After GM finished with it as an electrical components and steering column factory it was sold off except for some offices and is now I gather occupied by a supermarket and industrial estate.
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Phil
In memoriam
RIP 23-Oct-2018
Posts: 9,473
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Post by Phil on Aug 16, 2006 18:53:53 GMT
Admin comment: historical items are (and always have been) welcome and keenly read, but please can we put them in the right place: there is a board specifically called 'historical' for the purpose.
Ta.
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Post by mandgc on Aug 17, 2006 10:19:23 GMT
Stag Lane Aerodrome.
F.W.Goudie's Booklet - 'Metropolitan to Jubilee, Wembley Park to Stanmore' of 1986 refers to opposition from De Haviland Aircraft Co.To the proposed Stanmore, Metropolitan, Branch passing across a field that was part of their Stag Lane Aerodrome. This was used by DH for testing planes built there and also by the London Aeroplane Club. It was suggested that the loss of the field might affect the future potential for larger aircraft and a posible use as Main London Civil Airport for the North. DH sold all but 14 acres of the airfield in 1932 for housing development. The factory repaired aero engines during WW 2 , was sold to Hawker Siddley in 1946 and closed in 1969.
During WW 1 numerous firms built and test flew planes; Hendon Kingsbury Aircraft aquired Kingsbury Stud Farm and 'Airco' was at Shoelands Farm Estate.
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