LEATHERHEAD & DISTRICT LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY

For information about the 1950 edition of Kelly's referred to below please click the Kelly's link on the left of your screen, also for LUDC 1950 and LUDC 1965/67.
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BARNETT WOOD LANE BULL HILL CHURCH ROAD CLEEVE ROAD DORKING ROAD EMLYN LANE [ERMYN WAY] EPSOM ROAD FAIRFIELD ROAD GARLANDS ROAD JUNCTION OF GUILDFORD ROAD, BRIDGE STREET AND WATERWAY ROAD

LINDEN ROAD OAK ROAD OXSHOTT ROAD PARK RISE POPLAR ROAD QUEEN ANNE’S TERRACE RANDALLS ROAD RIVER LANE STATION APPROACH STATION ROAD UPPER FAIRFIELD ROAD

 
right: LUDC 1950: Aerial view of Leatherhead
[Prominent are one of the bridges and the Pumping Station. Windfield House  in Epsom Road is at the bottom of the photo]

G.K.S. COMBUSTION COMPANY LTD.
The Company was formed in 1930 to supply castings, mainly for power station uses, and while these still form a large part of their production, they have for some eighteen years or so expanded their service to cover general engineering castings of all kinds, so that they can now offer a full foundry service, covering pattern making castings in iron and non-ferrous metals and also machine shop facilities. They feel their future prospects to be good as they have established a reputation for first-class quality and services, and now include some of the country’s biggest enterprises among their many customers.

The blowers are employed for temperature control of vital equipment associated with the electronic and aircraft industries. They are currently in use on alll British made aircraft including BAC One Eleven, VC10 and TSR2. Plannair equipment is made and distributed throughout the world through licensed manufacturers and agents.

PLANNAIR LTD.
Plannair is a Company formed just after the last war for advanced design and development of air and gas blowers and compressors. Today the Company has a reputation second to none and its equipment is made under licence in several major countries abroad and sold throughout the world. Its equipment can be found on all the latest civil and military aircraft and is used on guided missiles, ships and nuclear propelled submarines. In addition Plannair equipment is widely used in industry for temperature control of vital electronic equipment such as computers, radio and television equipment, etc.

An Aerial View of the Goblin Factory

GOBLIN (B.V.C.) LTD.
This company which celebrated its Diamond Jubilee Year in 1961, controls a diversity of manufacturing and marketing interests, has its headquarters at Goblin Works, Ermyn Way, Leatherhead. Their proud boast is that their first chairman,

Mr. H. Cecil Booth, was the Inventor of the vacuum cleaner. At Goblin Works are the Head Offices and central control of the parent and branch factories manufacturing for the selling companies. These distribute Goblin domestic appliances, B.V.C. Industrial Cleaning Plant and Installations, Magneta Electric time and sound systems and precision small motors.

The factory draws upon the neighbourhood for a very wide range of manufacturing skills and offers opportunities to the younger members of the community in many trades. This applies equally to women and girls as to men and boys by reason of the number of lighter jobs requiring deftness and skill of hand and eye that are carried out.
       
The Offices function as headquarters for all companies of the group and offer many openings for experienced office workers and for juniors. The staff appreciate the congenial conditions of working in rural surroundings and the company is proud of the number of personnel with long service records.

LUDC 1965/67
A. L. WELLS & SON LIMITED.
We are the oldest firm of Builders’ Merchants in Leatherhead, the business having been founded in 1925, and has gone from strength to strength. The aim of our business is to provide a service and we have succeeded in establishing a reputation of which we can be justly proud. We are, however, constantly trying to improve this service and this is evidenced by our recent entry into the premix concrete field.

Our light side stock (baths, sinks, basins, plumbers fittings, etc.) is most comprehensive as is our heavy stock. We are also producers of the Federal Block and aggregates are our speciality.
We hope we can be of service to you.

PRINTING, PACKAGING AND ALLIED TRADES RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

PATRA stands for the Printing, Packaging and Allied Trades Research Association. The Association employs a staff of over 120 and has laboratories in Randalls Road on the western outskirts of Leatherhead—three minutes’ walk from the Southern Region station, eight minutes’ from the town centre. PATRA moved here from London in 1948, and since then has added a packaging wing and—most recently—an engineering extension to the three-storey block with which they started.

PATRA is engaged by printing and packaging firms who need scientific help. This can mean anything from advising whether a certain paper is too acid to be printed with a certain ink to “ field studies ” on how sacks are handled on their way from factory to customer ; or from making sure that books for tropical countries are termite-proof to consultations with banks on magnetic ink printing for cheques.

The engineering section, added in 1964, is designed to bring new skills and new ideas to the mechanical side of the industries. Printing by air pressure, finding why moving parts of machinery are not always in step, recommending the best type of power drive for a new installation—these are some of its fields of activity. A streamlined workshop develops prototypes of the latest of a long series of PATRA instruments which firms buy for on-the-spot production and quality control.

To join PATRA, firms pay a subscription according to their size; the Government pays a proportional grant as well. Colleges and trade unions can also become members; PATRA offers them a comprehensive information service, including a unique technical library, abstracting and translating services, and a steady flow of periodicals and reports from the laboratories.

PATRA’s work is realistic ; it is always based on what the industries need. Thanks to the national emphasis on fundamental research in recent years, most of the basic knowledge is available ; PATRA’s job is to put it into practice—to show how methods, machinery, working habits can be changed to produce higher quality for less waste of materials and human effort.

LUDC 1965/67
THE BRITISH COAL UTILISATION RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

Part of the BCURA site, with the ECA buildings in background

Formed in 1938 to “ promote research and other scientific work in connection with the utilisation of coal ”, B.C.U.R.A. is one of the largest of the Government-aided, autonomous, industrial research associations. It was the first to come to Leatherhead, the twenty-acre site in Randalls Road having been acquired in 1943. As building restrictions allowed, the laboratories were gradually brought to Leatherhead and in 1953, with the completion of the Domestic Appliances Building, all the work was concentrated on the one site.

B.C.U.R.A. is supported by (and links together) the nationalised industries (coal, gas, electricity, and transport), coal distributors and over one hundred other individual firms and trade associations ; the Association thus occupies a focal position in coal research aimed both at raising the efficiency of conventional utilisation methods and also at devising and exploiting new processes and industrial uses.

B.C.U.R.A.’s. main activities are grouped around problems of combustion and concern many aspects of burning coal, ranging from the operation of large power stations down to that of domestic central-heating boilers, small pipe central heating having been pioneered by B.C.U.R.A. and tried out in the Leatherhead district several years ago. The research investigations demand sophisticated techniques and are fully supported by fundamental studies.

Many visitors are received from home and abroad, and in 1960 the Association was honoured to welcome H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh.

AIR, HEAT AND DUST CONTROL (KING’S) LTD.
This firm designs and installs all types of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. In this capacity they carry out work for Local Authorities and the War Office, as well as contracts direct with industrial and commercial firms or through Architects and Consulting Engineers.

In the heating field they handle low, medium or high pressure hot water systems, steam heating, embedded or radiant panel schemes, and carry out any piping installations for process work.

The ventilation side includes dust and fume extraction of almost any type, as well as straightforward ventilation plants for any industrial and commercial application. Air Conditioning completes the activities of this thriving company.

The Company has been in Leatherhead since its establishment in 1955 and has successfully carried out work throughout the whole of the British Isles for industry and government departments.

Prospects for the company are extremely good and with industry and commerce becoming increasingly aware of the necessity for providing comfortable working conditions, their work is becoming an essential factor.

Image shown is of the Fairfield Works offices, since demolished, seen from the Swan Centre in Leret Way, vehicle access was from Upper Fairfield Way. Information is being sought on the original Works.