New Eltham may not be the first place we look to for an industrial site in Greenwich - but it was the site of a large and important instrument maker – the Stanley works.
It is very easy to find out more about Stanley’s. They were a large firm mainly based in South Norwood, moved there in the 1860s by William Stanley. In fact if you go to South Norwood you can’t miss Stanley – there are Stanley Halls, and the Stanley clocktower, and much else. William Stanley himself is a subject which could quickly fill up several interesting and intriguing articles.
Stanley’s were instrument makers – and if you want to see what was made at New Eltham I suggest you look up ‘Hezzanith ‘on Google to see what was made – not at first by Stanley, but by a company called ’Heath’. ‘Hezzanith’ was their trade name, but it did not originate with Stanley.
To find the origins of the New Eltham factory we have to go the Erith riverside in the early 19th century where a young man, apprenticed to a maker of optical devices, was advised to build up his weak legs by using a treadle lathe. He was soon turning out devices of all sorts and in 1848 set up a business as an instrument maker, while also carrying on the family grocery business. His name was George Heath.
Around 1850 George Heath moved to Crayford with a workshop in the garden and his business greatly expanded. He is said to have worked there with his sons and to have handed over management to two of them, George and Frederick. They set up a factory in some cottages near Crayford Station. This eventually became known as ‘Observatory Works’ and pictures show a large factory complex dominated by what appears to be a wooden observatory tower with a sign ‘Heath and Co. Patentees and Manufacturers of Nautical and Scientific instruments’. On site is a foundry, a ‘compass works’ and much else. In 1916 they expanded to a factory at New Eltham.
So, clearly Heath were successful and prosperous – and needed to greatly extend capacity in the middle of the Great War. What were they making?? It is said that ‘to mariners the world over ‘Hessanith’ is a household word”. Much of their equipment went out stamped “Makers to the Royal Navy’. Their most important products were the sextant and the magnetic compass – every ship and every ship’s officer needed them. In wartime their products were subject to government control and it was that which led to the establishment of the New Eltham works which was requisitioned as soon as it was finished.
The foundation stone had been laid by Mrs Heath in September 1915 although apparently much of the negotiation for the site had been done by Stanleys. It lay at the southern end of an open area of sports fields with the Avery Hill Mansion at the north end and had needed considerable drainage work because of the River Shuttle. Some land was given to what became Avery Hill College for a sports field. From the start the works appears to have been a large and imposing building with a central staircase said to have been taken from an old ship. In 1926 it was taken over completely by Stanleys – instrument makers based in South Norwood – who were, in time, to concentrate all their production at New Eltham. The ‘Heath’ name, and its reputation, were kept as a trademark where relevant and there was a Heath family member on the board until at least the 1950s. But – from then on the works was known as ‘Stanleys’.
The New Eltham works produced what I suppose we would describe as ‘pre-electronic’ precision instruments – of which there was a vast range. Some of these were quite humble and known from school-room use, this would include items like rulers and set-squares, but made to the highest standards of accuracy for professional draftsmen. Other items would be highly sophisticated surveying equipment like theodolites. Items made as ‘Heath’ included sextants, compasses and binnacles. They also made specialist thermometers and metrological instruments – a list is quoted ‘brinometer, lactometer, latexometer, saccharometer, salinometer’ and so on.
It is important to remember that all of these instruments needed to be ‘right’ and that their manufacture demanded a very high degree of skill. It is also sad to think that because the instruments have largely been replaced by electronics, the skills are completely defunct.
Stanley’s survived until 1999 – by which time the site had been sold to a property developer. The Managing Director noted falling numbers of Ministry of Defence contracts, and said “we weren’t making anything to kill anybody ... just things to help soldiers and sailors know where they are’. The remaining stock of the New Eltham factory went for auction to be bought by collectors and the Science Museum.
Today the site of the factory is housing on ‘Stanley Close’ with not the slightest relic of the works left, and indeed no mention in the road names of Heath. In South Norwood there are many memorials to William Stanley – but nothing where the firm moved to after his death.
Stanleys were not the only instrument makers in Greenwich, although the largest. It is not an industry the area is known for but it was able to call on the same highly skilled workforce which had often been trained in Arsenal apprenticeships and which built up the reputation of many local engineering firms. Skills we apparently no longer need.
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This article is based on ‘A Century of Scientific instrument Making’ (Cecil Allen 1953) and ‘The Story of William Stanley’ (Eloise Akpan 2000). Also some references from the Bexley Museums Facebook page.
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