This week I thought I should do this week’s article from the list
of small firms in Greenwich. I had
started out a few weeks ago with ones taken from Ted Barr’s list but I’ve been adding to that from elsewhere and
it really is no longer is just his list. But the ones I’m doing this week will all be ones that Ted suggested.
EASTCOMBE MEWS
I’m starting with one which is a complete mystery and which is yet
another one which I’m asking for help with. Ted listed it as ‘General Engineers of 156
Eastcombe Mews’. Now, number ‘156’ seems to imply quite a big road
-156 is a lot of buildings - but I’m totally unable to find anything called ‘Eastcombe
Mews. The only hint I have is a couple of directory entries - one for a garage
to let - and another for a horse to sell. Both of them say ‘ Eastcombe Mews,
Westcombe Hill.’
Neil Rhind’s’ book on Westcombe Park deliberately only
covers the west side of Westcombe Hill -
which means that this site is likely to be on the east side and so may have
been something destroyed in the 1960s by the motorway. But I can see nothing relevant on
any old map.
There is a small enclave of industrial buildings on
the east side top of Westcombe Hill and which I know very little about . Is
there anyone out there can confirm that they are actually called Eastcombe Mews? Or that there is another place, or was another
place, called that?
So, the next one is ....
GRAFTONS
.... And it looks to be quite complex....
The next one is ‘Grafton’s’ which used to be over in Eltham,
in Footscray Road, on the site which is now the B&Q Store. They had the
most eccentric factory there - designed to look like a battlemented country
house building. It was demolished by
B&Q in order to build their store. Graftons has come to the attention of
many industrial archaeologists and historians through Aubrey Wilson’s classic
1960s book on ‘London’s Industrial Archaeology’. Wilson highlighted a classic
planing machine by Whitworth which he had photographed at Graftons works. It
had come from the Westcombe Park works of Arthur Martin – yet another works
which has led to me spending quite a bit of time in these columns complaining
that I can find nothing about it! Graftons has been a lot easier.
Finding out
about Graftons has taken quite a bit of research and I’m glad to say that I’ve
managed to resolve a number of problems, although others have come along. The
factory was built and operated by Walter Patrick Grafton who actually died in
1939. He was the youngest of a large family -and I will come to back to them in
a moment. The ‘Grafton’ name seems to have been adopted by Walter’s grandfather
in the early 19th century and previously they had names which could
be identified as Jewish .
Walter’s father was Henry Grafton - – born Henry Soloman
– he is described as a ‘mechanical engineer’ holding several patents and
apparently working in the Fulham area of west London’. In an agreement on the
tenancy of a property in Chancery Lane in central London he is described as a
‘philosophical instrument maker’. His eldest son was Alexander Grafton who was
to manage Appleby Engineers Greenwich works for many years. He eventually
founded the Vulcan Engineering Works in Bedford which specialised in large mobile cranes –initially steam cranes,
but later they were the first producers of electric cranes. Four other brothers
all seem to have had careers in engineering – Henry, Philip, William and Hugh.
Walter Patrick, born in 1861, was the youngest of the
Grafton brothers and he is listed as a draughtsman in the 1891 census . His Grafton
Engineering works was set up before 1901. Like his father and brothers he held
a number of patents –for example his
brother Alexander manufactured very large pieces of equipment in a large and
successful works. I wonder how common
this was in the 19th century for a family of several boys to take
off individually and found some successful works. By chance i’m currently rewriting a long
piece on Joshua Taylor Beale who had an engineering works on the Greenwich
Peninsula. He had four brothers and it was with some surprise that I realised
that Dr Thomas Beale who wrote an important book on whales was Joshua’s brother.
Walter Grafton was the youngest of six brothers and he
was to specialise in the small and sometimes quirky end of the manufacturing
world. For instance in 1907 he patented and manufactured a ‘swinging
thermometer’. It was designed to ”achieve a rapid
return of mercury to the bulb by the use of centrifugal force and also to avoid
the risk of the thermometer slipping through the holder’s fingers.” He held
other patents for what were mainly small gadgety things.
As far as I’m aware the building he first used locally
as a factory was the remaining central
building of the old Charlton waterworks in Woolwich Road on the corner Penhall
Road. I don’t know if this exhibits a
taste for eccentric workplace buildings but he set up home in an
unpretentious terraced house in Elliscombe Road. As late as 1950 there was
still a Grafton engineering works at 735 Woolwich Road described as ‘
General engineers and cabinetmakers’.
By 1919 he had designed and built the crenulated factory at 102-142 Footscray Road which
became a local landmark. From the road the building looked like an old country
seat with a high stone wall, twin gateways, and crescent-shaped driveway. The facade spread in dignified symmetry on
either side of a low, central tower, and the whole of the front elevation was
covered with a mass of creeper. The Second World War meant the lawn became
allotments, cultivated by employees. I was unable to find a picture of the works
to illustrate this article and I’ve come aware during my search of other people
who have looked for such a picture and been unable to find one – via Greenwich
Industrial History Facebook page. If you have one or know of one please let us
know and I’m sure other people would be grateful.
Graftons were Britain’s sole representative in the competitive
worldwide business of making precision ribbon spools for all makes of typewriters, time recorders, adding printing and duplicating machines in the
world .They made Zipp fasteners and
‘Compact Efficiency numbering machines with safety devices.
Their trade name was ‘Walligraph’ under which they made, for
instance, the ‘ zonalight task lamp’.
Described as ‘wall mounted
'RADIALITE" with a scissor mechanism which gave enormous reach and could
be folded away after use. They were produced from steel with an anodised copper
finish which showed a degree of
patination to the metal revealing the attractive copper finish beneath and the
cast iron of the wall mounts.
Post Second World War the Walligraph
Social Club. had its first annual sports meeting. when an ‘extensive programme
of events was successfully carried through’.
A free tea was served in a new dining hall, to nearly two hundred people
and there was ‘ a hat-trimming competition for men, a tug-of- war for girls,
and the catch-the-train and obstacle races. Also a fancy dress parade;
In 1952 the canteen was
turned into a concert hall for the annual staff panto which was ‘The Sleeping
Beauty’ - ‘ as the management tries to
keep the employees happy, many forms of entertainment are encouraged.’
They also made post war
metallic Christmas decorations and the ‘shimmering all-silver metal
Angel Pine Christmas trees’ for 1965. These fire-resistant trees—some were
14ft. in height—had needles that never dropped off and special facets to
reflect light. There are a number of Facebook and reminiscence web sites where
residents feature their Christmas trees used annually since the 1950s - often
with themselves in period appropriate clothing.
Walter died in 1939 - His wife had died some years
previously. By then he was living in a big double fronted house in Eltham facing the park. It’s a nice house but not
nearly as big and grand as I would normally expect a factory owner to have.
There is also a report of him living in Devon with his housekeeper.
The works was left to his children, Rowena and Eric.
who continued to manage it. It closed in 1988 following Eric’s death – and was demolished
for B&Q.
THE BATHS
The next item on Ted’s list is: “Greenwich new baths,
Trafalgar Road, had an engineering workshop driven by our old friends
line-shafting, belts and pullies.” It
was people of Ted’s generation who would describe the “old baths” as the
“new baths”. The building which we would call ‘The Arches Leisure
Centre’ would be ‘new’ to them because in the 1920s it replaced the ‘old’ baths
built in the 1850s.
Ted may have been right and there may well have been
an engineering workshop there but I think I have no way of knowing or finding
this out. I would be grateful if anybody who knew the internal arrangements at
the baths would let us know? Post something on the Greenwich Industrial History
Facebook page.
I would be surprised if anything which was there at the which
survived through to the days when the baths were actually closed. Although they
must have had some sort of technical workshop there I’m not sure of anything on
any scale. I would have assumed that for the sake of economy if any major work was to be done it would be
done down at Tunnel Avenue depot and somebody
sent from there to sort out any problems.
I would also expect that when Greenwich Council was taken over by
Woolwich in the 1960s that there would be moves to consolidate into one workshop covering Greenwich. Woolwich,
Plumstead and Eltham baths.
I look forward to hearing from someone who knows about
this.
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