The Slough Trading Estate, 100 Objects over 100 Years Exhibition
THIS EXHIBITION HAS NOW ENDED
Dates: From the 22nd Sept to the 6th October 2023 incl. weekends
Location: Slough Museum, 72 Buckingham Avenue, Slough Trading Estate, Slough, SL1 4PN
Times: 10:00 to 16:00
Parking: Free 2 hour parking at the Buckingham Centre, or paid multi-storey parking in Bedford Ave.
Refreshments: Available at the nearby Buckingham Centre
The Slough Community Centre
In the early 1930s, a group of Slough business men, representing such firms as Horlicks, Slough Estates, Aspro, High Duty Alloys, British Technical Cork Products and Intertype, inaugurated the Slough Social Fund under the presidency of Colonel J. N. Horlick and the chairmanship of Sir Noel Mobbs. The Slough Social Fund founded, and performed the major part of its work through, the Slough Community Centre, which was opened in April 1937.
The Slough Social Fund was formed in June 1936, as a society of manufacturers, traders and private persons in Slough and neighbourhood, banded together to promote the health and education of the people of the district, and for this purpose to give opportunities to all classes of workers in its neighbourhood to enjoy healthful and interesting leisure time occupations and recreations.
In its opening year, the Slough Community Centre was honoured by visits from the late Queen Mary, and the reigning sovereign, the late King George VI, with Queen Elizabeth, then the Queen Mother. In subsequent years the centre was honoured by visits from other members of the royal family. A treasured photograph in the Slough Community Centre is one which shows Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, enjoying a game of darts with members of the centre.
The Slough Community Centre consisted of a number of buildings and extensive playing fields, adjacent to the Slough Trading Estate, which have cost well over £50,000, of which more than three-quarters has come from donations and subscriptions from member firms of the Slough Social Fund and the balance in grants from statutory authorities.
The buildings included large and small halls used for theatrical, musical, boxing, fencing, table tennis and similar recreational events-for instance one of the halls was fitted for use as a roller skating rink-and for dances and social evenings ; a badminton hall ; a gymnasium ; an indoor swimming pool ; a cinema projection room ; a billiard hall ; a large-screen television room ; lounges and a reading room ; a photographic dark room ; a restaurant and canteen ; and a variety of rooms utilised for classes, lectures, gramophone recitals, discussion groups and similar act1v1t1es. Provision was made for chess, bridge, whist, dominoes, draughts and darts and a regular supply of periodicals is available for members.
Varied facilities
Services and facilities were made available at the centre include accommodation, secretarial services, general staff services, equipment, and financial help for various welfare and educational groups which operated at the centre ; for instance, sick benefit club, thrift club, old people’s club, disabled men’s club, nursery school, youth club, Citizens’ Advice Bureau, marriage guidance, married women’s clinic, legal advice, infant welfare centre and a Community Centre Chest operating a deed of covenant scheme in aid of deserving causes.
A unit of the St. John Ambulance Brigade formed one of the sections of the Slough Community Centre, and such bodies as Civil Defence, accident prevention group, Productivity Council, Rotary Club, Townswomen’s Guild, Women’s League of Health and Beauty, dramatic and musical societies-in all about 150 recreational, educational, cultural and social welfare organisations-made use of the facilities provided
Leisure time
Apart from provision for such bodies, the centre operated a club which enjoys a membership of 5,000 persons, on a basis whereby the individual enjoys his leisure time as a member of his community at large and not in the more limited sphere of the works. The centre’s park comprised of 160 acres of land and accommodates the playing fields of the centre, providing facilities for tennis, football, hockey, cricket and athletics, with an excellent pavilion. The centre also has a sports stadium which houses a youth club and has around its perimeter a concrete, banked cycle track.
Individuals not connected with member firms in this scheme were able to join the centre for the payment of £1 per head, subject to certain reductions for husbands or wives of an existing member, for old age pensioners, students and certain other categories.
Mars Was a Key Part of Slough Trading Estate
MARS – Queens Award for Exports Goblet dated 1974
This ceremonial goblet was awarded to Bounty shift line manager George Oliver at Mars. This was part of the celebrations when Mars was awarded the Queens Award for Exports in 1974. This was quite an achievement as the UK was suffering the miner’s strike and the subsequent three day week during 1973 and 1974. Mars escaped the restrictions, thanks to the Estate having its own independent Power Station that had permission by the UK Government to maintain supplies Mars won the award for a second time in 1979.
The goblet was donated to Slough Museum by the family of George Oliver
George’s donation of his thornless rose, Sophie, filled the flower bed at Salt Hill park in Slough.
The flower bed was filled shortly before his death in 1992.
George Oliver’s story – From Mines to Mars and Manure
William George Oliver, known as George Oliver
1913—1992
George was born in Tylorstown which is a village a few miles from Maerdy in South Wales. He had a brother and a sister. He was intelligent and went to a grammar school and was usually near the top of his class. Tylorstown in the Rhondda valley, in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon
Rather than staying to take exams he left before he was 16 and went down to work in the coal mine near where they lived. Underground they were organised into gangs of five who were usually from the same family and so he joined his father’s gang.
By the 1930’s the great depression had an impact on mining that left the miners looking for new work opportunites. Slough had been identified as town with growing employment where the Government set-up a training centre on the Estate to teach the miners the new skills of industry. Slough suddenly had a large influx of Welsh workers and Timbertown was renamed ‘New South Wales’.
In 1937 George started working as a Furnace man in an aluminium alloy factory called High Duty Alloys on the Slough Trading Estate. This factory made aircraft parts and so George was retained in the factory rather than going to join the army in the Second World. This was not without risk however as the factory was a key target by the Germans and was hit by a bomb in 1941.
Sophie and George became council house tenants in post-war Slough, living at 39 Faraday Road. They purchased their council house in the 1980s.
After the Second World War, George had a few factory jobs before finally joining the Mars Confectionary factory in Slough where he remained for 30 years on the ‘bounty line’. He was termed a Cook which meant he was a supervisor in charge of a production line making Bounty bars.
George retired in 1978 which allowed him to spend more time on his lifetime hobby of rose-breeding, which he first started doing in the 1955. He went on to receive an international award for developing his thorn-less rose. George’s thornless rose, Sophie, was exhibited in the 2nd ever Hampton Court Palace International Flower Show in 1991.
The show was first held in 1990 and created by Historic Royal Palaces and Network Southeast. In 1992 Network Southeast announced it was withdrawing and the RHS was the successful bidder to take over. The first RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show was held in 1993, and it has gone on to become the world’s largest flower show.
Rose grower, George was invited by the RHS to enter his thornless roses at the Hampton Court Palace International Flower Show in 1991 (11-14 July). He named his rose Sophie, after his wife who died in Feb-ruary, 1991, aged 74. George worked for 30 years developing his roses by suppressing the thorn gene. He reached this goal in 1979. In the following 12 years George had a lot of visits from rose growers to his colourful garden at Faraday Road, Slough.
George won an international award for developing the first thornless rose in the world in 1993, a year after his death.
The Rolex Spirit of Enterprise Award was awarded to him in 1993 for researching and developing the thornless rose. Following discovery of a rose variety bearing only an occasional thorn, a project was launched [by him in his back garden!] to completely suppress the thorn gene. After intensive inbreeding, the gene was suppressed, and a new thornless family of roses was produced. Application of hormone (GA3) in this and other situations had produced startling results.
Cooper’s Mechanical Joints / J Payen / British Technical Cork
The Coopers Mechanical Joints company made gaskets and seals for some of the very first motor vehicles ever produced. It produced handmade gaskets for the Sunbeam Motor Car Company and also supplied gaskets for the Model T Ford, the first mass produced, affordable car.
The company first started, back in the early years of the twentieth century, when Dr PG Griffiths invented a water steriliser. He began to market this product through a London firm, Edwin Cooper & Co which also made gaskets.
The business prospered, changed its name to Coopers Mechanical Joints and moved from Kennington in London to the Slough Trading Estate in 1932. The move coincided with the acquisition of British Technical Cork and their Slough works. British Technical Cork were prominent manufacturers of composite cork material which was supplied in sheet form or cut for use as gaskets, oil seals, anti-vibration packings, insulation, domestic articles etc., to a wide variety of industries.
Coopers Mechanical Joints made gaskets (also known as “joints”) primarily to seal the engines of cars, heavy transport vehicles, and agricultural tractors. They were made from compressible materials and designed to fit between two machined metal surfaces to make a gas, water and oil tight seal. Special materials were developed and made in house, to improve the life and effectiveness of the gaskets, improving vehicle reliability.
Dr Griffith acquired a French gasket company, called J Payen Limited. which had been manufacturing gaskets in England. It was decided that the replacement gasket business, supplying garages with spare parts should be handled by this company, while Coopers Mechanical Joints concentrated on gaskets for the car manufacturers to use in new vehicles.
In 1935 Coopers Mechanical Joints Limited, J. Payen Limited and British Technical Cork Company Limited were combined in one group called Engineering Components Limited.
The Slough factory was one of the largest of its kind in the world devoted to the manufacture of seals and gaskets. The business was self-contained, in that it manufactured its own steel tools which were used to stamp out the gasket outline. The Tool Room at Slough was one of the most modern in the country, with a highly trained and skilled workforce, devoted to the manufacture of press tools.
During the 1914-18 War, the Company were able to produce a large number of parts that had been previously imported, but during the Second World War 1939-45 it was able to make a very important contribution to victory, under the direction of the Ministry of Aircraft Production. It was able to produce not only all the gaskets required by the Armed Forces, but also substantial quantities of parts used in the manufacture of aircraft, ships, tanks, guns, shells, bombs, etc.
By 1948 more than 1,200 people were working in the Slough plant and the total rose to 2,000 at its peak. The Company had good working conditions and many amenities, such as canteen, medical services and sports facilities.
In 1952 a new factory was built at Edinburgh Avenue, Slough, and the offices and stores of J. Payen Ltd moved in. In the same year, Engineering Components acquired the Bradford firm of Wood Bros., makers of asbestos goods, compressed asbestos and paper gaskets and industrial gaskets. Part of the Slough business which had for several years produced industrial gaskets, was transferred to Wood Bros.
In 1966, a merger was arranged with the asbestos giants, Turner and Newall Limited of Manchester, who had provided the company with asbestos materials for many years. The company had its own engine testing facility; research and materials laboratories; and prototyping departments on the Slough site. In the early 90’s it introduced “Lean Manufacturing” techniques to improve product quality and delivery times and to reduce waste. The site was unionised, with good industrial relations and an increasingly diverse workforce.
In 1998, Turner and Newall was acquired by an American corporation, Federal Mogul based in Southfield, Michigan. The company that was then known as Coopers Payen Ltd was taken over to become part of the group. Production at Slough finally came to an end in 2007.
21st Century TV and AP Films
The display makes homage to one of the most famous exports from the Slough Trading Estate, second only to the Mars Bar! The product in question being the series of puppet based TV and Film shows from AP Films, that became 21st Century TV. The most famous of all being Thunderbirds. The puppets moved their mouths in synch with the soundtrack using a patented technique called ‘SuperMarionation”
AP Films was formed in 1957 by the director Gerry Anderson and the cine-photographer Arthur Provis, hence the ‘A’ and ‘P’ in AP Films. Together they produced the series ‘The Adventures of Twizzle’ that was all about a boy who could stretch his body to resolve various challenges. This was followed by ‘Torchy the Battery Boy. Both were originally filmed at Islet House on the river at Maidenhead.
Arthur Provis left the company in 1959 that gave Gerry Anderson the opportunity to explore new ideas that started with the cowboy series ‘Four Feather Falls’. This featured many stars of the day who gave their voices to the puppets.
The house was proving to be cumbersome for filming and Gerry Anderson moved production in 1960 to a spare factory unit in Ipswich Road on the Estate. This is the same building where the company Protyre are now based.
Between 1960 and 1963 the company produced shows including ‘Four Feather Falls’, ‘Supercar’ and ‘Fireball XL5’, all from Ipswich Road:
The company then had a change of name in 1963 following investment by Lou Grade, (the TV magnate) along with a move on the Estate to Sterling Road. This was a new unit that allowed filming on a larger scale. Following the success of Fireball XL5 a new show evolved. This featured a sleek and nimble submarine based out of ‘Marineville’ called ‘Stingray’.
Following Stingray, Gerry Anderson hit on his most successful series based on the puppet ‘Tracy’ family who formed an ‘International Recue’ team under the programe name of Thunderbirds. The success led to a full feature film that received mixed reviews. Garry Anderson’s wife Sylvia influenced the cool styling and voice to the UK based Thunderbirds special agent, known as ‘Lady Penelope’. Many may remember her pink six wheel Rolls Royce’ that was full of gadgets and driven by ‘Parker’. her butler.
The film crew made the most realistic effects that included huge explosions that could be witnessed from the adjacent road and buildings. They seemed to like blowing things up but at a cost as the sets took ages to construct and had to be used in one take.
Thunderbirds has since experienced re-inventions of the programmes that included the filming of three lost episodes by son Jamie Anderson that were only captured as an audio recording. He used the original Sterling Road building and some of the original team There has been an animated version of the show that maintained the same quirks of the original series including the use of an orange squeezer used as part of Thunderbird 1’s hanger as seen in the original shows.
More shows followed from the Sterling Road studios with the creation of Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and Space 1999. Gerry Anderson sadly passed away in December 2012 where his son Jamie has continued to continue in his father’s footsteps.New Paragraph
Ragus: 95 years manufacturing pure sugars on Slough Trading Estate
Ragus Sugars has been a part of Slough Trading Estate’s history since 1928. During that time, the company has seen four generations of the Eastick family making pure sugar products in Slough. The modern Ragus manufactures and delivers pure sugar products to leading household brands around the world.
The Ragus journey begins in 1880
We can trace the origins of Ragus back to 1880, when Charles Eastick, the great-grandfather of the current generation of the Eastick family making sugar products, started a sugar chemistry laboratory in London with his brother John Joseph. In 1883, Charles invented the famous household staple Lyle’s Golden Syrup, and continued to run sugar factories throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In 1928, Fruit Products launches a 95-year journey
Charles’ passion for innovation, a trait the family has retained to the present day, led to him establishing a factory on the then new Slough Trading Estate, as Fruit Products Ltd. The company made specialist sugars and, as the name suggests, fruit cordials and candied peel for the exclusive department stores. In 1930, Ragus Sugars was established, manufacturing innovative invert sugars a sweeter, moist sugars that are used by bakers, brewers and confectioners. Invert sugar was the inspiration for the name – Ragus is ‘sugar’ back-to-front – or inverted. This factory was the precursor to the modern facility you see today.
How Ragus evolved into today’s industrial manufacturer
During the rest of the 20th century and noughties, the company continued to grow at the Bedford Avenue site, supplying an increasing range of sugars to customers around the world. By 2010, the original factory in Bedford Avenue had reached capacity and could no longer meet demand. In 2012, a modern state-of-the-art factory was commissioned for construction on the current site, in Yeovil Road.
A history still in the making
Throughout the 2010s and up to the present day, the factory has expanded to allow greater capacity for manufacturing the crystalline sugars and sugar syrups, such as treacle, molasses and golden syrup, in industrial quantities. An average day sees dozens of 30,000 litre road tankers delivering raw sugars and distributing finished pure sugar products to customers throughout Europe and within the UK.
Ragus products can be found in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical products produced by the world’s leading household brands, as well as in emerging brands in the UK’s brewing, confectionary, baking and dessert industries.
Bestobell Man
Bestobell Man was commissioned in 1936 from stone mason Kitey Harris and depicts a fire fighter wearing a F53 heavyweight suit. The statue is carved out of Portland Stone that came from the Worth Matravers quarry in Dorset.
Most of the statue was carved off site but was then transported to outside the Bells Asbestos factory on the Farnham Road. Here the carving of the legs and feet were completed.
In 1988 the statue was returned to its location on Farnham Road following an outcry where Bells Asbestos had planned to move the statue to their new works in Dorset. The statue sat outside the Slough Chamber of commerce, near the Adelphi when the Farnham Road site was redeveloped but was soon removed and held in storage and was moved to Slough Museum in 2022.
Bell’s Asbestos and Engineering Limited was founded in the late 1870s by John Bell, who pioneered the manufacture of engine packings and jointings using spun Canadian asbestos. Its head office moved from Southwark, London, to Slough in 1929 where the company signed a 21 year lease on four factory bays at the Slough Trading Estate. Around the same time the company traded under the name Bestobell.
In the early 1930s the company formed a division known as Bell’s Heat Appliances where they launched the Swedish designed AGA cooker into the UK market.
By the 1970s it was the oldest surviving firm of its kind, producing a wide range of industrial products using asbestos and many other materials, and with numerous branches at home and overseas.
It was a most successful company for many years producing fire protective equipment for fire fighters, welders and steel workers, They produced insulation panels that gave sound and heat protection for use in aircraft construction and coach builders. A fire tunnel was built at the Slough works to test the suits.
In wartime, the company continued to provide the fireproof suits in support of the war effort. In 1941 the Duchess of Kent visited the Bestobell works in recognition to the support that the company had been providing. The works had a number of underground shelters all named after London areas such as Leicester Square and Piccadilly. An air-raid watch tower had been fitted to the factory roof. If anything was spotted then a call was made to the company secretary who sounded the alarm klaxon. The company also had its own fire brigade at this time that included the first all-girl trailer pump crew.
Bells supplied the air ministry with firefighting clothing along with Asbestos flying suits, helmets, gloves, and boots.
In 1946 the company moved its head office to Stoke House in Stoke Green
In 1951 the company Ronald Trist joined the Bells family of companies. Trist had been formed in 1904 to construct boiler controls. In 1916, they had developed the HILO boiler water level alarm.
In 1956 the Bells aircraft division was formed as a spin off in activities within BA&E. By 1964 the company had started to produce components for the Concorde aircraft that included flexible duct connectors. In all, 3000 individual components were built into Concorde.
The company also owned another Slough Estate based company called Sunway Blinds ltd that distributed and installed Venetian Vogue blinds.New Paragraph