EARLY FACTORIES
100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
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2017 sees Kelvin Hughes celebrating two milestones. Not only is it the 70th
anniversary of the installation of the company’s first commercial Marine Radar but also the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Henry Hughes &
Son HUSUN works at New North Road, Hainault, Essex.
This site remained the home of Kelvin Hughes for nearly 100 years.
100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
https://www.kelvinhughes.com © 2017 Kelvin Hughes
In the early years of the company’s history,
the Hughes family operated initially from
120 Fenchurch Street, London moving
later to Number 59. This later site gained
such a reputation for the supply of maritime
equipment that the area became known to
mariners as ‘Hughes Corner’.
The company also had a sales office in
the Royal Albert Docks and a smaller
factory in Forest Gate however most of
the manufacturing was carried out at
Fenchurch Street.
Central London may seem a strange
location to base the company’s offices but,
at the time, Fenchurch Street was close to
the London Docks which was the heart
of London’s shipping trade.
As well as navigation equipment,
Hughes were also at the forefront of
aerial navigation being one of the main
manufacturers and developers of aircraft
compasses for civilian aircraft and the
Royal Flying Corps.
The range of products the company
supplied were reflected in the HUSUN
logo from 1918 which shows sailing ships,
airships and aeroplanes.
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
A NEW SITE
A report from 1919 1 noted that during and after WWI, aircraft were being built by the thousand
adding that the compass manufacturing facilities at the Hughes head offices in Fenchurch Street
were stretched to their limits. In response to this demand the company decided to build a new
manufacturing facility on the outskirts of London.
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
RURAL HAINAULT
GETTING TO WORK
A green field site was purchased in Hainault in 1915 and, despite a shortage of labour and
materials, was opened in 1917 as the HUSUN works. There are no records explaining the
site name so we can only assume that it is a very shortened version of Henry Hughes & Son.
At the time of purchase, the site on New North Road was described as being out in the
country with ploughed fields on all sides with hardly a house in sight. One exception being
a farm house called Orchard House located directly opposite the site entrance. This was
surrounded by orchards at the time and the owners apparently used to sell their produce to
factory employees at lunch time.
At the time, Hainault is within easy cycling distance of several well populated districts.
The nearest public road transport was via the tram network that terminated at the
Chequers Inn at the far end of Barkingside High Street. This was a 1½ mile walk from
the factory with the High Street described as being a narrow lane with a village store, a
blacksmith, a few wooden cottages and a pleasant panorama of elm trees and meadows.
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
The site also benefited from being close
to Hainault Station on what was then the
Ilford-Woodford branch of the Great Eastern
Railway. Hainault station opened in 1903
but was closed in 1908 due to lack of use.
However, it appears that the company
had an agreement as ‘special’ trains were
arranged that stopped at the station once
in the morning and again in the evening
specifically for the company employees.
The morning train left Ilford at 7.23 am but
if you missed this another left at 7.53. The
fare for this later train was double and the
train only stopped at Fairlop station meaning
employees had to walk along the track to
Hainault. Arriving late meant the loss of
an hour’s pay so lateness was reported as
being almost non-existent.
Hours were long but work at the site stopped at 1 pm on Saturday and football played on
a company owned field near the site started at 3.30 pm. The period between 1 and 3 pm
was apparently spent drinking in the Old Maypole pub and the Hughes team often turned
out inspired in a manner that would be frowned on today!
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
1914-1918
THE HUSUN WORKS
During the First World War, the factory reportedly employed about 600 people with the
workforce comprising mainly women.
During this period, records in the company archive show that the company produced
“100,000 ship & Aeroplane compasses, 2,000 sextants and 1,500 semaphores which
caused an embarrassing demand for seasoned wood. 1,000 station pointers, 250 torpedo
deflector sights and other instruments of a number and variety too great to be described”.
As the demand for compasses dropped after the war, the company had to change many
of the manufacturing processes to peace time work so whilst continuing with the supply of
maritime equipment, they added the manufacture of drawing instruments, binoculars and
clocks to the products supplied.
The factory consisted of two principle
buildings each being approximately
70ft by 190ft. The main buildings
were described as being of red brick
construction with the two main shops
having ‘saw-tooth’ roofs with lights on
the slopes facing north.
A 1919 article1 carried an outline
image of the site showing each of
the workshop areas. This gives a
fascinating insight into the early days
of the factory and also the social
arrangements of the times. This is
particularly notable in the canteen
building where there are separate
dining rooms for men, women and
staff. Presumably the staff dining
room was for the senior management.
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
ELECTRICITY SUPPLY
There was no electricity supply in the area
when the site first opened so power was
generated on site by two Crossley 75
horse-power engines running from the local
town gas supply. These engines each had
ten-feet diameter flywheels and drove the
overhead shafts for the machine shops as
well as DC generators that supplied light
to the factory and power for additional
equipment motors around the site.
The whole site could be run from one
engine with the other acting as a backup
supply. A third much smaller engine was
used to run essential equipment during
meal times and to support the main engines
when the lights were all switched on!
In a set of personal memoirs held in the
company archives, Mr Long2 described
the efficiency of these engines writing
that “During the twenty years I knew
it, I doubt whether its breakdown time
totalled fifteen minutes”.
The engines were eventually discarded
and destroyed. Commenting on their
destruction, Mr Long noted that it was
“Much to the distress of its driver of
many years. Progress is sometimes
very hurtful to the human being”.
3
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
EASTERN BUILDING
NO. 2 MACHINE SHOP
This building was used for the manufacture of binoculars and similar optical instruments.
There the rough pieces of glass which are used in making the lenses are received into the
central shop, where they are rough ground and progressed through the smoothing and
polishing shops.
This workshop contained a number of lathes for general work and stood next to
a coppersmiths department.
Most of the machines were connected to overhead flywheels by leather belts. When
you wanted to stop a machine, you used a wooden lever to knock the belt off the pulley
leading to the phrase ‘knocking off’ meaning to finish work.
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
The machine shop manufactured parts
for compasses and the casing tubes of
binoculars. A further observation on the social
situation at that time can be seen in the report
that stated that the delicate and repetitive work
of manually cutting threads into the binocular
housings was carried out by women.
Equipment made in this building was varied
and included such things as chocolate
coating machinery, petrol lighters,
watchmakers’ lathes, motor lawn mowers
and a range of electrical switches and fuse
gear.2
THE FOUNDRY
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
The foundry was stated as being one of the most important parts of the HUSUN works. The
foundry was equipped with a cupola (the device used to melt cast iron) that could produce
15cwt which is roughly about 760kg of molten iron per hour. In addition to this, there were
six high pressure gas-fired crucible furnaces that could produce 100lb of molten brass.
The foundry had enough capacity that it could also be used for producing castings for what
was described as ‘outside customers’. At the time of the 1919 revieww, the workshops were
producing a number of iron castings for electrical cable junction boxes as well as some
smaller castings for lathes. The quality of the castings was noted as being so good that very
little machining was required after production to produce finished goods.
During the depression of the 1920, the foundry was also reportedly turning out man-hole covers.
The machine shop located in the West building was almost entirely devoted to the production
of drawing instruments. These were manufactured out of nickel alloy and finished by hand and
machine processes.
WEST BUILDING
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
THE TOOL MAKERS’ SHOP
WOODWORK SHOP
The tool makers’ shop had a number of working areas including machine, compass and
sextant shops. Work included the hand finishing and cleaning of the brass frames used in
sextants which was reported as being tedious work.
In the days before plastic boxes, almost all the equipment manufactured at the site was
delivered in a wooden box with the cases for sextants and compasses being made of teak
or mahogany with brass fittings. This work was all carried out in the central building of the
factory and only closed in the early 1960s.
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
Drawing again from Mr Long’s memoirs2, he makes reference to binnacle manufacture
in the 1920s. “Most indelibly printed on my mind is of the section of the shop used
for binnacle making and the sheet metal workers who worked in it. The handmade
binnacles called for great craft skills and this was supplied by five men.
They were the aristocrats of craft skill at that time; they were all older men and the
need of their craft skills was already being eroded by the advent of spinning and
pressing techniques. These men would arrive at work, never late, wearing long cloth
overcoats and bowler hats. Upon arrival their outdoor clothes would be carefully
folded and placed under the bench, white bib-type aprons were donned; most of
them wore a bowler hat or cap whilst working. They would take a sheet of brass,
make a few cuts and bends, and effect some brazing in preparation for the beating
work. This would be carried out on various pillars fixed to the bench, with the beater
standing on a stool or box. The beating would take about a day, by which time a
domed or conical binnacle cover would emerge, with barely a hammer mark visible.
The barest amount of hand finishing was necessary to prepare it for polishing. These
men were proud and dignified and would suffer neither liberties or cheek
from anyone”.
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
MAGNETIC/COMPASS TEST HUT
The Magnetic test hut was located in the corner of the HUSUN Works as far from the
rest of the site as possible, This building was used to test all the compasses before they
were shipped. To ensure that there was no interference or stray magnetism, the site report
from 19191 noted that “Such pains have been taken to make this establishment
non-magnetic that even iron nails for fastening the boarding have been excluded
in construction”.
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
THE CLOCK SHOP
This is one of the earliest photographs we
have of the site taken as the site was being
constructed. The building to the left was
used to make Blick Time recorders, taxi
meters and was known for many years as
the ‘clock shop’. The building in the centre
(by the gate) was the collection office for
transport to the city office (59 Fenchurch
Street) and to the shop in the Royal Albert
Docks in London.
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
THE CANTEEN
The canteens where segregated into women’s and men’s with the mens dining room used
at Christmas for theatrical entertainments and also as a venue for staff receptions.
Once again we can draw on Mr Long’s memories for details of the canteen as he reported
that “The Canteen facilities were minimal and were only designed to meet the
requirements of supplying tea and somewhere to eat your own food. It was usual
for employees to bring a pre-prepared meal with them contained in an enamel dish.
This was left in the canteen in the morning and for ½d it was returned at lunchtime
either cooked to cinders or as cold as it was when you left it in the morning. The
employees also had to supply their own cutlery and an enamel mug for tea”.
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
DELIVERY
A picture of one of the Henry Hughes & Son delivery trucks photographed outside the
HUSUN works.
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
NEARLY 100 YEARS IN NEW NORTH ROAD
Over the next 95 years, the site was continuously developed and modernised to adapt
to new manufacturing processes and technology. However, the core layout of the site
remained largely unchanged until the company relocated to Enfield, North London in
August 2012 thus ending nearly a century old association with New North Road.
The site has now been developed for housing but traces of the old company are
preserved in the names of the houses and streets as you access the buildings called
Echo House and Sonar House via Hughes Way.
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
NEARLY 100 YEARS IN NEW NORTH ROAD
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100 YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT HAINAULT
NEARLY 100 YEARS IN NEW NORTH ROAD
NOTES
Images and data from the archives held by Kelvin Hughes Ltd
1. The Engineer, October 1919.
2. Mr A Long retired from Kelvin Hughes in March 1973 after 49 years
with the company, many of them working in R&D. His memoirs,
presumably written in 1973, are held in the Kelvin Hughes Archives.
3. Image courtesy of the Wallis family. The British Matthews and WC
Pantin was a manufacturing company based initially at South Woodford
later moving to Epping, Essex.
Kelvin Hughes was acquired by HENSOLDT in September 2017. This is the new company
logo which marks the next stage of the companies evolution.