Engineering in the round

For a major Fleetville engineering works it has always seemed surprising that so little of its history is in the pubic domain.  Occasionally someone will reveal s/he was a former employee of the Sphere Works, a business which most of us associated with Campfield Road.

It is not just its early history which is vaguely known; a record of the nature of its activities from the 1930s onwards, and the role it played during the Second World War, which has been largely forgotten.  We are indebted to two sources, Grace's Guide to UK engineering companies, and Simon Cornwell, who has a well-documented history of street lighting, one of ELECO's specialities.

I have, of course, covered this theme previously on the St Albans' Own East End blog, when two specific topics brought it to wider attention.  The first was an alleged incident when one of the firm's demonstration street lighting clusters fell onto a parked car below; and a question included in the Info Needed on the St Albans' Own East End website, about locating a manufacturer of garage doors.  Although there was a possibility of it being the Sphere Works, there was no follow-up – until now.

Dennis, a former employee, has also been disappointed with the lack of information, and decided to record what he could remember of his former work place.  Among the products he recalled were "lamp standards with many different heads.  ELECO bought (I think) Bell & Webster which made reinforced concrete lamp posts; public footpath and bridleway signs cast in aluminium; aluminium road signs for councils; bulkhead lamps and Aldis lamps for the Admiralty; Falcon aluminium wheels for cars; bakelite cases; and garage doors."

He also recalled an impressive list of work colleagues and other members of the company: "Mr Bird, Mr Proctor and Mr Gilby (Directors); Harry Fothergill (Works Manager); Geoffrey Pruden (Technical Manager); Bill Batt (who had interviewed Dennis); Lionel Clowes (lamp head assembly foreman); Mary Zelda (lamp assembly); Barny Spicer (lighting stores); Mrs Deadman (nurse); Alfie (metal stores); Bert Bray (radial driller); Snowy (welder); Dennis (vacuum forming); Charlie Butt, Alf Guilfoyle and Les Twiddy (inspection); Tony Edwards and Ray (designers); Chris (the final apprentice); Butch (lorry driver); Bill Holland, Bill Scivier, Fred, Cliff Bond, Phil Scott, Winkel and Les Barnes (toolmakers); Tiny Hibbert, Bud Fisher and Mick Howell (capstan turners); Peter Freeman (bakelite shop); Harry (paint shop)."

Such an impressive list of names may well encourage others to engage in a conversation about Engineering & Lighting Equipment Company Limited (ELECO).

The company had begun as the Gilbert Arc Lamp Company in Chingford.  That firm had made the ornate lamps which line the Victoria Embankment; the company may have changed its name as early as 1905.  Street lighting was undoubtedly the company's most widely marketed range of products; its products being featured in many specialist journals.

Although a limited amount of historical information is circulating about ELECO there is one aspect of its operation about which there appears to be nothing.  I have seen no photograph of the works, nor of any of the processes or activities which contributed towards the wide range of products which made ELECO well-known.

Perhaps Dennis' recollections will spark the memories of other former employees.  Meanwhile, there is one published recollection which could be included on this site at a later date.

But at least, the identification of a local firm which once made garage doors, seems to have been answered: ELECO made them at the Sphere Works.  Which possibly leaves one major question: what was the origin of the company's address?  Did it have anything to do with the globes, probably made elsewhere, which enclosed the ornate lamps?