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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 06 June 2006 |
Ferry Works - a brief history.
Industrial archaeologists have longed recognised the importance of Ferry Works, but to most people it is one of the forgotten monuments to the industrial revolution. Over a century ago it was the site of some significant engineering advances without which the "Hi-Tech" industries that now occupy the buildings could not exist.
In the 1870's an idea was conceived by two brilliant engineers, Peter Willans and Mark Robinson to create what proved to be the finest and most efficient steam reciprocating engines that the world had seen. These engines coupled with the new "dynamo electric machines' became the power behind the most successful electricity generators of the 19th and 20th Centuries, and were first manufactured at Ferry Works.
Ferry Works has an industrial history going back at least 200 years but the present buildings largely date from the 1880's. In 1886 there was a disastrous fire that reduced the original factory to rubble. It was the largest fire Thames Ditton had ever seen and 120 firemen fought unsuccessfully to contain the blaze. Out of the ashes rose the new factory building, largely single storey and with new machine shops that were spacious and flooded with light from the lofty windows that overlooked the river, and the saw-toothed roof with continuous glazed lights. The roof was supported on slender cast iron columns which also carried machinery. With its new foundries and other departments, Ferry Works was one of the best-equipped engineering shops in the country in the latter years of the 19th Century.
Before using their high-speed engines to drive electricity generators, Willans and Robinson built boats, some of which were fitted with their steam engines. Several were fast and sophisticated steam yachts that sailed on the rivers and lakes of Europe, and at least one was registered in New York.
Within a few years the success and worldwide demand for Willans and Robinson?s steam engines created a vast and essential industry. There was no room for growth at Thames Ditton and between 1897 and the early 1900?s the company moved to much larger premises at Rugby. Eventually Willans & Robinson merged with other firms to form English Electric, and are still at Rugby but now under the aegis of GEC Turbine Generators Ltd, one of the leading companies in Britain today.
The next important occupants at Ferry Works were AC Cars who acquired the factory in 1911. During the Great War, the factory produced shells and fuses, although at least one vehicle was designed and built for the War Office. After the armistice, AC Cars started up production of motor vehicles once again, and designed and built many successful cars at Ferry Works until the company was caught by the recession in trade in 1929 and went into voluntary liquidation. The Company was reformed the following year and continued to manufacture a large variety in the Thames Ditton High Street factory until 1980.
From the 1930?s until the 1970?s, Ferry Works was divided between a variety of business enterprises and the old factory buildings gradually fell into a sad state of disrepair. By 1975, it was empty and in 1978 was bought by a local property company, and for a short while it seemed as though the whole site might be cleared and riverside houses and flats built. Opinions within the village were divided with some holding the view that wholesale demolition was desirable, whilst others were adamant that the factory buildings must remain. Most people in the village favoured keeping Ferry Works because of the need for business and job opportunities locally, but did not wish to see the return of heavy industry with all its associated problems of noise, fumes and general disturbance.
Local architect, Katharina Halasz was commissioned to provide a plan, which would be acceptable to both the planning authorities and local opinion and be commercially viable. She quickly realised that behind the shabby outbuildings on the riverbank and the long disused foundries that fronted onto Summer Road, lay the original Victorian factory building. Her imaginative solution was to clear away all later additions and reveal the elevations of Willan?s and Robinson?s original building. Early investigations showed that magnificent arched windows that had once looked on to the river Thames, lay concealed behind the 19th and early 20th Century extensions. Demolition of these would expose the grandeur of the original design.
However, many of the buildings that were to be taken down had been offices serving the open factory areas and it was necessary to provide some office accommodation within any new plan of renovation. New sympathetic office buildings were designed to the Summer Road frontage, whilst inside the building dividing walls and partitions were removed, floors strengthened and new access staircases and modern services installed. A major renovation and conversion of the whole factory took place over a two-year period to provide accommodation for a wide variety of light industrial and commercial uses. Contrary to its original purpose, Ferry Works was no longer to be a centre of heavy industry.
Today Ferry Works is a thriving business centre. If Willans & Robinson returned to their renovated factory a century later they would see that much of the external appearance is unchanged, and internally they would still see the uncluttered rows of cast iron columns soaring up to the lofty ceilings of the original machine shop. They would certainly have been astounded at the uses their factory is now put to. Present occupants include Numerically Controlled Machine Tools Ltd, who supply the highly modem equivalent to the machine tools for which Ferry Works was originally designed and built to house. Enterprise Airtime Systems Ltd have over the past twenty years operated their Thameside Computer Centre at Ferry Works and have through several hundred telephone lines, planned and controlled the advertising sequences for most of the independent television networks. The highly regarded and respected firm PRP Architects, together with Pallants, the prestigious haute couture fashion house, also operate successful businesses at Fery Works.
The ferry, the old bronze foundry and the smoke and grind of industry have all long since disappeared, but Ferry Works with its distinguished history survives into another century and now hums with modern technology.
David James, FRICS
Acknowledgement
This article is written with the benefit of the detailed research carried out by Bernard Lavell in the early 1980?s and recorded in his book "Ferry Works - a History of Industry".
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