History of the Kidsgrove Works Nelson Industrial · PDF fileHistory of the Kidsgrove Works...

HISTORY OF THE KIDSGROVE WORKS

Archive Copy v4.1 © 2002 MJ Woods

History of the Kidsgrove Works

Nelson Industrial Estate

Part 1 - English Electric - GEC -Cegelec - ALSTOM

Part 2 - ICL - D2D - Celestica

LOCAL HISTORY REFERENCE MATERIAL

KIDSGROVE - STAFFORDSHIRE



Acknowlegements

Thanks to all who contributed pictures andinformation used in this booklet. In particularI would like to thank Mr John Pepper, Mr DickWilson, Mr Geoff Mellor, Mr Barrie T Jones(Canada)

Copyright © 2002 Mark Woods

Unauthorised reproduction or storageof this booklet for commercial gain isan infringement of copyright.

Extracts of the booklet may bephotocopied or used for non-commercial gain e.g. for local historyresearch purposes or educational use.

Legal Notice

The views and events reported in thisbooklet are those of the author and donot necessarily represent the views ofthe companies mentioned. Mark Woods joined “GEC

Kidsgrove” in 1978 as aTechnician Apprentice and

currently works as Sales andService Manager.



Introduction

The year 2002 marks the 50th anniversary of'Nelson Industrial Estate' at Kidsgrove,Staffordshire. The first industrial building forelectrical engineering on West Avenue wasthe 'main works' of The English Electric Co.with construction work starting in 1952. Overthe next five decades the rest of the estateevolved making the site the biggest employerin the local area.In its heyday in the 1980's the estateemployed over 4,000 people and supportedmany more jobs in Staffordshire as suppliersand sub-contractors.

Following the recession and mergers of the1990s much of the site is now disused andwill be undergoing inevitable re-developmentwhich will change the face of West Avenuecompletely. This book sets out to record thehistory and development of the site usingarchive material rescued during variousmoves and building closures so as to preserveit for the future.Thanks to all those who have handed in oldphotographs and other material which hasmade this document possible.

Mark Woods

The Beginning 1952At the start of the 1950's the IndustrialElectronics Department of English Electric atStafford (Siemens Works) was expanding andlooking for a new home. 1

1 During the war electronics had developed atStafford for naval gun control systems. After thewar the Chief Engineer Mr Sloane did not want to

Empty land was available off Linley Road(A5011) in the district known as Butt Lane inTalke, Staffordshire. The nearest town to thissite was Kidsgrove and henceforth the site wasreferred to as Kidsgrove Works.

Building work started in 1952 under thesupervision of the architects 'Douglas J Oliver'of Mathews St. Rugby. The supervision fromEnglish Electric came from Mr TA Eccles. Chiefof New Development and Process based inEEC, Stafford.

The majority of the landwas owned byKidsgrove UrbanDistrict Council andwas largely empty fieldswith some small farms, one of which wasowned by a Mr Delves who eventually soldup. (Between 1890 - 1934 some of the landwas used for coal mining as the Old Butt LaneColliery ). Some industry already existed onthe site namely GH Heath of Macclesfield - anylon mill (closed 1988) and an oldaluminium works - Thomson Bros. ofBirmingham.

The programme of work called for site huts tobe erected by 25th August 1952 andexcavations to start 8th September.

During the same period a new road was builtlinking Linley Road to old Butt Lane. The roadbecame West Avenue and was built by the

council at a cost of £17,000.

pursue it and eventually the work came toKidsgrove.



The original land acquired was 14.8 acresand after tough negotiations a price of£8,000 was agreed! (This had been reducedfrom the original asking price of some£23,000!). Much of the construction of themain works had taken place before the landwas officially purchased with the agreement ofthe council. The sale was finalised aroundFebruary 1953.

The main works comprised the basement andwhat became known as bays one and two.The total cost of this work was £222,500.

The work was not without its problems. Inorder to complete on time overtime to thetune of £10,000 had to be authorised.

The steel used in the girders could not besupplied without written permission from theAdmiralty in London due to the Iron and SteelRegulations introduced by the Ministry ofSupply!Eventually all these difficulties were overcomeand parts of the works started to come on lineduring 1954.

English Electric at Kidsgrove was born.

German Roots

Werner von Siemens had established Siemens& Halske in Berlin in 1847 and his brother -Wilhelm Siemens (1823-1883) ran theEnglish operation eventually setting up theSiemens Brothers factory at Stafford in 1903.In 1918 English Electric was formed andabsorbed Siemens Bros. into it.

George Horatio NELSON became ManagingDirector of English Electric in 1930, aged 43.He had previously been the manager of theMetrovick Works in Sheffield.

At the time it was thought that English Electricwould not survive as it had old machinery inmost of it's factories.During the 1930's the main products includedsteam turbines, generators, switchgear,transformers, electric and diesel locomotives,trams, ships and steel rolling mills.As the Second World War approached thecompany moved into aircraft production andprospered.By the end of the war George Nelson hadmade English Electric one of the largest andmost successful engineering firms in thecountry. He was later knighted for his servicesand became Lord Nelson.

The site on West Avenue was named NELSONINDUSTRIAL ESTATE after Lord Nelson.

Activity at Kidsgrove in the 1950'sActivity at Kidsgrove was quite diverse rangingfrom the design and manufacture of portableinstruments to control gear and systems -primarily for the steel industry.

The computer age had just begun and EnglishElectric started to design and make digitaland analogue computer systems called'DEUCE' and 'LACE'.

Two parallel divisions emerged - oneconcentrating on industrial controlapplications called the Control Gear Division

Lord Nelson with Chief of Air Staff Sir DermotBoyle at the launch of the English ElectricLightning fighter plane 23 October 1958.



and the other specialising in computers calledthe Data Processing Division2.

To support these businesses the site had arange of shared services including a sheetmetal shop, machine shop and coil windingsection to make transformers and magamps.

1953-55On completion of Bays 1&2, work on anMoD radar project, codenamed “Postal”,was transferred from temporary premisesat a chapel in Thomas Street, Talke to Bay2. The design and manufacture of arange of RF induction and dielectricheaters with ratings up to 5kW wastransferred from Stafford to Bay 1.Several laboratories and offices were setup in each bay dealing with developmentand design of electronic instrumentationequipment, peripherals for DEUCE andmagnetic amplifiers (“magamps”).

1954-58With the increasing need formanufacturing space, parts of the hill tothe east of Bays 1&2 was cut away,exposing some old mine workings andenabling Bays 4&5 to be built, with a gapbetween the two sets of bays.Sometime later Bay 3 was fitted into thegap, not without some difficulty, as thetwo sets of bays were not exactly parallelto each other!Bay 3 was built to accommodate a testfacility for DEUCE mainframes andspecial ventilation ducting was needed todeal with the several kW of heat that eachgenerated. About five mainframes couldbe accommodated at a time.During this period, what was known as“Valves & Seals” was transferred fromRectifier Division, Stafford to Bay 1 andultimately to the basement. This was aproduction unit only, with engineeringresponsibility remaining at Stafford. The

2 Later named DP&CSD - Data Processing andControls Systems Division

“Valves” were small simple anodemercury arc rectifiers, the majority beingignitrons, whose most important use wasfor spot welding equipment. Muchattention had to be paid to the perfectionof the special “Seals” between the glassenvelope and the external electricalconnections.

German V2 Rockets and MagAmpsDuring the war, the Germans hadlaunched hundreds of deadly V2 rocketson England. Part of the guidance andcontrol system in V2s used the pioneeringtechnology of 'magnetic amplifiers' forservo control of the stabilising fins. This

technology wasadapted anddeveloped in the1950's for use incontrol. Magneticamplifiers were theworkhorses forpower control of avariety of systemapplications,predominantly insteel rolling millsand other

“continuous” processes. They usuallycontrolled the fields of DC machines inWard Leonard and similar systems, and toachieve faster response and smaller sizewere usually designed to operate from400Hz supplies in ratings up to 2kW,being accommodated in withdrawablechassis fitted into control cubicles. Theseoccupied much of the manufacturingspace in the earlier years.The main ‘magamp’ toroidally woundcomponents used for control systemswere designed as epoxy resinencapsulated units of some complexityand considerable space was required fortheir manufacture.The actual coilwinding for these and fortransformers was done in different



locations over the years, at one time in thebasement of Bays 1&2, with specialfacilities for resin encapsulation in one ofthe newer bays.Hundreds of magamps of this type weremanufactured during this period.A considerable number of ‘magamps’designed for 50Hz supplies in ratings 0.5-50kW were used for voltage control of DCmotor armatures in ‘stand-alone’ drives.

As these were of a simpler design, usuallywith only one or two control windings, itwas usually not necessary to consider“potting” them.One of the key design engineers onMagamps was Mr John Pepper (below),who was Chief Engineer at Kidsgrove formany years and who has contributed tothis, and other sections of the booklet.

1957Investigation into the use of thyristors forpower control commenced and it wassoon apparent that thyristor amplifiers(converters) would signify the demise ofmagnetic amplifiers, at a rate dependingon the development andavailability of higher voltageand current capability of thethyristors themselves.Some of the controladvantages would be lost andcontrol system technologywould need to be modified.This would be facilitated by theintroduction of transistoroperational amplifiers such asCA3/CA4, as envisaged at thattime.

Analogue Computers

During the war, secret development work hadtaken place in the English Electric GuidedMissiles Division at Luton on analoguecomputer designs. These machines werebased on thermionic valve technology andwere aimed at military applications.3

The machine to come out of this developmentwas code-named LACE which stands for LutonAnalogue Computing Engine.Production of the LACE was transferred toKidsgrove in 1954 but the range was shortlived due to the dominance of digitalcomputers which are covered in detail later.The Luton factory was closed and wasrelocated to Stevenage - later to become ICL.

3 based on +100V valve op amps

GH Heath - the nylon mill which was located at the southern end of the estate.This was closed in 1988.

An English ElectricValve (made at

Chelmsford). Thisvalve was rated at300kW and was

used in radarmodulators. (typeC1149/1 Pulse

Tetrode)



Expansion of the SiteMajor building work continued throughout the1950s and did not finish until the end of the1980's. (The last building to be built was NBlock in 1988).

More land was acquired in 1954 includingthe area on the opposite side of West Avenuewhich became the computer factory.Also a small section of high wooded groundnear what was to become the sports pavilionwas bought. This land was purchased inanticipation that the firm would move intoradar equipment and would use the land forthe siting of aerials. (This never came about).In 1955 work commenced on the new Bay 3to accommodate the expanding company.

In June of 1958 an order was placed withTaylor Woodrow for construction of the newcanteen block. The cost was £48,000.

Expansion and Growth in the 1960'sThe start of the 1960's found English Electricbecoming short of space and buildings. Theworkforce had increased from a few hundredin 1954 to 2,000 in September 1961.During 1958-59 a number of temporarywooden huts had been installed at the back ofBay 5 (These were technically called PrattenBuildings but would always be referred to asthe 'huts'). Planning permission for the hutswas given and was due to expire in December1961. In practice these temporary hutscontinued to be used for the next 30 years!

The first huts to be built were called A,B,C andD blocks. They housed a total of 224 people.

WestfieldsIn May 1961 the Chairman gave the goahead for the construction of new buildingson the west side of the road - "Westfields".These new buildings, comprising ofworkshops and an office block, were to housethe growing computer business whicheventually became ICL. Some six acres ofland had been purchased at a cost of£2,000/acre. Building started in July 1961and was scheduled for completion by thesummer/autumn of 1962. The factory partwas modelled on the St.Albans works of

Marconi Instruments Ltd which had been builtby the firm Octavius Atkinson. The budgetcosts were £311,000 for the factory and£94,000 for the office block.

From 1963 a new company was formedcalled English Electric Leo Computers Ltd. In1964 the computer interests of Marconi wereacquired to form English Electric-Leo-MarconiComputers Ltd - quite a mouthful.This new company existed along side thetraditional Control Gear Division of EnglishElectric in the Kidsgrove works - now on bothsides of the road.

NorthfieldsBoth companies prospered to such an extentthat more land and buildings were required.In 1965 employee numbers had risen to2,700.

In May 1966 a specification was drawn up forthe construction of a four-storey office blockto be located at the northern end of the site.This was to become Northfields.

The contract - worth over £210,000 - wasawarded to Taylor Woodrow and the ChiefArchitect was Mr RG Pickering. Workcommenced in July 1966 and was scheduledfor completion in April 1967.

The Transistor AgeDuring the 1960's transistor circuits becameincreasingly popular and printed circuit boardproduction began in earnest at Kidsgrove.

Transistors started to take the place of valves,relays and electromechanical sequencers.



The expertise in logic circuits developed by thecomputer division could be migrated to thecontrol gear division and by the mid 1960'sthe NORLOG range of logic blocks was inwidespread use. Each NORLOG blockcontained transistors, diodes and resistorsand carried out basic computer logicfunctions such as AND and OR gates andFLIP-FLOPS.4

In parallel with this a range of analogueOperational Amplifiers was designed andmanufactured with names such as CA3 andCA4. These were fitted into UNISTATmodules which were plugged into a subrackor 'bin'.These circuits provided the control functions inAutomatic Voltage Regulators (AVRs) and inthyristor drive units.This type of modular concept lead tostandardisation of the basic system buildingblocks and reduced engineering costs oncontracts.

4 The original Norlog was developed at EEWhetstone for the Wylfa Power Station onAnglesey.

Computer History at KidsgroveThe introduction to the English ElectricEmployees Handbook from 1970 mentionsthat the factory-produced computers knownas DEUCE and LACE.These names are now long forgotten bymany, but what exactly were the firstcomputers like and how did they come about?

The first computer made at Kidsgrove can betraced back to the days of the Second WorldWar at the code breakers at Bletchley Park

Early Computer DevelopmentDr Alan Turing wasresponsible for developing theworld's first electroniccomputer during world wartwo. The machine, known asColossus was used to crackthe top-secret German code

produced by the Lorenz cipher machine.(Lorenz was a far more advanced version ofthe famous Enigma cipher machine).

At the end of the war the Colossus machinewas destroyed on the orders of WinstonChurchill.

In 1946 the National Physical Laboratoryproposed the manufacture of a new computerand the Turing team was engaged on itsdesign.The machine would be called ACE - whichstood for Automatic Computing Engine.

Following the success of ACE it was realisedthat reliability and performance could only beenhanced by collaboration with industry. In1949 the National Physical Laboratoryproposed that the English Electric Companywas the natural choice for an industrialpartner. The new computer project was to becalled DEUCE and would be built atKidsgrove.



The English Electric DEUCE computerDEUCE stands for "Digital Electronic UniversalComputing Engine"DEUCE had two levels of storage, much as inmodern machines. The high-speed storagewas a set of mercury delay lines of varyingsizes. These are tubes containing mercury,into which a stream of sonic pulsesrepresenting each bit is injected by atransducer at one end. A microphone at theother end received the pulses a fewmilliseconds later, and they were thenprocessed and modified if needed, squaredup, and fed back into the transmittingtransducer. Data could thus be recycledindefinitely. These delay lines were theforerunner of core memory, which had not yetappeared.The second storage level was more similar tomodern devices - a magnetic drum not unlike

a present-day disk. Capacity was less howeverbeing 48K 32-bit words - around 200 kb inmodern terms.The other devices were a card reader and apunch. There were no magnetic tapes and allprograms were loaded stand-alone fromcards.The machine did not have an operatingsystem in the modern sense. There were twoprimitive languages; Alphacode andEasicode.

The English Electric KDF9 ComputerThe English Electric KDF9 was in use fromabout 1963, and was regarded as a verysuccessful machine. It was one of the firstmachines to have a full pre-emptive operatingsystem. It also had floating point capability,using a 48-bit word, which provided goodnumerical precision. The KDF9 also provideddouble-length floating point instructions,using 96 bit numbers.

Basic featuresThe KDF9 had up to 32 kilobytes (notmegabytes!) of core memory (made up of realmagnetic core). There were no disks; backingstorage was provided by magnetic tape unitsthat could be partially rewound and selectivelyoverwritten, provided the programmer wasvery careful.The operating system, known as "Director"was very sophisticated for its time.

English Electric Computers Made atKidsgroveModel Date of IntroductionLACE 1954DEUCE 2/2a 1955 - 1957KDP10 (RCA 501) Aug 1962KDN2 Sept 1962KDF9 Apr 1963KDF6 Sept 1963KDF8 Oct 1964KDF7 1965System 4/10 Jan 1967System 4/30 Mar 1967System 4/50 Sept 1967System 4/70 Dec 1967M2112 1968M2140 1968

The Price of ElectronicsIn the 1960s the price of electronics was veryhigh compared to today. The CA4Operational Amplifier in 1964 was priced at£9. 10s which represented a weeks wages forsome people at the time. Today, similarfunctions can be achieved with a chip costingunder £1 so in real terms around 200 timesless expensive.

DEUCE

KDF 9



The GEC EraIn the late 1960s, the British electrical industryunderwent a revolution as GEC acquiredAssociated Electrical Industries (AEI) in 1967,which encompassed Metropolitan-Vickers,BTH, Edison Swan, Siemens Bros., Hotpointand W.T. Henley.Then in 1968, GEC merged with EnglishElectric, incorporating Elliott Bros., TheMarconi Company, Ruston and Hornsby,Stephenson, Hawthorn & Vulcan Foundry,Willans and Robinson and Dick Kerr. The eraof English Electric was over and the new eraas GEC began. Sir Arnold Weinstock wasManaging Director and Lord Nelson wasChairman. The new company was calledGEC-Elliot Automation Ltd and Kidsgrove wasGEC-Elliot Industrial Controls Division.

The GEC era represented the longest periodof stability for the company and would last for21 years.5

At the same time as the merger the computerpart of the company (English Electric Leo-Marconi Computers) was sold off to becomeInternational Computers Ltd or ICL.

Stability and Steady Growth -The 1970'sWith the coming of the 1970's the companylaid the foundations that were establish astable period that would last for more than 20years.Two men set the company direction for this

5

Kidsgrove came very close to closure in 1969/70as GEC wanted to move everything to Rugby. Onlythe strong arguments of Mr George Spratt (Headof EE ICA) kept Kidsgrove open.

period - Mr Don Prowse as ManagingDirector and Mr John Nixon as Director andGeneral Manager.

The company established itself into productdivisions:

* Low Voltage Motor Control Centres* Drives and Machine Tool Products* Drives Systems* Standard Control Products

Each of these trading divisions shared thecommon resources of the factory such asAssembly and Wiring, Printed Circuit Boards,Coilwinding, the Paint Shop and so forth.

The Quality Control Department employednearly 200 inspectors and testers and was anindependent function reporting to the GeneralManager.

SouthfieldsThe Southfields factory building providedfeeder services such as sheet metal for thecomputer business. With the formation of ICLas a separate company in 1968 thesefunctions were moved across the road leavingSouthfields empty.

In 1973 GEC Radio and Television movedfrom the main bays into Southfields factoryand offices. There they produced radios,music centres such as the 5020 and a widerange of other products including Red Ringshowers and controllers for pelican crossings.

In 1978 Radio and TV closed down andshortly after GEC-Marconi Space andDefence Systems occupied Southfieldsbuilding. Security for the site was tightenedup due to the nature of the defence contracts.

Around this time the "Elliot" part of the namewas dropped and the company became GECIndustrial Controls.



The Microprocessor Revolution 1980'sThe decade of the 80's was dominated by thewidespread application of microprocessorsand in particular GEM80.

GEM80 was (and still is!) a range ofProgrammable Logic Controllers (PLCs)powered by the INTEL range ofmicroprocessors such as the 8085. It was ajoint development between Kidsgrove andRugby6 and at it's launch in May1979 wasyears ahead of the competition. It had built inserial communications and an integral videographics system.

GEM80's success was down to first classhardware, user friendly software with built inspecial functions combined with dynamicmarketing from the new management team ofBrian Pope (Division Manager) and BerkeleyFenn (Product Manager).

Pope and Fenn took the GEM80 into allindustrial sectors including the motor industry(Ford, Leyland, etc), Petrochemicals, Steelmaking, food (Cadburys) and great inroadswere made into export markets both inEurope and the USA.

To illustrate the rise of GEM80 sales wentfrom virtually zero in 1979 to more than£8,000,000 by 1984! These sales rivalledthe traditional activities of LV and Drives.At the end of the decade total sales for GECKidsgrove were £65 million with 1400 peopleemployed.

6 Originally many firms were involved in specifyinga common PLC for all of GEC including GECComputers, Process Control Leicester and ProcessInstruments Lewisham. They all pulled out leavingKidsgrove and Rugby to complete the project.

Major Investment and New Technologyin the 1980'sThe first half of the 80's saw themicroprocessor being put to use in otherproducts.In 1984 the GEMDRIVE MICRO wasintroduced which was the company's firstprocessor based DC drive offering full digitalcontrol and serial communications.

Even Standard Control Products got in on theact with the introduction of the MICROGEMsmall PLC in 1985 that was sold in the sameway as push buttons and lamps.

The year of 1984 represented a majorinvestment period for the company withcapital spend running into several millions.

In February the Computer Aided Design roomcame on line in the ground floor ofNorthfields building.

In December 1984 the company set up theHybrid Circuits manufacturing plant (at theback of the canteen block).

This facility produced miniature circuitmodules to be used on a variety of drives andPLC boards. The area was used the conceptof clean rooms and operators wore fulloveralls, hats, etc to exclude dust. SteveBeattie and Gary Jones ran the plant.

1984 saw the first real progress with the newsurface mount technology that is nowstandard for PCBs. The first board to benefitfrom this was the MPR2 protection relay - anSCP product.

Early GEM80 kit - 200 series controller (with 8k RAMboards!), Simulation Panel and 8920 PortableProgrammer. Programme data was stored on audiocassette prior to disks and PCs.



Training and DevelopmentFollowing the installation of the new hybridfacility in the canteen block the trainingdepartment was re-located to mezzanine floorat the north end of Bay 1 in the main works.The training department was run by PeterErrett with Alan Bartram as Education andTraining Officer and Ted Tomkins asInstructor.

The company had a long tradition ofrecruitment and development of youngpeople. Each year around a dozen technicianapprentices would be recruited from localschools and would go on to HNC/HNDcourses. The practical aspects of the trainingwere regulated by the Engineering IndustryTraining Board or EITB. Many of thesetechnicians would go on to become seniormanagers and engineers within the companysuch as Norman Stubbs and Ken Walters(Division Managers of Drives and LVrespectively).

Undergraduates were sponsored by GEC andspent vacation periods undergoing practicaltraining. Graduates were recruited from theUniversity 'milk round' and would provide thefoundations for future development andapplications engineers.The company purchased Newcroft Housenear the works in 1981 to use as studentaccommodation.

The 1980s saw the establishment of the YouthTraining Scheme (YTS) by the government.Around ten YTS trainees were set on eachyear and trained for clerical and technicalcareers.

This meant that at any one time around 70trainees were 'on the books' ensuring thatfuture vacancies could be easily filled bytrained people.

The company also provided training anddevelopment for the rest of the workforce bothby in house courses and lectures and byproviding funding for college courses.Many people attended customised courses atthe GEC Management College at Dunchurchnear Rugby.

At the start of the eighties George Taylor tookover from Jeff Tether as Personnel Manager.After he retired a few years later he wasreplaced by Neil Roberts. During this timeTed Johnson was Assistant PersonnelManager.The later half of the eighties decade sawseveral key changes in the company. BrianPope - Divisional Manager GEM80 moved toEMICC in Detroit to promote GEM80 in theUSA and Canada. David Slingsby took overthe Division.

In March 1985 the company, in associationwith Simon Carves Ltd, signed the YerevanContract. This was the biggest contract thatthe company had won with and involved thebuilding of a new factory in Yerevan, Armeniato manufacture GEM80 products for theSoviet market.A new Division was created for this originallymanaged by Alan Jutton.

Yet another new Division was created in1988. It was called CAPS - Control andProcess Automation - and provided systemsengineering for GEM80 projects such as paintplants at Fords and Steel making in Sidmar,Belgium. Derek Spencer managed CAPSDivision.

Service Functions in the 70s - 80's

Mail RoomAt its height there were four full time staff inthe mailroom. These were the days before e-mail and faxes had not been out for too long.Therefore written, paper communication wasall-important and a vast amount of letters andmemos had to be delivered and collected toall sections each day. Mail staff started earlyin order to have letters available at the start ofwork.The mailroom staff included John Jones, JohnNeild, Bill Lally and Tom Smith.

MaintenanceIn order to keep the vast site running thecompany had a large maintenancedepartment that was virtually self-sufficient.



The works engineer was Geoff Shenton andunder him were various foreman and charge-hands for the different functions such aselectricians and mechanical fitters.

Geoff had engineered and implemented mostof the major site moves and expansion from

the late 1950s right up to the mid 1990s.The following functions existed inmaintenance:- electrical workshops,mechanical workshops including a machineshop and welding area, a joinery department,a team of painters and the works garage.The maintenance department purchased itsown materials and had a vast store of spareparts. It also maintained its own drawingsand technical specifications via the TechnicalClerk (Tony Stanyer). In order to look after the34 acre grounds the company even had threesmall tractor-mowers at one period for cuttingthe grass on the sports fields.

CanteenDuring the 1980's the canteen was cateringfor over 1000 people in shifts. In addition tothe main areas there were also a number ofspecialist dining rooms. Managers could eatin the Blue Room with a waitress service, theDirectors had their own dining room andthere was also a Visitor's Dining Room whichwas used for entertaining the many customersthat were visiting Kidsgrove. Linda Daley wasthe manager of the canteen during thisperiod. The canteen were also responsiblefor looking after the many food vendingmachines on site and also provided a 'toastround' in the mornings.

DocumentsThe company generated and used tens ofthousands of documents each year. Letters,memos, reports and similar documents wereproduced in the Typing Pool. The typing Pool

originally used mechanical typewriters andcarbon paper for copies. In the late 1970'sspecialist electronic word processors werepurchased (made by Wang). By 1990 - dueto the introduction of the office PC - theservices of the Typing Pool were no longerrequired and the function closed. For manyyears the company's typewriters were servicedby the local firm OES based in Tunstall whichmade weekly service visits to the firms 90+machines. Again, the growth of PCseventually replaced all typewriters and OESare no longer in business.

More technical documentation was producedby theTechnical Manuals section, part of theStandards Department which included suchfunctions as Graphic Design and thecompany library which employed a full timelibrarian.

YTS TraineesThe company provided a two year trainingprogramme consisting of 13 week blocks indifferent departments such as Marketing,Typing Pool, Personnel, Standards, ProductionControl etc.At the time the YTS scheme generally had abad name in the UK however the employmentrate for GEC YTS was 87%.

The Works GarageThe company has always operated its ownworks garage from the 1950's. The main aimof the garage was to service and repair theworks cars and vans but garage staff alsoacted as chauffeurs when required.In the 1960's Mr George Hackney was theTransport Manager for English Electric andFred Crowther was the Garage Foreman.David Buckley joined GEC in 1972 as amotor mechanic followed a year later by DaveCarter as Apprentice Mechanic.

In 1980 Fred Crowther retired and his son,Graham Crowther took over.During the 1980's the garage was very busyservicing the cars of both Cegelec and GEC-Alsthom as well as continuing withchauffeuring duties, valeting and so on.



In 1992 major redundancies were announcedand it was decided that the company could nolonger afford its own garage and mechanics.The garage staff were made redundant butDavid Buckley and Dave Carter were giventhe chance of setting up as a private garageusing the same premises and facilities.They accepted this offer and Eastfield Garagewas born. Being a private firm Eastfield couldnow service private as well as companyvehicles.This situation continued until 2001 and thegarage prospered as they took on more andmore private customers.

By 2001 the works land and buildings nowbelonged to a separate property division ofthe parent company. New rent and leasingconditions were proposed that were notacceptable to Eastfield. As a result EastfieldGarage closed in mid April 2001.

The End of the Decade and the End ofGEC at Kidsgrove

1989 marked the start of the biggest series ofchanges to effect the site since 1968.

It was announced that a new company wouldbe formed which was jointly owned by GEC(22%) and the large French company CGE(78%). The new company would be calledCEGELEC and would have 27,000 employeesworld-wide.

In December 1989 a new Managing Directortook over at Kidsgrove from Don Prowse - MrJohn Seed.

Mr Seed had come from GEC PIC at NewParks, Leicester and set about to adapt the

company to suit its new Anglo-Frenchownership.

At the start of 1990 John Nixon left thecompany.

Recession, Decline and Downsizing1990'sJust as the 80's had been the boom years forthe company, the 90's were to swing the fullythe other way with devastating effects on theworkforce.

The UK had started a recession and majorcompanies like steel, mining and the carindustry were hitting hard times and notspending. The company's order book fellseverely and in May of 1990 some 85redundancies were announced. Many of thecompany's senior management lost their jobsas the company re-structured to survive thecoming years with a much reduced businesslevel.

Two years later, in 1992, the situation had notimproved and at the start of the year a further90 job losses were announced. As salescontinued to fall it became clear that thecompany could not afford to employ the 1200people it had. Around March a massive 250job losses were announced effecting all areasof business.

In the second half of 92 another majorchange was announced. The Low VoltageControl Gear Division and SCP were to betransferred to GEC-Alsthom which hadrecently been established.

Some 400 people were identified as workingin LV or SCP related activities but in the endonly 320 were required which lead to afurther 95 job losses.

By 1993 the Kidsgrove workforce was down toaround 700 people - less than half theworkforce of 1989.

The reduced numbers on site meant thatrationalisation of buildings was needed inorder to cut costs. By January of 1993



Northfields office block was finally emptiedhaving being in use for 27 years. Likewise,the old huts were emptied and the originalhuts A,B,C and D were demolished.The SCP functions such as coilwinding andassembly moved into Bays 3 and 4 and theYervan Team (which had been in Huts G andF) moved the Southfields Office block (whichhad been empty since Marconi closed in1985).

Electronics manufacturing moved from Bay 5in the old main works to the new SouthfieldsFactory.

Bay 5 was converted to offices for the LVDivision (now called GALVE - GEC AlsthomLow Voltage Equipment).

The SCP business was moved to Liverpool andthe coilwinding activity was ceased in favourof bought in transformers.

The key words of the decade were "coreactivities" and everything that was not "core"was to be purchased. Traditional productionand quality methods were scrutinised andchanged. Full 100% inspection ofcomponents was replaced by 'green route'initiatives where the supplier did thechecking. Independent inspection wasreplaced by self-inspection and the testempire was dismantled in favour of test beingintegrated as part of the production team (orcell).

New Technical DevelopmentsIn 1993 a brand new computer system cameon line called MFG PRO. This was a totallyintegrated system that went from orderprocessing right to shipping and invoicing. Itreplaced many of the separate VAX/IMSsystems in use.

The first half of the decade also saw thelaunch of two new AC drive ranges - theGD2000 and GD4000 products.

The Kidsgrove Works in 2000In 1999 Cegelec had become part ofALSTOM - a new company listed on the stockmarket that included most of the old Cegeleccompanies and many of the GEC-Alsthomcompanies.

Further job losses in 1999 had reduced theALSTOM workforce to 186 people with aturnover of around £14M based in theSouthfields building.

By 2000 part of the main bays had beenleased to a pharmaceutical distributor and thecanteen block was being emptied ready forpartial occupation by a Diamond ElectronicsLtd.Northfields, N Block and the remains of HutsF-K remained empty.

Across the road ICL had changed from beinga computer company to a sub-contractelectronics manufacturer first as D2D andthen as Celestica. The company prospereddue to the boom in mobile phones andcommunications equipment and had aworkforce of more than 2,000.

At its peak - around 1988 - the totalworkforce employed on electrical work wasnearly 4,000 split between ICL and GEC.Today's total numbers represent well underhalf of the original size.

The FutureThe development of the Kidsgrove site haslargely followed trends in Britain in otherindustries.The downturn in traditional UK activities suchas steel making, shipbuilding, mining, heavyengineering and the car industry has beenmirrored in the requirements for largeelectrical engineering works such as the oldEnglish Electric factory. Also the changes intechnology since 1954 have seen many jobsbecome obsolete to be replaced by CAD,electronic stock control/purchasing etc(consider Telex Operators, Wages Clerks,traditional draughtsmen, typists and so on).Low cost labour from the far east has also ledto many more products being made outside



the UK thus further reducing themanufacturing base.

It is likely that the northern and central partsof the site will end up with a collection ofsmaller businesses using the various premisesor maybe new, custom built units will becreated. The eastern side of the site may wellevolve into housing or recreational use.

In September 2001 Celestica (ex-ICL)announced large scale job cuts at theKidsgrove and other sites. This was blamedlargely on the downturn in thecommunications/mobile phone industry.

With economists declaring a recession in themanufacturing industry the future was lookinguncertain for all the companies on the oldNelson Industrial Estate.

Below - full system M2140 - capacity of 65kinstructions with 15 processors.Joined end to end this computer would be 32feet long! The same functions can now behoused on a wristwatch.

The manufacture of high speed line printers - EnglishElectric, Kidsgrove in 1968.This would be on the Westfields side.

the KDF9 computerBureau at EnglishElectric Kidsgrovearound 1964



2002 Update

By the middle of 2002 prospects were looking mixed for the companies on the Nelson Industrial Estate.Celestica (ex-ICL) announced poor results and were considering some 500 job losses on top of the ones lostin 2001.

However on the other side of West Avenue things were looking good for ALSTOM.The drives sales function had returned from Rugby allowing once again the company to offer a completerange of products and services to its customers.Turnover on the site was in the order of £15M with a healthy contribution to ALSTOM's profit of more than£!.5M each year.Large drives were being sold around the world from Brazil to the Czech Republic. In particular the company'sMV3000 AEM (active energy management) drives were world leaders for their power and voltage ratings.On the PLC side, 2002 saw the launch of a brand new Programmable Controller - the GEM80-500. Thisnew PLC had been conceived, designed and built at Kidsgrove and continued the 20-year tradition of GEM80products.

During this time the parent company ALSTOM was in need of cash and the Kidsgrove factory was providingmore than its fair share putting it in a strong position. New investments started to be made in theinfrastructure such as new carpets, new washroom facilities and a new coat of paint both inside and out. Onthe production side investments were being considered for new test gear in order for Kidsgrove to meet theexpected demand for DELTA power modules resulting from significant new contracts being won in the USAand Europe. The productivity and efficiency rate was now higher than it had ever been. (in the 1980's saleswere around £36k/person compared to 2002s figure of £88k/person.)

On a national level the financial news of the time carried tales of the final downfall of the Marconi Company.Marconi had changed it's name from GEC and had seen its shares fall from more than £12 to 2 p. The oncemighty GEC had virtually been destroyed. It is somewhat ironic that the same year saw the death of LordWinestock who had been at the helm of GEC from the 1960's. He was gone and so was the empire he hadbuilt up.What had happened - in simple terms - was that in the 1990's GEC had sold off all of its heavy engineeringcapability (transport, power, transmission, etc) to ALSTOM. This left it with telecommunications which thenproceeded to hit a severe recession from which it could not recover.

The future is always uncertain but ALSTOM at Kidsgrove is in a strong position to face that future as it entersthe next 50 years.

Then and Now…

In 1945 English Electric employed 29,000people in the UK making trains, ships,transformers, generators and control gear.

In 2002 ALSTOM has 13,000 employeesin the UK working on similar products.



Chronology of Events

1952 Building work starts on Bays 1 and 2 of the main works1954 Bays 1 and 2 are occupied and production begins1954 More land purchased for Westfields and high ground behind bays1956-9 Bays 4 and 5 constructed1957-8 Canteen block built1958-9 Huts A B C and D erected behind Bay 51961-6 Canteen block extended1963 Leo Computers joined EE to become English Electric Leo Computers1964 Marconi Computers joined EE to become English Electric Leo Marconi Computers1966 England wins world cup1966 Northfields Office Block built1967 GEC acquires AEI group1968 Plessey attempts takeover of EE (22nd July) causing EE to start talks with GEC.1968 GEC and English Electric Merge (effective 30 Nov 1968) New company at Kidsgrove is

initially called English Electric-AEI Industrial Controls1968 Computer operations separated from EE to form ICL1969 End of 1969 the name becomes GEC-Elliot1973 GEC Radio and Television move into Southfields1978 New Social Club opened by Mr Jansen in canteen block1978 GEC Radio and Television closes1978 Marconi Space and Defence occupies Southfields1979 GEM80 launched1984 CAD in Northfields, Hybrids in canteen block1985 Marconi closes1989 GEC becomes CEGELEC1990 Redundancies due to recession 85 people - 2nd May1992 LV and SCP business transferred to GEC-Alsthom

90 and then 250 job losses1993 Northfields emptied1994 New Dining Room opens in December and old dining room is converted into finished goods

store.1995 Open Day 10th June, Direct Dial In (DDI) phones introduced, 750kW Drives Test Rig

installed. Computer Room moved to middle floor from ground floor.1996 Jan - Alcatel Alsthom buys a third of AEG and the automotive/drives sectors transfers to

Cegelec.1999 May and October - Redundancies ,Up to 40 jobs to go as General Drives Division moves

to Rugby1999 Company changes to ALSTOM1999 December - LV Business moves to Manchester - Main Factory empty2001 30th March - closure of canteen facility.2001 20th April - closure of Eastfield Garage2001 November - John Seed retires2001 December - huts demolished2002 Jan - ICL remaining at Kidsgrove announce move to

Crewe and end of ICL brand name by 20032002 Jan - Alstom announces up to 20 job cuts at

Kidsgrove and move of Power Conversionsector into T & D sector

2002 Death of Lord Winestock, Chmn GEC

COMPANY LOGOs / BADGES OVER THE YEARS

Open Day 1995



English Electricequipment badges usedup to 1968

GEC Elliot AutomationLtd, the new companyname from 1969.

GEC Industrial ControlsLtd - used from mid1970's to 1989.

Cegelec. The first stylelogo known as the 'evileye' or 'ball of wool' wasshort lived and soonreplaced with the blockand triangle style whichwas used up to 1999.

ALSTOM - from 1999.

Bernie Howe - ManagerLogistics with the team around

1995



MAP OF THE SITE



PICTURES - BUILDINGS

Main Works Bay 1 looking from the North.

Northfields around 1967/68

Building work at the rear of bays 1 and 2 MainWorks



PICTURES - PEOPLE 1950s to 1990ss

Assembly of Unistat bins late1960s(Winnie Lawton) Testing of Unistat equipment (Bill White)

Miss Alice Russell with the Mayor and Mr CGBurcher (Director & General Manger) Hughie Wright, CG Burcher, Betty Sinclair, The Mayor and Ian Hirst

- visiting the huts - early 1970's



Above - coilwinding section,main works in late 1950's.

Left : Engineers Ian Aitchisonand John Gare in the Lab -Hut A south end in 1976.Below left Ron Huxley, FrankDanby, Mick Bailey wiring upof AVR panels in the mainbays.Right - Lucy Maddocks _PCBassembly 1970s

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