Plessey Underground

Up Surface of Plessey Underground Building Plessey Underground People in Plessey Underground Equipment in Plessey Underground

In November 1940, Plessey of Ilford put its factory underground.

I first became interested when I saw this poster on Redbridge Underground Station

I have been able to scan a number of official photographs which were to be lost with the closing of a facility

It is difficult to know whether there is any copyright on these photos. If anyone believes they own the copyright please contact me

Similarly if anyone worked at the facility and has memories to share I would be very pleased  to hear from them. john-saville@ntlworld.com

Please note the excellent website about Plessey (including WWII) put together by Bob Collins.

 

You may be interested in this article in Wanstead & Woodford Guardian which includes reminiscences by my friend Eileen Bunch

 

 

This page gives an overview. Clicking on photos framed in blue will take you to more information

Wanstead  Underground in the 21st Century ............. .................... and during WWII
The factory occupied the Central Line system through Wanstead to Newbury Park, (which had been completed but not opened just before the outbreak of war. This ‘factory in a tube’ was some 13 feet in diameter, entered only by stairways at the locations planned for stations when completed, and probably the world’s longest and thinnest factory ever!
The factory occupied the Central Line system through Wanstead to Newbury Park, (which had been completed but not opened just before the outbreak of war. This ‘factory in a tube’ was some 13 feet in diameter, entered only by stairways at the locations planned for stations when completed, and probably the world’s longest and thinnest factory ever!

In this tunnel, with a total length of 5 miles, 2,000 people were continuously at work and it became the most successful underground factory in the country. This Underground factory employed 2,000 day and night shift workers and continued to supply the RAF with aircraft parts throughout the war.

 

Mr Hugh Douglas, a foreman in Plessey's during the war, remembered the line was so long that he was given a bicycle to get around the machines.

The war effort of PLESSEY was considerable

It produced a vast array of components and equipment for the war effort, including:

  • 8 million shell and bomb cases,

  • aircraft parts, (11 million Breeze connectors, 28,000 aircraft pumps, 74,000 wiring harnesses and 23,000 engine cartridge starters)

  • radio equipment such as the R1155 (receiver), and T1154 (transmitter).

In all 161,500 electronic equipments were produced.

 

Links to Other information:         Details & Pictures 

 

Story in Ilford Recorder (1985): Valerie Green

FORTY years ago on Wednesday, the Allies celebrated VJ Day — which meant that the worst war the world had ever known had come to an end?

And for 2,000-odd Redbridge workers dawned the realisation that their sub-terranean working days and nights were also over.

These men and women had done their bit for the war effort in Britain's most successful underground factory — converted Central Line tunnels link­ing Redbridge, Gants Hill and Wanstead stations.

Here Plessey's "secret army" — the factory was one of the most closely guarded wartime produc­tion secrets — turned out vital components for the aircraft industry, such as fuel pumps and engine starters.

With the approach of war, the company had out­grown the Ilford site and additional space was found in Swindon, Walthamstow and Cardiff.

Then in 1942 came the chance to take over the unused Central Line exten­sion.

 

Constructed before the war but never brought into passenger service, the five miles of twin tunnels between the three stations became vast production lines. Where today's com­muters hear the rumble of trains, assembly workers once laboured for victory against a background hum of drilling and cutting machines.

A narrow gauge railway was laid in the tunnels running past the workers on their machines, distri­buting materials and collecting finished articles.

Passengers were not sup­posed to be carried on the "trains", but the line proved to be an ideal means of taking visiting VIPs on inspection tours.

 

 

 

Underground worker: Dennis Barron

 

The railway could also be a convenient way of getting to the conveniences at the stations!

Plessey's stores manager, 59-year-old Dennis Barron, recalls: "Getting to the loo in a hurry was the only dodgy thing I can remember about working in the tunnels. Sometimes it could mean a mile's sprint!"

Dennis, the only Plessey employee still on the payroll who worked in the underground factory, joined the company in 1942 as a 16-year-old junior storeman.

 

"I worked from 7am until 6pm five days a week and half-day Saturday," said Dennis, who lives in Duke Road in Barkingside. And for that I got 30s (£ 1.50) a week quite a lot of money for a boy of my age in those days”.

"Of course these hours meant I didn’t get to see much day-light for half the year. Apart from a few minutes at lunch-time sometimes when I nipped out for fish and chips as a change to the canteen's sandwiches."

Dennis has fond memories of the factory being a "really jolly place full of lovely, friendly people."

He went on: "And what's more — we were safe. The Luftwaffe never got to know about us.

"Riding, my bike to work from Dagenham during an air raid was the dangerous part. I once ran like hell when a plane zoomed down and the machine guns let rip!

"I was sorry to leave when I became 18 and it was time for me to join the Army. By the time I was demobbed, the whole operation had been wound up."

This is a personal website run by John Saville.  All web pages are Copyright John Saville as are all photographs unless otherwise indicated. Other information (e.g. maps etc) may be copyright to others as indicated. No information may be copied or reproduced without prior permission (from: john-saville@ntlworld.com) but this will almost certainly be willingly granted.