On entering the workshop at the end of the corridor, there was a long room approximately 45 ft long and 18 feet wide. Here there were a number of benches each one about 8 feet long with a vice on the right hand side adjacent to the wall and windows.
The bench and area nearest to the corridor was the domain of Jim (Jimmy) Smith who was a panel beater and welder (who according to Cyril Lingwood was Rolls Royce trained and pre-war worked as a coach builder/repairer for a Southend car dealer/repair shop and allegedly joined EKCO following a re-build of Eric Cole's Rolls Royce following an accident).
Among Jimmy's claims to fame was hand beating the first parabolic dish for AI Mark VII and hand welding the first pressure vessel for Jostle Mark IV.
Down the left hand side was a mixture of Lathes and Milling machines all powered by overhead drive belts linked to a common drive shaft where each machine had pulleys of different diameters. The speed of the machines was altered by means of a long wooden lever, which changed to belt to a different size pulley. At times this was fraught with danger especially when a belt broke and flailed around. (Certainly no 'Health and Safety' in those days).
At the far end of the room was a bench upon which were mounted 'Pillar Drill's' of various sizes, one of which was floor mounted. At the end of the room there were two steel framed benches secured to the floor by heavy-duty bolts so as to prevent any movement when in use. On these were mounted 'fly presses' and I well remember having to change the size of the 'balls' on top of these to suit different 'pressing/stamping' requirements.
Through the door at the far end of the workshop was a new brick built spray shop, which was the domain of Reggie Mooring who worked on his own doing the spraying of the equipment. Reggie was a habitual chain smoker and smoked all the time he was spraying, which in hindsight is amazing since the paints used at the time were 'cellulose' based and inflammable - imagine what today's health and safety zealots would make of this?
Editors note: In the 60's, Reggie was still running the spray shop within the model shop at Southend and still chain smoking. He is the only person I know who could smoke a cigarette virtually all the way through without dropping the ash. Occasionally people would complain that there was 'ash' under the paintwork, which Reggie always hotly contested saying it was a bit of dust?
The store-man was Mr Woodall and his daughter; Daphne worked in the admin office alongside Mrs. Gibb. Mr. Woodall also had a son Norman who lived and worked at Aston Clinton. Sid Acres (who was in the model shop with me) daughter also worked at WDU as a tracer in the drawing office.
East Side WDU
While we were the 'west side model shop', across the road (high street) was the 'east side model shop' at numbers 46a and 47a. These were located behind Number 46 high street, which was the 'Life Test' laboratory occupied by Richard Spencer and Pauline Durrent. As with our 'west side' WDU this was also a shop front with its windows painted out. Adjacent to this was a yard with solid double gates.
The history of the WDU buildings on this side is interesting since Cyril Lingwood remembers that the EKCO surveyors found cellars under the premises which contained many old clay pipes and cannon balls, also musket round shot. It was rumoured that an old musket was also found but conveniently disappeared before they had time to report the find. The floors were rotten in places but the maintenance lads soon had the old floors strengthened and suitable for our use. Apparently the place was an old Cannon works taken over by the Cromwell's parliamentary troopers.
One thing that soon became apparent was a musty foul smell, apparently this was due to the lime washed damp walls in rooms that had never been heated for many years if ever. This was sorted by putting in big old 'coffee pot stoves' on each floor, which soon dried the place out. The largest was on the ground floor in the tool room and this in the winter use to glow red round its belly and it needed to be for cold winds whistled through every hole and gaps under the doors.
Another snag affecting the 'east side' workshops was that the Western Electricity Company had forgotten to provide the much needed three phase power supply for the machinery but with the help of the army in the guise of the Royal Engineers they managed to get a power cable from somewhere across from Daniel Well
and of course as soon as the three phase power was connected, the maintenance lads soon the very large mains three phase motor running, which powered the main overhead shaft.
The east side WDU occupied quite a large number of rooms over two floors. Mr. Spencer took some of these for his 'life test' lab and I can recall that Arthur Tyrer and a chap called Joe Johnson (who only had one leg) worked for him, as did Mr (Eggy) Jarvis for a short while before moving across the road to 'top lab'.
In another room was the 'winding department', which was the domain of Sid Parr. Here he had a Mrs Taylor and a Mrs. Frost working for him as well as a couple of other ladies. Sid Parr was responsible for all the prototype and development coil winding and was held in high regard by the engineers for his knowledge and skill of winding some very complicated designs.
At the rear of the building opening onto the side yard was the tool room. This was the domain of Cliff Jagger who was the toolmaker for all of WDU. He was assisted by a young lad nicknamed 'dusting brush' (can't remember his real name) who unfortunately died in a motorcycle accident while waiting his call-up to the forces.
The toolroom was well equipped with a lathe, milling machine, surface grinder, pillar and bench drills and various 'fly' presses of different sizes. Cliff was a very good toolmaker and from a technical drawing (sometimes even a sketch) of a finished component, he would set about making the necessary blank and form tools to be used with a 'fly press' to make the component. As one of the younger people, I was often tasked with using the fly presses.
Cliff was of German origin but had been with EKCO for some considerable time and was a naturalised British citizen. He and his wife (Molly) lived in a cottage at Foxley and had a son after the war. I believe that he left the company shortly after the war to set up his own company.
Above the toolroom (on the first floor) was another side extension to the main workshop; this is where Cyril Lingwood, Joe McColl and Johnny Hankins worked. Both Joe and Johnny came from a government training centre and were directed into WDU and proved to be very good workers. Joe remained at EKCO after the war and married a local girl (Peggy Ayde) who still lives in Malmesbury. Johnny Hankins (who came from Weston Super Mare) was a keen musician and joined the 'Altona' band alongside Cyril Lingwood.
The 'east side' WDU was also the home of some new American South-bend lathes that had their own individual single phase motors except for one that managed to get through from the USA with a 115 volt motor, but with this exception, we were able to use these machines straight away.
Editors note: There was at least one of these lathes still in use in the 1960's having been transported to the 'prototype assembly shop' at Southend (from Cowbridge) where it was used by Dennis Poole who built all the prototype scanner units. The editor also used it.
On the top floor there was a 'fire-watchers' room, which was equipped with two single beds. I remember there was a platform constructed on the roof, where the firewatcher should be if the air raid siren went off. It was a good vantage point and was similar in height to the 'green house' atop WDU across the road. There was a rota for fire watching duties, tins hats were provided and there was an extra payment for this duty, which of course made us young ones keen to volunteer.
With regard to personal tools and measuring instruments, EKCO expected each person to have their own but were very good in assisting us to buy the necessary equipment. We would order what we needed through Les Gibbs and then pay back so much each week until the loan was paid off. I still have my 0 to 1 inch micrometer and a combination set (purchased in 1940) in good condition and still in use for jobs at home.
Tea breaks etc.
In the workshop, we had tea or coffee in the morning and afternoon, as such we did not stop work for these breaks but we did have regular times for these refreshments. I seem to remember that the tea/coffee making facilities were in the security room and whoever had a free moment did this. One thing I did as the 'junior' for a while was to go around the workshop first thing in the morning taking orders for cakes and rolls etc., which I would later collect from 'Tanners' (the bakers shop) along the high street.
Those of us from Southend and elsewhere were introduced to the local 'Lardy Cakes', which Tanners (the bakers) made most days. As I remember them, they were about 4 inches square and about 1 inch thick. They were layers of bread dough spread with lard and dried fruit then baked. We had them piping hot straight out of the oven - defiantly not good for the heart or the weight - but o so tasty. I still enjoy them today if I can find them, but they are not a patch on those from 'Tanners'.
Next door to us on the 'west side' was an old-fashioned sweet shop run by an elderly lady whose name I can't remember but this was regular port of call as well since some people preferred sweets or chocolates to buns etc. - that is if she had any stock for sale (later in the war sweet ration coupons were needed). Once she got to know us, you would go into the shop and while there were none on show, she would go under counter and find some. The shop entrance to her shop is the door above the car bonnet.
Secrecy
As you can see from the above, WDU was right in the middle of Malmesbury high street since on the other side of Mr. and Mrs. Martins' house was 'Basevi's' photo shop and next to that the general Post Office all of which maintained the façade of a normal high street and little did the locals know of the 'top secret' work being carried out behind this façade of normality. While we in the workshop used to wear overalls, we never ventured outside when wearing them so as to not arouse suspicion.
