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Local folk

Working men and women
Images provided by Royal Pavillion, Museums & Libraries (Brighton & Hove)
Photo: Illustrative image for the 'Local folk' page
Photo: Illustrative image for the 'Local folk' page
Photo: Illustrative image for the 'Local folk' page
Photo: Illustrative image for the 'Local folk' page
Photo: Illustrative image for the 'Local folk' page
Photo: Illustrative image for the 'Local folk' page

Brighton & Hove Museums have been trying to identify some old black and white photographs of women at work in a factory that were sent to Brighton Museum from Woking Museum. We have some idea of where the photographs were taken but still don't know for sure if they are of the Brighton area, and we were wondering if your website users might be able to help.

We do know that the photographs were at least processed locally - they are all stamped 'Averys, 77 St. James Street, Brighton' on the back. The pictures were most probably taken during WW2, possibly in a munitions factory. This makes them of particular interest because a) during this time photography would only have been permitted in special circumstances, and b) given the subject matter they would have been highly sensitive photographs to take at the time.

The obvious answer would have been that these are pictures of an AllenWest factory but we have it on authority that they are not. There was an Electrical Engineering company called 'Galliers' whose head office was just up the road from Averys, and this is our best guess yet.

Added to the site on 26-01-06
This page was added on 26/06/2006.

Comments:

I would certainly have said War Work and Allen Wests. However, looking at picture 6 there is a container with 'Export Only' written on its side. This would seem to make it post war, but still the 1940s especially as there are a large number of women working the machinery. I can remember being taken up to London by my mother at the end of the 40s and seeing a lot of goods marked 'For Export Only'.
By Geoff (29/01/2006)
I would definitely say post 1945. There are no black out curtains.
By Trevor Harvey (30/01/2006)

During the war Woolworths along the London Road was turned into a factory for the war effort. I had a female relative that was there.I am not sure what was made could have been parts for machines . It was mainly women employed there. I think perhaps that is why the German aircraft used to fly down the London Road straffing the area with bullets. The windows of the Store were painted black and no lights could be seen through.

By Jennifer Goddard nee Norrell (05/02/2007)

I worked as a trainee 'Centre-Lathe Turner' at Allen West for a year in 1973, and i must say it certainly looks like the factory in Moulsecoomb Way circa 1946.

By Jimmy Anderson (05/02/2007)

The windows look similar to the old Allen West factories both at Coombe Road and in Moulsecoomb Way. Another thought, my Aunt, Alice Bamber, worked in a munitions factory in Brighton during the First World War, but I don't know where that was. I will have to ask her daughter. It could be as early as that.

By Mary Funnell (04/04/2007)

Post-war 1940s seems about right. The fashions are certainly 40s but, if this was wartime, there would have been blackout curtains and possibly also paper tape glued across the glass to try to contain shards if the windows were blown in. This was the period of post-war austerity, continued (or worse) rationing and of the desperate national need to earn hard currency which produced the official slogan "Export or die". The space and layout suggest a fairly modern, purpose-built factory out of the town centre - but I have no idea where.

By Adrian Baron (27/04/2007)

I worked as a trainee engineer in the mid-1950s. A lot of the senior machinists had worked at the CVA factory on the north side of Bristol Road near the junction with Bedford Street. During the war, and I believe for a short period thereafter, there was an engineering works next door to the Odeon Cinema, Kemp Town in St.Georges Road. Later it was, I believe, a pharmaceuticals warehouse.

By Terry Wass (28/04/2007)

My mother, long deceased, would tell me that she worked in an 'aircraft factory' during the First World War. It was in St. James's Street. She would mention the 'dope' that was used to treat the fabric of the wings and body.

By Peter Clark (30/04/2007)

For Peter Clark, have a look under the heading of Local Folk, Mary Shillingford (AKA Polly). Perhaps your Mother's in the picture. If so, please add a comment.

By Dave Cresdee (04/10/2007)

My great grandfather was a cinemagraph artist in 1908 in Brighton, as yet have not found out which cinema. Also he was a photographer's assistant in 1915, his name was Geoffrey Thompson. If anyone has any information on him I would be very grateful.

By Sonia Williams (06/01/2008)

Is the photo possibly Mullards? They made valves for radios. I worked there for a few weeks welding in 1958. The factory was, I think, in Davigdor Road off the Seven Dials.

By Joan (09/07/2008)

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