English Electric Co., Stafford

Move your pointing device over the image to zoom to detail. If using a mouse click on the image to toggle zoom.
When in zoom mode use + or - keys to adjust level of image zoom.

Date:1947 - 1950 (c.)

Description:This office building was known as The English Electric Co. ‘Main Offices’ on the Lichfield Road site in Stafford. The large flags on the roof were usually flown for special celebrations and for important visitors touring the site. The English Electric Co. in Stafford was renowned for its electrical products including generators, transformers and switchgear.

The Main Office building and the adjacent factory were built for Siemens Brothers and ready for use by 1903. Later during English Electric’s time the building was enlarged with the first of two flat roof extensions around 1947. On the ground floor, third window from the left there is a man painting the window frame and between cars by the office entrance are piles of new bricks. The second extension was added to the building in the late 1950s. Above the first floor windows are several of the original chimneys which were linked to fireplaces in the offices, below these windows are air bricks set in the walls which formed part of the original air movement system for the offices, the stale air was directed through ducts out of the offices via the cupola (with a weather vane attached) on the left of the roof. The second floor was occupied by the site telephone exchange. On the right of the photograph adjacent to the MG sports car is an entrance for the factory workers to access the site. They were not allowed to walk through the Main Office entrance. Next to the factory entrance is a paper-boy's bicycle with a bag advertising the News Chronicle and the top of the paper-boy's head may be seen behind the Ford 8 car. The News Chronicle was a daily newspaper which ceased publication in 1960 and was then absorbed into the Daily Mail. The Main Offices were demolished during January 2006 as part of the Site redevelopment and replaced by the Hough Retail Shopping Park.

Thank you to Mr Bill Fox for identifying many of the cars in the photograph, from the right they are: an MG sports car, Ford 8, Morris 8, Morris 12, Morris Tourer (with easy clean wheels), Wolseley, Morris, Ford 10 and on the left is a part view of a Standard 8.

This image is taken from a glass negative donated to the Staffordshire County Museum by Alstom Power, Lichfield Road, Stafford.

Siemens Brothers purchased the land in 1901 and built the factory and offices which were ready to start production in 1903. In 1918 Siemens merged with several companies, including Dick, Kerr and Co., to become the English Electric Co. Two years later in 1920, The English Electric Co bought the Stafford Works. The English Electric Co merged with GEC (The General Electric Company) during 1968 and the Lichfield Road Site became part of GEC Power Engineering Ltd. On 22 March 1989 became part of GEC ALSTHOM, an Anglo French Joint Venture. On 22 June 1998 became part of ALSTOM with global HQ in Paris and to date (March 2015) continues to be part of the ALSTOM Group.

Share:


Ordering:Click the button to add the item to your basket. Follow the link for further information on ordering.

Creators: Mr Andy Ellis, Alstom Power, Stafford - Contributor

Image courtesy of: Mr Bob Metcalfe

Donor ref:AE-08 (37/27859)

Source: Staffordshire Museum Service

Copyright information: Copyrights to all resources are retained by the individual rights holders. They have kindly made their collections available for non-commercial private study & educational use. Re-distribution of resources in any form is only permitted subject to strict adherence to the usage guidelines.