The Old Cable Works

Image: © Stuart Wilding Taken: 11 Apr 2014

The land for the cable works was bought by Harold Smith in 1912. The factory's success seems to have been dictated by both world wars, when it flourished. During World War One it employed some 650 people, producing cable for the field telephones, some 15,000 miles of it was made. In between wars it didn't do so well. The receivers were called in in 1920 and it was bought by Edison Swan Electric Company in 1925. World War Two saw it's fortunes increase. It produced submarine defence indicator loop cables in 1940 and were laid in Scapa Flow, Malta and Australia. Later on in the war the factory also had one of only four machines capable of making lead alloy tube needed for P.L.U.T.O. – (Petroleum Lines Under The Ocean), which allowed fuel to be supplied to the Allied invasion force on the Continent from Britain. The Cable Works came to an end in 1966 when the Factory was bought by Reed Paper Group, which in its turn was taken over by a Swedish Company SCA. The factory finally ceased to be used around 1994.

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