Numbers highlighted below are links to views of respective workshops
KEY TO AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH
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1. Main Drive.
2. Service Depot Entrance.
3. Service Department.
4. Wasteland, including waste-oil pit.
5. Sports Field.
6. Bowling Green.
7. Sports Pavillion.
8. Tennis Courts.
9. Canteen.
10. Cycle Sheds.
11. Warden's Post.
12. Labour Office.
13. Spares Department.
14. Training School.
15. Plant Maintenance?.
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16. Boiler House.
17. HEAD OFFICE.
18. Main Drawing Office above; Experimental Dept below.
19. Engine Research.
20. Photographic Dept.
21. Light Machine Shop.
22. unknown.
23. Jig & Tool Drawing Office above.
24. New Tool Room.
25. CKD Shop?.
26. CI Slab?.
27. Chassis Inspection & Rectification.
28. Millwright's Shop.
29. Emergency Power House (using AEC Engines).
30. Plating.
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31. Heat Treatment.
32. Grinders.
33. Bar Floor.
34. Main Offices.
35. Old Tool Room.
36. Laboratory.
37. Main View Room.
38. Crankshaft Machining.
39. Conn Rod Machining.
40. Production Control Dept, above.
41. Gearbox Assembly.
42. Tinsmiths.
43. Engine Test.
44. Engine Assembly.
45. Engine Casings.
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46. Goods Inwards.
47. Axle Machining.
48. Wheels & Tyres.
49. Axle Assembly.
50. Frame Assembly.
51. Chassis Assembly.
52. Chassis Finishing.
53. Railcar Shed.
54. "The Dip" Test Slope.
55. unknown.
56. unknown.
57. unknown.
58. Scrap Bins.
59. "Mystic" Cutting-oil Reclamation.
60. Warden's Post.
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b - Railway Branch Line to AEC. c - Raw Casting Bays. f - Flagstaff.
O - Area for Checking Turning Circles. R - Western Region Railway, Paddington Main Line.
r - Railway Branch Line to Brentford. s - Safety Engineer, above. T - Pedestrian Tunnel & Shop Kiosk.
t - Pedestrian Tunnel & Shop Kiosk. x - Print Room.
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- Nurse, with WORKS MANAGER above.
UNKNOWNS: Millwrights; Clerk of Works; Paintshop; Stationery.
The patchy discolouration of much of the factory roofing may be due to ongoing removal of wartime
camouflage paint. On a similar theme, can someone tell us where the factory's air-raid shelters were
situated and were they above or below ground. Looking at the photo and noting the disturbed
ground, one can suspect that they were around the western and southern perimeters of the Sports Field.
This could be borne out by the following extract from AEC's publication Contribution to Victory, quoted
here with kind permission of the BCVM Trust: "On the night of September the 24th, 1940, the Southall
Service Department was struck by a bomb which put a large part of the building completely out of action
for six months. Happily, workers on the night shift had taken cover in the
nearby shelters
and not a single man was injured. Damage to the building, however, was extensive the explosion having
wrecked the roof, blown out windows and doors, uprooted machine tools and rendered many vehicles
unrepairable."
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The accuracy of the above configuration is not assured. Please forward suggested corrections and additions to the
Webmaster.
Click here for a Location Map or
Click here to view the Image without text or
Click here for the Notebook Index
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