By Nick Pollard
No doubt many readers will remember the British Thermostat factory in Windmill Road, Sunbury, which provided employment to generations of local people. Some of you may well have worked there yourselves.
The company was founded in Teddington in 1928 with a staff of only 4, to produce refrigeration controls and automatic thermostats. Expansion of the business led to a move to Sunbury in 1931, to the building shown in the photo. By this time the workforce had increased to 60. In 1934 the company collaborated with Rolls-Royce to produce a thermostat for their cars. In turn this led to the development of a thermostat for the famous Merlin aero engine, which eventually powered many significant Royal Air Force aircraft of the Second World War, including the Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster and Mosquito. A considerable expansion of both the factory and the workforce was required, so much so that the local area was unable to provide enough suitable staff, and many were recruited from the London area. Naturally most needed to travel by train, but there was no station near to the factory, so in 1944 Upper Halliford Halt was constructed for their use. A platform was only built on the ‘down’ side, as the ‘up’ side was used to stock war-damaged rolling stock (a second platform was added after the war).
After the war, the aircraft business moved to a factory in Merthyr and became Teddington Air-craft Controls, whilst Sunbury reverted to commercial refrigeration equipment as Teddington Controls. In the 1960s a new factory was built at St. Austell in Cornwall to take advantage of government development grants. A series of takeovers and renaming of companies followed, and eventually the Sunbury site was closed. The company still operates in St. Austell as Teddington Group.
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