Hungerford Works
Newbury Area Dispersal Workshop
The Hungerford Works formed part of the Newbury & Hungerford Area managed by Area Supervisor Tom Barby.
Built in 1941 as a “new build” in the village of Eddington, close to Hungerford in Berkshire, it provided additional Machine Room capacity for Supermarine, and the wider Vickers-Armstrongs company.
The Machine Room was in operation into 1944, employing several hundred, mainly female, workers.
Places
Role & Location of the Hungerford Works
People
People involved in the Hungerford Works
Places
Early Dispersal of Production
(September 1940 – mid 1941)
The initial dispersal of production in late 1940 had led to the creation of several new production areas, including one centred on the town of Newbury. By early 1941 the initial Newbury workshops in the motor garages of Nias, Pass & Co. and Stradling’s had became fully operational.
It is unclear whether the Hungerford Works formed part of the initial group of dispersal works and was not one of those initially listed. The list had been identified by Works Manager Len Gooch and his team in the days immediately following the bombing of the Woolston and Itchen Works in late September 1940. However, the initial dispersal was rapid and somewhat chaotic. It focused on the immediate requisition of existing workshops (garages etc.) which could be made operational as quickly as possible and restore production in what was still a crucial phase of the Battle of Britain.
New construction, even using prefabricated buildings as at Hungerford, was not part of the initial dispersal plan but was to feature prominently later in the war.
Planning & Construction
(Early-mid 1941)
With the initial dispersal workshops at least partially operational by the middle of 1941 the ‘Newbury Area’ began to expand, with new workshops both within and beyond the confines of the town itself.
The first of the ‘Newbury’ sites outside of the town was a new Finished Parts Store in Baughurst, near Basingstoke in Hampshire, but it is clear that the site for a new Machine Shop in the Hungerford area had also been earmarked by this point.
The site chosen was a paddock belonging to John King, the owner of Folly Farm to the north of Eddington, and located on the northern edge of the village, on Upper Eddington Road, and across the River Kennet from Eddington Mill.
The original impetus for the new Machine Room at Hungerford was probably the demand from the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP) in mid 1941 for all existing Spitfires to be upgraded to the Mk V specification. A demand that would require a large number of the modified parts and sub-assemblies, made by the Machine and Fitting rooms, over and above those already needed for production and the supply of ‘normal’ spare parts.
The pressure for machined parts was probably further compounded by the Ministry’s decision to centralise its supply of “spares” through Supermarine, rather than dealing with sub-contractors directly. Whilst sub-contractors would continue to form a large and vital part of Spitfire production, this centralisation of spares through Supermarine is also likely to have enabled them to take additional control of production through their own supply lines.
Construction began almost immediately. The Quarterly Report to the Vickers Board by Supermarine, in the third quarter of 1941, stated that the new dispersal unit at Hungerford was, along with ones in Newbury and Trowbridge, “in course of construction”.
The buildings were quickly erected, probably by the Ministry of Aircraft Production, using a fairly standard style of prefabricated, single storey, ‘Blister’ hangar, with a curved corrugated iron roof, brick walls extended by annexe buildings along the sides and ends of the main hangar.
To hide the factory from German reconnaissance aircraft, the roof and buildings were painted with a camouflage pattern. RAF reconnaissance photographs, utilised by the Ordnance Survey in 1946, show the camouflage as well as the less discreet outline formed by the paths around the building.
Inside, the large central area of the hangar formed the actual machine workshop, with rows of machine lathes, grinders and other tooling machines. To the side was a “glass house” office. In addition, the site included a canteen and first-aid facilities.
Operational
(mid 1941 – Mid 1942)
The new dispersal Machine Shops, like the original Machine Shop in Woolston and the early dispersal workshop in Stradling’s Garage in Newbury, used machine lathes to make the vital component parts used both for production and as spare parts. Production was primarily for the Spitfire but the workshop may also have been producing parts for both the Supermarine Walrus (which was being constructed by Saunders Roe during WWII) and Vickers Wellington.
A photograph of the interior of the workshop, taken by Supermarine in about 1943, shows rows of finished fittings laid out on benches next to the lathes.
By early 1942 the need for more spare parts had become a priority, with Supermarine reporting an “Urgent request … from MAP for large quantities of additional spares for overseas squadrons”.
At least in part, this demand probably reflects the desperate need to support the newly arrived Spitfires on the besieged island of Malta. Unlike the Spitfires damaged during the Battle of Britain, which could be quickly replaced by new aircraft whilst the damage was repaired by the C.R.O., in Malta aircraft had to be repaired in situ. A demand that the Hungerford Works were now able to respond to.
The Workforce
(Mid 1941 – Mid 1944)
As with the majority of the dispersed workshops, the workforce was a combination of skilled workers, often relocated from Southampton, supervising and training a largely unskilled local workforce.
At Woolston the workforce had been primarily, but not exclusively male. However, the Vickers Quarterly report for 3Q 1941 highlighted a significant shift resulting from the dispersal. The report stated that “the number of employees at dispersal units considerably increased because of the introduction of female labour”.
Women had always formed a part of the Supermarine workforce, with many working in the Fitting and Machine Shops (amongst other departments) at Woolston prior to the start of World War II, Following the start of hostilities the number of women volunteering for “war work” steadily increased, both on the shop floor and in the associated clerical roles.
As the dispersal of production began to expand into the new “Areas”, in late 1940, Supermarine needed more workers and reported that “as far as possible labour already resident in the dispersal areas is being taken on, particularly women and unskilled men for training.” By the end of 1941 women accounted for around a third of all Supermarine workers.
The drive to increase the number of female workers received a significant boost when the “National Service Act” was passed in December 1941. Following the introduction of the Act, all single women between the ages of 20 and 30 were called-up for war work, providing a new, much larger, pool of workers to recruit from. By the end of March 1942 women made up almost half of Supermarine’s workforce. A proportion that was maintained throughout the rest of the War.
Initially, the newly trained workers would be expected to operate the machines under the supervision of skilled workers, who had often been relocated from the original Works in Southampton. These skilled workers would also be responsible for training the operators and for the production and setting of the templates, jigs and machines used by them. Finding suitable accommodation for these relocated workers was one of the biggest problems that Supermarine faced with the entire dispersal scheme.
The detailed picture of the interior of the Machine Shop above shows some of the female operators working at a row of machine lathes with two or three male chargehands overseeing their work.
Once operational, the Hungerford Works operated on a twenty-four hour a day basis, running two twelve hours shifts seven days a week. Only later in the war were the hours slightly reduced and workers given alternate Saturdays and Sundays off.
Although there are no known, employee numbers for the Hungerford Works, photographs of the Works in use (probably in mid 1943) suggest, that at its height, with two shifts, there would have been in the order of at least 200 employees on both the shop floor and in the associated office.
In 1942, to enable female workers with young children perform their long shifts, a “Wartime Nursey” was setup by the Ministry of Health in a prefabricated hut close to Parsonage Farm in the nearby town of Hungerford. The Wartime Nursery (later renamed Day Nursery) provided childcare support from 7am to 7pm both for the women working in the Hungerford Works and those in the nearby Chilton Aircraft Factory.
Production and Closure
(mid 1942 – 1944)
The Works continued in use through until at least 1944. In January 1944 it was listed by Supermarine’s parent company ‘Vickers-Armstrongs (Aviation) Ltd., as works number 029 and in operation as a Machine Shop.
Note: the address of the Works was incorrectly listed in this document. The Works were actually located on Upper Eddington Road which led to Leverton Lane. Foley Hill is a misspelling of Folly Hill, the hill rising away from the River Kennet on which the Hangar was constructed.
Exactly when the Works ceased operation in unclear. One record (saved from South Marston when it was sold) suggests it was as late as September 19461, however, it is not listed amongst the requisitioned Supermarine Works being vacated drawn up in 1945, suggesting that it may have ceased operation at some point in late 1944.
Post Supermarine
(1944 – Today)
Following the departure of Supermarine the buildings were reused by the Hungerford Grain & Seed Merchants, John Adams & Son. After several further changes of ownership, the site was eventually cleared for housing in the late 1980s and is now part of the Hamblin Meadow housing estate.
There is more on the history of the Hungerford Works and Wartime Nursey, and their post WWII stories, on The Hungerford Historical Association’s “Hungerford Virtual Museum” website:
People
Area Supervisor:
Barby, Thomas C. “Tom”
Works Staff:
Mattingley, Albert Frank
1930s+
Listed as a “Carpenter Lathe hand” in the 1939 Register, working as a Machinist in “M” Shop in the Woolston Works until it was bombed in September 1940. Following the bombing of the Woolston Works he was transferred to the Hungerford Works to continue working as a Machinist. He was able to find accommodation for himself and new wife (having married in 1940) renting a cottage in the village of Chilton Foliat, two miles to the west of Eddington. Returned to Southampton after the end of the war, squatting in ex-army Nissen hut on Southampton Common until more Council housing became available.
Other names will be included for each Workshop as time allows.
If you know of anyone who worked at one of the Newbury or Hungerford locations (or other Supermarine Areas) please get in contact
Related
Newbury Area
Overview of the whole Newbury Area
The Dispersal
General Overview of the Dispersal
M Shop
The Machine Room in the original Woolston Works
- Reference to the later date for the closure of the Hungerford Works comes from details provided by Norman Parker, historian for “The Secret Spitfires” project in Salisbury. ↩︎
The Supermariners 
