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Welcome

Westwood Works 1903-2003

Site Facilities & Maintenance

Behind the scenes in every factory exist the means to provide the "services" - power, both permanent and stand-by, steam, hot water, compressed air, etc. The equipment needed to meet these needs has evolved significantly over the last nearly 100 years. The most obvious outward manifestation is perhaps the change from the lineshafts and belt-drives for powering the machine tools shown in the 1923 photographs, to the electronically controlled equipment used in the Factory in the later years. We are still developing this section and would like to hear from anyone with information about the development of the Power House, Boiler House, Stationary Diesel Engines, etc., over the past 100 years. For example, can anyone identify the equipment shown in the photograph of "The Power House" in 1923 please?

The Baker Perkins Factory Hooter

It could be heard a long way from Westwood; depending on the wind direction, Fletton, Walton and Dogsthorpe were certainly within its range. Many Peterborough residents who were not Westwood employees depended on it for their timekeeping.

It sounded eight times a day, Monday to Friday, at the following times:

07.15 – First Warning.
07.25 – Last Warning (At this time it was sounded twice).
07.30 – Final – All employees should have clocked on by that time. (see "Clocking On" in Getting to Work).
12.30 – Mid-day Lunch Break.
13.15 – First Warning.
13.25 – Last Warning (Again being sounded twice).
13.30 – Final.
17.30 – Leaving Work (For a 42 ½ hour week; 4.30pm when working hours changed to a 40 hour week).

At the end of the morning and again at the end of the day, "knocking-off" time was also signalled by a single sounding of an internal buzzer. This was also sounded at 7.30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays to mark the end of official overtime.

Bert Slater recalls : "As I lived in Paston Lane I liked to have been cycling down Walpole Street by the time that the 7.15am hooter sounded, so that parking my  cycle and clocking-on had been done by about 7.20am. As you can imagine, many people left it to the last minute and, with about 2,000 employees it was a bit of a scramble."

Power Supplies

When the factory in Westfield Road was first built, power was derived from a central station provided by a 275 horsepower gas engine, driven by producer gas and directly coupled to dynamos. The whole distribution of power and lighting was by electricity at 220 volts. Messrs. J.H. Andrew & Co., Stockport supplied the gas engines and the International Electrical Engineering Co., the electrical equipment.

The 1923 photo of the Small Lathe Bay clearly illustrates the lineshaft and belt drive system used throughout the factory to power the machine tools. It is debatable whether such a system would pass today's Health and Safety regulations.

Jim Deboo tells us that during the Second World War, much of the machine shop was still operated by line shafting, with each line driven by one 50hp electric motor through a 9" wide x 5/8" thick leather belt. The beltman came in on dayshift at about 6.30am (an hour before he was required to and entirely voluntarily) in order to check, and correct if necessary, the running of the lineshafts at the end of the nightshift and before the dayshift began work. Harry Lunn and Frank Goslow were among those responsible for this over time. On occasions in winter, Frank came to work in his horse and trap which he then stabled in the cycle sheds.

It was vital to have a competent beltman on hand to deal with breakages. When a main drive belt broke, it sounded like a gun firing and then silence followed, as a whole row of machine tools came to a halt. This was both expensive in lost machining time and also dangerous because loss of power to a machine tool under load whilst cutting (e.g. turning a huge mixer blade, cutting a square thread on a lathe, milling a flat surface or cutting a gear) meant that the cutting tool could break or remain jammed in the work piece.

Jim also remembers that in the war years there were two large stationary diesel engines in the power house. The largest was a 500hp Swiss Sulzer with a 9' diameter flywheel which drove a DC generator. On one occasion during a weekend, Jim had to machine a 24" diameter block of high grade cast iron to make a new cylinder head to replace one that had "blown".

As the 1940s progressed, more machine tools were fitted with, or were supplied with, integral electric motor drives. The increased sophistication of equipment used, culminating in the numerically controlled machine tools of the 1970s/1980s, demanded ever increasing supplies of power. The 1960s 6,600V supply was increased to 11,000V in later years. The complex distribution system for this is shown on the site plan below. In addition, the cranes and lifts on the site were powered from a DC supply in the Maintenance Department.

Compare the photograph of the 1923 Small Lathe Bay with that of the Small Milling Bay in 1970 and both of these pictures with the dramatic changes illustrated in the 1982 photographs shown above.

Factory Heating

It will be seen from the 1907 Sales brochure in Documentation that WP&P were experts in central heating systems, supplying a system to St. George's Chapel, Windsor among many others. Loftus Perkins had patented a stopped-end steam tube system, consisting of wrought-iron tubes, partially filled with distilled water, with both ends hermetically sealed. One end of the tube was positioned in a furnace creating in effect, an individual boiler, its upper part filled with high pressure steam. This formed the basis of an entirely new and efficient baking system in which the tubes traversed the whole length of the oven both above and below the product being baked, providing a steady level of heating. A similar idea was used for space heating. The photographs of the main workshops, from those of Westwood Works in 1923 to those of the empty factory prior to demolition<, clearly show banks of heating tubes hanging from the stanchions on both sides of the workshops. In the early days, these were heated by coke stoves at the end of each shop. These were still in place during WW2 and in the Machine Shop and Fitting Shop, these coke-fired furnaces were about the size of a drawplate oven and provided hot water and steam heating to various parts of the workshop.Jim Deboo writes: "In winter, during our 30 minute meal break from 2.30am to 3.00am, we would gather round the open furnace to eat our food."In later years, after the Boiler House with its prominent chimney, was built in 1951, the same pipes were used to carry steam from the central boiler. Even later, this system was improved by the addition of fan heaters positioned at intervals along the pipe system.

The Boiler House

Prior to the building of the "new" Boiler house in 1951, there were three coal-fired boilers, two in use - one on "stand by", housed in a building in the main Works yard, just north of the Fire Station. Coal was stored in hoppers high above the ground and fed to the furnaces by chain-grate and screw feeds.

Inside the 1951 Boiler House

Each of these boilers was capable of producing 14,000 lbs of steam per hour. Emergencies were catered for by standby boilers in the Fitting Shop and Experimental Department.

Compressed Air

Supplies of compressed air were needed at many points in Westwood Works and by the 1970s, a number of individual compressors scattered around the site had been replaced by larger Broomwade compressors. These supplied 11,000 cfm and were located centrally in the Boiler House.

Gas

Mains Water

Cranes

A most essential part of any engineering factory are the workshop cranes. Including the yard gantry crane, there were over 60 cranes at Westwood Works. These ranged from the 20 and 30 tonne capacity double girder cranes in "KL" and "IJ" Bays to the 0.5 tonne and 1.0 tonne single girder units used in the smaller bays. All of the bigger bays had two overhead cranes. This does not include the small hoists used fro loading individual machine tools and for erecting machines in the Fitting Shop. Approximately twelve of these cranes date back to the first WP&P factory having been installed between 1906 and 1926.

Layout of Cranes in key workshops	List of the cranes existing at Westwood Works	Two Cranes in the Main Fitting Shop	Crane in Experimental Department	Hoist in the Machine Shop	Selection of Cranes and Hoists in the Fitting Shop
		We believe that the Yard Crane was erected in 1953 or 1954. The area beneath this crane was used as a castings store. Ken "Eggy" Allen was usually in charge.

Crane drivers were, by the nature of their work, interesting characters. Perched aloft in their tiny cabins, relatively isolated for most of the day (or night), they played a key role in ensuring a smooth flow of production. Much skill was needed, as well as an understanding of what was happening on the factory floor below. One wartime crane operator was said to have been able to stick a piece of chewing gum onto the bottom of his massive crane hook and lower it onto a marking out table to pick up a silver threepenny bit!

Passenger Lifts

Two sets of two lifts existed in the 1932 multi-story office building, one set in the 1975 building and a single lift in the Holding Company building.

Lifts in the 1932 Building

Lifts in the 1975 Building

The Maintenance Department

From the original machine tool maintenance work (Millwrights), electrical work, building and office services etc, eventually emerged the Plant Engineering Department with Alan Brockbank as Plant Engineer. He was supported by the Maintenance, Electrical, Building Services and Safety Foremen.

The Maintenance Department was situated towards the north-east corner of the site between the Fitting Shops and the Foundry.

The Maintenance Department housed a DC rectifier - the only source of DC power for cranes and lifts.

Roof Maintenance

The factory roofing was completely replaced between 1974 and 1986.

Site Plan showing Roof replacement dates	Original Roofing	New Roofing

The Glass Shed

Another little known Westwood asset was the  "Glass Shed" - not made of glass but a store and workplace, housed in the Maintenance Department, where large sheets of glass, of different sizes and thickness, were kept and used to replace any damaged panes in the offices and factory areas.

All of the manufacturing areas in the factory had large expanses of glass in their roofs and some quite large panes of glass had to be replaced from time to time. Office areas also had some glass in their construction but this was mainly confined to relatively small areas in windows, doors or office partitions – most of these being a simple matter to replace. It was a somewhat different matter when the factory roof was affected.

Whenever a report was received of damaged or broken glass in the factory roof, Maintenance personnel would first seal off the area immediately below to keep out unauthorized personnel and to protect the employees. The next important task was to protect the machine tools below as any damage caused by glass or rainwater could have a very serious effect on production. Urgent replacement of the damaged glass was therefore essential and was given a high priority.

Joe Smith of the Maintenance Department, who worked on this important task, recalls the work involved – "Having removed the damaged glass, a new piece was measured and cut to size before being hoisted up to the roof by means of a 'block and tackle' arrangement – not always an easy task, particularly in inclement weather. 'Crawler ladders' were placed on each side of the opening and two Maintenance men placed the new pane of plate glass into position and ensured that the lead seals were made secure.  In addition, as an extra precaution, 'grease strings' were also laid along these seals to prevent water from seeping underneath". The very large area of factory roof at Westwood (See "Roof Maintenance" above), meant that a constant watch had to be kept on the fabric of the roof to ensure that production on the shop floor below was not disrupted for too long a period.

Factory Access Roads

Replacing the Office Air-Conditioning System Cooling Towers

The air-conditioning cooling towers on the 1975 office block had rusted through by (date?) and were replaced. This required the services of a crane with a very long jib which lifted the new units from the main Works entrance onto the roof of the block.