By 1773 there was a large house and mill (Cow Mill) on this site. In 1839 Samuel Bendry Brooke bought the property and in 1849/50 he rebuilt the house in an Italianate/French style. As built the house had 23 bed and dressing rooms, comprising 6 best bedrooms, 2 dressing rooms with a nearby fitted bathroom, 3 secondary bedrooms, 3 servants' bedrooms all on the first floor and 7 good-sized bedrooms on the second floor as well as a housekeeper's and housemaid's rooms. When he died in 1869 his nephew, Rev. Charles Kemble, the Rector of Bath, inherited. Kemble carried out some improvements to the house (his initials can be seen on railings that used to be part of the bridge over the mill stream at the entrance) but is best
known for dealing with the restoration of Bath Abbey 1864-74 using George Gilbert Scott Junior as architect. On Kemble's death his widow Charlotte then settled it on their son Stephen. He offered it for sale from 1893 and in 1899 Baldomero de Bertodano, a retired Spanish solicitor who had practised in Swindon purchased it. The mill, which previously had been used by a brewer, was used to generate electricity for the house and the new model Home Farm was added. Mr. de Bertodano died in 1921 and the property was sold two years later to Philip (later Sir Philip) Hunloke. Hunloke was King George V's yachtsman who moved to Malmesbury to hunt with the Beaufort.
Towards the end of August 1939 Mr. M.I. Lipman, head of the Electrical Appliances Division of E.K. Cole Ltd., was instructed by the RAF to establish a 'shadow' factory capable of producing radio equipment within a radius of 100 miles to the west of London. Eric Kirkham Cole had started making radio sets in 1924. As the business expanded it moved to a large factory in Southend-on-Sea in 1930. After searching Oxfordshire and South Gloucestershire Mr. Lipman ended up in Malmesbury and the day before war was declared bought Cowbridge House for £6,500 from Sir Philip. By Christmas Mr. Lipman had turned the house into a workshop and 20 or so workers were assembling VHF radios. Unfortunately from the start there was much ill feeling between the locals and the newcomers. Many of the young
women recruited had previously been in service with the gentry. The Old Bell had a sign saying, "Employees of Messrs. E.K. Cole are not welcome in this bar". A mother with a daughter aged 17 hoped that the daughter would not be paid the minimum wage of £l per week, as she had only been paid 10s. whilst in service in a local country house. Another young woman attracted by the higher wage was Phyllis Pike (soon to be married to George Elms who had only asked her father for permission to park his bike outside their house!). She earned £1 2s. 6d. per week winding coils and was so good at it she was often the winner of production bonuses.
The summer of 1940 saw the start of radio-location (radar) set production. Robert Watson-Watt had first demonstrated radar in 1936 when his apparatus detected a formation of planes 50 miles away. The Western Development Unit ONDU), which was established in J.E. Ponting's premises in Malmesbury's High Street, solved many of the problems of turning designs into workable sets. Some employees were brought from the parent factory in Southend but as production built up there was a shortage of labour. Other workers, many of them conscripted women, had to be brought in. About 200 women transferred from the Silk Mill when the Ministry of Supply closed that in 1941. With so many women on the staff a day nursery was set up in Swindon Road. Living accommodation had to be provided and the Priory, Halcombe House (off Foxley Road), Rodbourne House and many other properties in nearby villages were rented. In 1942 twelve prefabricated houses were erected for workers north of Cowbridge House in what would become Cowbridge Crescent. These were added to at a later date. After the war they were given to the Borough Council on the understanding that Ekco employees would have the chance of first refusal on them. Even into the 1960s there were complaints of 'queue jumping' by Ekco employees over other council tenants as 41 of the 240 council houses were covered by this agreement.
There was a strong sports and social club. Dances were held in the canteen on Saturday nights and a Ministry of Supply lorry was used to collect some of the women from the hostel in Rodbourne. On one trip Police Inspector Edwards stopped the lorry and although he saw all the correspondence with the Ministry of Aircraft Production authorising this use, a summons was issued for Mr. Lipman to appear before the town's magistrates. The charge was using official petrol for civilian purposes. He was told by his Ministry not to worry about it but the hearing date arrived and he felt it prudent to attend the court. It had not been sorted out so he asked for the case to be adjourned. The magistrate would only allow him until that afternoon so he arranged for a solicitor to be collected from Swindon (using Ministry fuel) who was then granted a seven day adjournment! At the following week's hearing the Ministry of Fuel's counsel asked leave to withdraw the charge. However the magistrate would have none of it and pronounced that Mr. Lipman was "guilty but discharged"! During the 1950s & 60s the Social Club provided an annual treat for the children of Malmesbury, the Christmas Party. This was held in the house and comprised entertainment including cartoon films, games and much food. The whole outing including the coach travel each way, being split into groups and the precise timetable was an exciting highlight of the year.
Ekco produced Air Interception radars for the RAF, Air to Surface Vessel sets for the Fleet Air Arm, amending these for installation in ships for the Royal Navy (and stopping the 100 valves jumping out of their sockets when guns were fired) and Search Light Control sets for the Army. At the end of the war many of the staff were made redundant, WDU went back to Southend and the factory took on other work, although radar production continued until the mid 1960s. Military radios (88 sets) were made and an association with Aldermaston Atomic Energy Establishment began which led to radiation monitoring equipment being produced. This was calibrated by placing a piece of radioactive material on a wooden rule and no doubt these workers received considerable exposure. Car radios, tape recorders and radiograms were added to the range of products. 1960 saw Ekco being taken over by PYE Ltd. In 1961 the Heating Appliance Division moved to Malmesbury from Southend. As a result the premises had to be
extended in 1963 and again the next year at a cost of £70,000. Electric fires, Thermotube (Horticultural heating in 2" steel or aluminium tubes ranging from 1' to 16' in length), night storage radiators and finally gas heaters were also produced at this time. Every day a lorry would take products to the London depot which was under the seats at Wembley Stadium! From 1969 the factory no longer traded using the Ekco name but under the TV Manufacturing Ltd. banner. However this was short-lived and the company became PYE TMC Ltd.
This name change also heralded a complete change of product. The factory now produced telephones and telephone exchange equipment. The research and development department was relocated from Dulwich which resulted in half of the building in front of Cowbridge House being demolished and a modern one put up in 1975. The mid 1970s were a difficult time with 115 out of 400 workers made redundant in 1976. This was despite the arrival of the Company' s head office early that year. The following year another 110 were made redundant. In 1980 Philips Telecommunications UK Ltd. took over. From then onwards the main activity was research and development of telephone equipment. From 1982 AT & T, an American telephone conglomerate joined Philips in a joint venture and in that year another modern building was put on the east of the site. However in 1986 Philips sold out their interest and AT & T became the sole owner. In the mid 1990s AT & T were finding it difficult to both operate telephone networks as well as supply equipment to competitors. They split off their manufacturing arm, to form a new company, Lucent Technologies. This firm employed here some 650 staff researching and developing transmission and switching equipment for both mobile and fixed line telephone networks. Unfortunately following the collapse of the technology boom they announced the closure of this site and vacated it in September 2002.
Malmesbury Civic Trust
