EKCO stands for Eric Kirkham Cole Limited (E.K. Cole Ltd). Eric Kirkham Cole and his girlfriend started making radio sets in 1924, they later married and in 1927 set up with funding from local businessmen, a new factory at Leigh-on-Sea, they expanded, first to premises owned by their various directors and then in 1930, to a very big new factory at Southend-on-Sea.
Shortly before the out break of war in 1939 it was decided by the Government to disperse production of certain factories to locations in the countryside away from obvious bombing targets.
The Malmesbury factory is situated on the River Avon, a mile outside the North Wiltshire town. A large country house set in 14 acres of land was purchased in August 1939 and rapidly converted to meet its new requirements. Senior personnel and technical staff were transferred from the Ekco factory at Southend-on-Sea, but the majority of manual workers (chiefly women) were recruited from the surrounding area in the early months of the war. When the Ministry of Supply closed down a local textile factory, its 200 employees were taken on by the new factory.
The factory specialised in the highly secret development and production of radio-location systems (radar) first used by coastal stations and later developed for RAF night fighters and the Fleet Air Arm. The bulk of the development work was carried out in various buildings in the town itself and know as the Western Development Unit.
After the war the factory became a leading producer of television and later car radio sets. Under various changes of ownership it developed and produced all kinds of telecommunications equipment and at the time of writing is a centre for research into the latest mobile telephone technology.
This section of the Malmesbury Memories web site is being developed as an assembly point for any information and memories of the Malmesbury EKCO works and its employees throughout its history. Anyone with any knowledge is very much welcomed to send in their own contribution for addition to the facts or to be displayed on these pages under your guidance if you so wish.
David Forward 27 January 2002
