Heathfield Works
Industrial site by Harpenden Common
By Rosemary Ross
Pen drawing of Heathfield works, before it was destroyed by fire in 1916
LHS archives, BF 16.1
Harpenden Fire Station stands on the site of an industrial site on the west side of Leyton Road, behind the Silver Cup, known as Heathfield Works. An early C19 engraving shows the building when it was the residence of Thomas Reynolds. From 1805 to 1856 it was let to James Wyatt, a barrister.
A number of enterprises have been associated with Heathfield Works:
- Field's Hat Factory was here from the 1870s until it moved to Grove Road (Southdown) in 1883, and then to Kingcroft Road in 1927.
Abbott's factory, c.1960
LHS Archives, Jim Jarvis collection (donated 2013)
- Abbott, Anderson & Abbott Ltd, manufacturers of oilskins since 1867 who moved here in 1883.
(see also http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Anderson,_Abbott_and_Anderson for some further information.) A disastrous fire destroyed the factory full of very flammable material on 21 February 1916. They moved to temporary accommodation in Southdown, until the premises were rebuilt, and continued there until 1964, when the firm was acquired by Edward MacBean and Co. of Glasgow and all production work was transferred to Scotland.
- The Cooper Printing Equipment Co. Ltd., Heathfield Works, Leyton Road, who produced flexographic printing presses, sheet-fed flexo and ancillary equipment, stereo manufacturing equipment and special purpose printing machines.
- Harpenden Garden Centre occupied the site after the demolition of the Abbott & Anderson factory in the 1990s, until the fire-station was built. The Garden Centre moved to Amenbury Lane, until the Village Surgery was built on that site in c.2004, after moving from 15 Leyton Road.
Harpenden Fire Station moved from its premises alongside Park Hall in 1994. Coopers Mews, a gated housing development, was built in 2003.
Harpenden Fire Station
LHS archives
There was a refreshment hut on the green next to the Silver Cup
Some Abbott advertisements
The Abbott brand
LHS archives, BF 16.1 b
Label for use of oilskin
LHS archives, BF 16.1 c