GEC factory near Pool Meadow

The subject of the GEC cropped up on NYE, there was Helen St, Copsewood, Spon St. Apparently there was, it seems, another site around Pool Meadow area, nobody was certain where. Anybody with any ideas?

I think there may be some confusion with the BTH (British Thomson-Houston), which was situated on Lower Ford St. The Company made electrical equipment and the parent company was General Electric I believe. Their HQ was in Rugby and the factory in Coventry later became part of the Lucas Industries (Electrical Division), Group HQ'd in Birmingham. I hope this helps answer your query.

A bit more info. Apparently it was only a small unit not as big as the BTH building.

Hello, It may be easier if we merge this with GEC. There are other GEC topics, so would it be helpful if they were all merged into GEC Coventry. My early experience with GEC brought me into contact with Helen St, Spon St, Ford St, as well as Telephone Works in Copsewood.

In the 1970s and 1980s GEC Telecommunications Ltd which was headquartered at Stoke Works had a number of satellite sites around the city. These included Spon Street, Helen Street, Alma Street and Raglan Street as well as Lower Ford Street. The Ford Street site was responsible for the development, manufacture and sales of Private Automatic Branch Exchanges (PABXs) which were telephone switching exchanges for use within enterprises, connecting local calls within the business as well as providing connections to public networks (such as BT).

I think Lolipop could be right. I spent many years at GEC Spon Street and Helen Street, but as an apprentice in the early 1980s I also had some long placements at Stoke, Ford Street and Raglan Street. I do remember some of the more established workers (diplomatic way of saying 'old'! ) talking about a short-lived or temporary GEC factory near Hales Street. I never found out exactly where, but I wonder if, in the 1960s/70s, it occupied some of the land between the theatre and Cook Street, where the 1950's maps show an Engineering Works (Steel Construction)?

My mum, Mary Frances Hastings, worked at one of these G.E. factories along with her two sisters. It was in the early 50's and they did something called 'wiring'.

Hi Linda. There's a good chance that your mum and aunties worked at the Stoke Telephone Works, where there was a huge wiring room - Section E88, if I remember correctly. That wiring room itself was as big as some actual factories and, among many other items, they made massive looms for the exchange equipment by wrapping wires around pins laid out on huge boards. Watching this as an apprentice it appeared fascinating for a few minutes, but then soon became mind-numbingly boring! I couldn't understand back then how anyone could possibly put up with such tedium day after day, for so many years!

It was mostly women's work and they needed the money. At least, I think, they were sitting down. My mum was 8 months pregnant with my sister when she left.

I worked at the GEC for a couple of years before emigrating to Australia in 1972. I used to walk to work from Mercia House where we lived. I am thinking it was somewhere around Lower Ford Street? When I left they bought me a leaving present which was a jewelry box. On the lid there is a little engraved plaque which says 'Best Wishes from 772 section GEC. We used to do wiring, soldering, (Relays?) for I think telephone exchanges? Wish I could remember more. Gilly

My dad worked at Lower Ford Street, GEC from 1938 until 1948, at what he said was the Radio Works, in the Jobbing Shop as a milling machinist (considered to be a reserved occupation in WW2) until being transferred to the Model Room at Stoke. Even though he had not served an apprenticeship he received the Coventry Tool Workers Allowance, much to the annoyance of the apprenticed tool workers shop steward who would not accept him into their trade union. (Perhaps I can claim I am the 'son of a tool worker'?)