Radenite Batteries

Hi and thank you for verifying.

When they demolished Radenite, didn't they find evidence of an older car factory in the floor tiles.

Hi, I've looked a bit further back. I've seen Van Raden mentioned before. Have now gone back to 1912 with the Spennell's directory, it's still Van Raden, that chap was there a long time. Maybe he was the fore-runner of Duracell Batteries

Adverts for Radenite in the newspapers say formerly Van Raden & Co Ltd.

Coventry Archives & Research Centre lists plans showing the location and layout of the Radenite Battery Factory situated at 567-575 Foleshill Rd. It gives the dates as November 1912 to 22 July 1963. The archives record that the company moved to Foleshill Rd to occupy premises previously used as the Payne & Bates Car Factory. Radenite left Foleshill Rd in 1969 to move to a factory in Exhall. The company was said to have ceased trading in 1984 although they appear to still be going strong. Their website says that they have been producing batteries since 1899 and they claim to be the oldest battery company in Europe. They are currently based in the Technology Park, Puma Way, Coventry (the old Rolls Royce/Bristol Siddeley site). A copy of an advertisement is reproduced in a book called 'Godiva's Heritage: Coventry's Industry'. It identifies the company as Radenite & Co Ltd, Von Raden & Co Ltd, Great Heath, Coventry and lists batteries for an Austin 7 (introduced 1922) and other small cars for £1 6s 6d, and for large cars like a Standard Big Nine and Big Twelve for £2 10s 0d. Payne & Bates was a partnership of Walter Payne, a manufacturer of stationary gas and oil engines, and George Bates who provided the money to build the new factory so that they could expand into the building of motor cars. George Bates was killed in a road accident in 1902 and his executors wanted their capital back so the new factory had to be sold to Mr Van Raden.

That photograph was taken almost from outside what had been Walter Payne's front door. He lived at Malmo Villa, 440 Foleshill Rd which is directly across the road from his old factory. Walter lost the rented house when it was sold by the Bates family after George's death. In the 1930's it became Great Heath Post Office. In the 1970's there were a greengrocer and a newsagent just to the left of Radenite, then the entry down to the Angel pub, then D. F. Gibbs TV shop, and then the General Wolfe. To the immediate right of Radenite, just across Blackwell Rd, was the motorcycle spares business run by Bob Bull. There is more about Radenite in a previous 'Foleshill' thread which shows that the company was sold by Mr Van Raden to a member of the Starley family. There is a photograph of Walter Payne & Henry Bates in their Godiva motor car in a book 'Coventry's Motorcycle Heritage'. The location is almost certainly the Foleshill Rd factory. The sign across the left side of the factory says, 'PAYNE & BATES Steam & Oil Engineers'. The same sort of sign later advertised Radenite.

I remember the factory when on Foleshill Road. Waited many times for the 20A at the bus stop outside of it. When I worked for them it was at the factory in Bayton Road. Newspaper cuttings C.E.T.

More items in my collection. 3 catalogues covering the years 1899-1972 & a full deck of playing cards.

What I have here is a 6 volt battery, but not just any old 6v battery, oh no! One I made myself. Welded the lead plates together, assembled it, put the bars on the top, filled & charged it, because I wanted one at the time. I still had to pay full market price even though I made it for myself. 40 years later, it no longer works, I can't have been that good at making batteries!

On the wall in my shed:

This is from the National Archives re Radenite:

This is the best present day image I can make from Google to clarify the location on Foleshill Road - the General Wolfe can be seen on the extreme left of both pictures

The National Archives are wrong!: