EPW049456 ENGLAND (1935). The Batteries Ltd Hunt End Works at Crabbs Cross, Redditch, 1935

My Grandfather worked at this company in the carpentry shop during WW2, when it was known as Nife Batteries Ltd. The company had manufactured batteries in wooden boxes for London Transport, for use on the buses. With the resultant bombing of London the streets were in such poor quality that the batteries would rattle around in the boxes. My Grandfather and another man were sent down from Redditch to London to make the boxes smaller (and therefore a tighter fit around the batteries.) They were first sent to the Chiswick Bus Works which was located on the Chiswick High Road, opposite Gunnersbury Underground station. My Grandfather told me all they did the first week was run back and forth from the air raid shelter. He remembered being rocked to sleep the first night by the bombs being dropped on London. Nife eventually recalled them to Redditch and only sent them back to finish the job in London once the bombings had died down a bit.



He told me that Nife produced batteries for Cunard (notably the RMS Queen Mary & RMS Queen Elizabeth), Rolls Royce and London Transport.



http://www.alcadhistory.org.uk/timeline.html