Page 13 - High Duty Alloys

High Duty Alloys Redditch Heritage

Erie Hammer being
inspected by the opening party

In fact the factory was built in well under a year, most of it by WJ Whittall & Son Ltd of
Birmingham. Despite pumps working round the clock the site was continually
waterlogged, to the point where bricks had to be dropped into the foundations under
water.

th
High Duty Alloys, Redditch was finished on July 4 1939 and formally opened on August
th
16 in a ceremony attended by 150 people, including many important names from the
world of aviation. The Secretary of State for Air, the Rt. Hon. Sir Kingsley Wood PC MP set
the giant hammer in motion. Afterwards luncheon was served in one of the empty shops.
Some of the famous industry names who were there (few of you may have heard of them,
but these were famous) were Oswald Short of Short Brothers, Teddy Petter from Westland
Aircraft who went on to design the Canberra jet bomber and Lightning jet fighter, and EW
Hives who was at the time the driving force behind Rolls-Royce.

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