AN AERIAL VIEW OF MULLARD'S LITTLE HARWOOD, BLACKBURN FACTORY IN 1935

What a lovely aerial photo of the Mullard factory at Little Harwood which is at the northern edge of Blackburn.  This photo was taken sometime in 1935 not long after factory construction commenced, but, bigger and better things were on the way.

It was 1937 and SS Eriks, General Manager of Mullard, sat in his office, comfortable in his Tan-sad office chair but he was troubled. Mitcham could no longer keep up with the pace of production required to fulfill the radio world's voracious demands for thermionic devices - something had to be done.

 Eriks was a chap whom melded humanitarianism with good business acumen, the Mitcham site could not be expanded further, what he needed was an available work force and a surfeit of cheap plentiful land upon which to build a new plant yet still have plenty of room for future expansion. Eriks hit on the idea of building his satellite plant 'uuup north' and he chose Blackburn in Lancashire as a good location. You see, due to the decline of the cotton industry there was a sizeable unemployed workforce of mainly dexterous women, freely available and even quite a few chaps too with collarless shirts and big flat caps. Remember, that part of Lancashire was a depressed area in the 1930s, with no nipping out to The Three Fishes, Ferraris or The Calves Head for a gastro meal - you were lucky if you got stew & hard and that's a Burnley delicacy really. Accordingly, the foundation stone for the Blackburn plant was laid on 30th March 1938 and a new era dawned for Mullard.

We have a few things for sale from this factory and you can see them here or alternatively here