Crompton Parkinson was a British electrical manufacturing company. It was formed in 1927 by the merger of Crompton & Co. with F & A. Parkinson Ltd. The brand is now part of Brook Crompton.

History

Crompton & Co. was a lamp manufacturer founded by

R.E.B. Crompton Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton, CB, FRS (31 May 1845 – 15 February 1940) was a British electrical engineer, industrialist and inventor. He was a pioneer of electric lighting and public electricity supply systems. The company he formed, Crompton ...

in 1878. The company was widely known for installing the first electric lighting in

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

, Holyrood Palace and other prominent buildings. F & A. Parkinson Ltd. was a successful electric motor manufacturing company founded by two brothers, Albert and Frank Parkinson, who was a former student of (and later a major benefactor of)

Leeds University , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

. The university's Parkinson Building, opened in 1951, is named in his honour. Crompton Parkinson was taken over by the

Hawker Siddeley Hawker Siddeley was a group of British manufacturing companies engaged in aircraft production. Hawker Siddeley combined the legacies of several British aircraft manufacturers, emerging through a series of mergers and acquisitions as one of on ...

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astrona ...

group in 1968 which became part of BTR in 1992. BTR merged with Siebe to form Invensys in 1999. After selling off several divisions, Invensys was acquired by Schneider Electric of France in 2014. Crompton Lighting Australia is now owned by Gerard Lighting, whilst Brook Crompton is now owned by Wolong Holding Group Co Ltd of China. Crompton Lamps was sold to Cooper Industries but is now independent.

Vidor Batteries and related acquisitions

In 1968, Crompton Parkinson acquired Vidor Batteries, a manufacturer of radio and

flashlight A flashlight ( US, Canada) or torch ( UK, Australia) is a portable hand-held electric lamp. Formerly, the light source typically was a miniature incandescent light bulb, but these have been displaced by light-emitting diodes (LEDs) since th ...

batteries. Founded in 1934 by businessman Thomas Noah Cole, the company was located in a former Vickers-Armstrong munitions factory in

Erith Erith () is an area in south-east London, England, east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, it was in the historical county of Kent. Since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Bexley. It lies nort ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. He had also purchased Burndept Wireless, a well-established radio manufacturer. The combined company was called Vidor-Burndept. Cole had made his fortune from his previous company Lissen Ltd., a manufacturer of radio kits, accessories and batteries, which he sold to Ever Ready in 1928.''The Setmakers'' by Keith Geddes and Gordon Bussey, John Libbey & Co. (1991) In April 1941, the Erith factory was almost completely destroyed by a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

incendiary raid, forcing the company to relocate production to a former jute mill in Dundee,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. Other factories were also opened, at

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the ...

and Brechin. A Vidor slogan from the 1950s was "They do say a Vidor battery lasts a month longer!". In the early 1960s Cole sold Vidor-Burndept to Royston Industries, a sheet-metal manufacturer. Following the collapse of Royston Industries in 1968, the Vidor brand was acquired by Crompton Parkinson. The Vidor brand was sold to Ray-O-Vac in 1989 and is no longer in use.

Products

Crompton Parkinson made a wide range of electrical goods including electric motors, ceiling fans, electric generators, light bulbs, power cables and batteries. Some British Railways

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whe ...

s (e.g. British Rail Classes 26, 33, 44 and 45) were outfitted with their electrical equipment. The company also produced an extensive range of electrical measuring instruments including voltmeters,

ammeter An ammeter (abbreviation of ''Ampere meter'') is an instrument used to measure the current in a circuit. Electric currents are measured in amperes (A), hence the name. For direct measurement, the ammeter is connected in series with the circuit ...

s and current transformers and, for a brief time at the beginning, made

spark plug A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air ...

Wartime production

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Crompton Parkinson produced large quantities of .303 rifle ammunition at its Guiseley and

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated i ...

factories. also 9m/m pistol cartridges.

Factories

Chelmsford

There was a factory located at Writtle Road in

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of Lond ...

, which was originally part of Crompton & Co. The site was taken over by Marconi Radar Systems Ltd in the late 1960s. They remained the occupiers for over 20 years until it was sold for housing development. Only the 'head office' building fronting Writtle Road remains – the old Crompton name is still visible over the door.

Guiseley

During the 1930s, the company built a large factory at Guiseley near

Leeds Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...

where most of its lamp and electric motor manufacturing was based. The lamp works closed in 2002, and the adjacent electric motor works closed in 2004. The entire site was demolished in 2006, with the clock tower preserved and relocated to a new car park adjacent to the site.

References

External links

Brook Compton official websiteCrompton Lamps official websiteCrompton Lighting Australia official websiteAn interesting 1974 U.K. government report that mentions them and several other contemporary rival battery firms (PDF)Article about the demolition of the former Crompton Parkinson factoryPhoto of the Parkinson Building
* {{PM20, FID=co/055611, TEXT=Documents and clippings about, NAME= Consumer battery manufacturers Defunct manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Electrical engineering companies of the United Kingdom Defunct companies based in Leeds Companies based in Chelmsford