J. L. Eve Construction was a civil engineering company from south London.

History

The company was formed on 8 February 1930 by John Leonard Eve (3 February 1887 - 25 June 1954) from

Aveley Aveley is a town and former civil parish in the unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex, England, and forms one of the traditional Church of England parishes. Aveley is 16 miles (26.2 km) east of Charing Cross. In the 2021 United Kingdom ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. In 1924 he was appointed as the Chief Engineer for the river crossings of the Scottish area of the

Central Electricity Board The United Kingdom Central Electricity Board (CEB) was established by the Electricity (Supply) Act 1926. It had the duty to supply electricity to authorised electricity undertakers, to determine which power stations would be 'selected' stations ...

(CEB, which existed from 1926 to 1947). He worked with Robert Chandler-Brown. The

CEGB The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s. It was established on 1 Januar ...

came into existence in 1957. J.L. Eve left a son and a daughter.

Chain Home and National Grid

In the 1930s the company built steel-lattice towers for the new National Grid and for the

Chain Home Chain Home, or CH for short, was the codename for the ring of coastal Early Warning radar stations built by the Royal Air Force (RAF) before and during the Second World War to detect and track aircraft. Initially known as RDF, and given the off ...

transmitters. The electrical cable was often supplied by

Pirelli Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is a multinational tyre manufacturer based in Milan, Italy. The company, which has been listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since 1922, is the 6th-largest tyre manufacturer and is focused on the consumer production of tyre ...

UK of

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, o ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

(now

Prysmian Group Prysmian S.p.A. is an Italian company with headquarters in Milan, specialising in the production of electrical cable for use in the energy and telecom sectors and for optical fibres. Prysmian is present in North America with 23 plants, 48 in Eur ...

). The

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

had contacted the company to build two test radar transmitters, one on the south coast, and one on Orkney. After 1939, the company extended it to over fifty radar sites. It built the first part of the supergrid in 1952 from Tilbury to Elstree - with a 275kV voltage instead of 132kV and 136 ft instead of 85 ft, with 45 miles for the

British Electricity Authority The British Electricity Authority (BEA) was established as the central British electricity authority in 1948 under the nationalisation of Great Britain's electricity supply industry enacted by the Electricity Act 1947. The BEA was responsible for ...

Ownership

From 1982 to 1988 it was known as Eve Construction. It would later be known as Eve Group plc from April 1988, then Eve Group Ltd and Babcock Networks Ltd from 2004. It was bought by the Peterhouse Group plc in January 2000. Babcock Networks, its successor, is situated off the M1 at Sherwood Park at

Annesley Annesley is a village and civil parish in the Ashfield district of Nottinghamshire, England, between Hucknall and Kirkby-in-Ashfield. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 1,162 (including Annesley Woodhouse to the west). Annesley Hall ...

, next to

E.ON UK E.ON UK is a British energy company and the largest supplier of energy and renewable electricity in the UK, following its acquisition of Npower. It is a subsidiary of E.ON of Germany and one of the Big Six energy suppliers. It was founded in ...

; its training base is at the former

RAF Newton Royal Air Force station Newton or more simply RAF Newton is a former Royal Air Force station located east of Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and south west of Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, England. It was used briefly as a bomber base for s ...

in Nottinghamshire.

Sponsorship

From 1982 to 2000, it sponsored the

Surrey Championship The Surrey Championship is a cricket organisation in Surrey running 6 divisions for 1st & 2nd XI cricket, 4 for 3rd XI and 4 for 4th XI. Since 2000 it has been a designated ECB Premier League. The teams competing in the Premier Division in 2020 w ...

(cricket), being replaced by

Castle Lager Castle Lager is a South African pale lager. It is the flagship product of South African Breweries and has been recognised as the National Beer of South Africa , based on the fact that it is 100% grown and produced in the country, and for its abil ...

Structure

It was based at ''Minster House'' on Plough Lane in

Tooting Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and partly in the London Borough of Merton. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross. History Tooting has been settled since pre- Saxon times ...

. It was based south of Summerstown on the B235, north of

Haydons Road railway station Haydons Road railway station is in the north-east of the London Borough of Merton in South London. It is the nearest station to the Plough Lane stadium, the home ground of AFC Wimbledon. The station is served by Thameslink trains on the Sutt ...

(on the A218).

Divisions

Later divisions of Eve Group were: * Eve Arclive, formed on 18 June 1976 - electrical contracting, later it became Eve Power * Trakway, later known as Eve Trakway and now known as Live (Trakway) and based in

Bramley Vale Bramley Vale is a village in Derbyshire, England, south of Bolsover. It is in the civil parish of Ault Hucknall. History Bramley Vale is a former colliery village and has a lengthy mining heritage, from the opening of the Glapwell colliery in 18 ...

and

Doe Lea Doe Lea is a small, linear village in the English county of Derbyshire. It is in the Bolsover (district), Bolsover district of the county and falls in the Ault Hucknall civil parish. The village runs along the old A617 road. A newer dual carria ...

Ault Hucknall Ault Hucknall (Old English: ''Hucca's nook of land'') is a village and civil parish in the Bolsover district of Derbyshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,053. Local residents describe the settlement as the ...

near

Glapwell Glapwell is a village and civil parish on the A617 road in the Bolsover District of north east Derbyshire, between the towns of Chesterfield (7 miles) and Mansfield (5 miles) and Bolsover (3 miles to the north). With 1,467 residents, increasing ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

off the A617, east of the ''

Heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

Interchange'' M1 junction 29, and supplies

crowd control barrier Crowd control barriers (also referred to as crowd control barricades, with some versions called a French barrier or bike rack in the USA, and mills barriers in Hong Kong) are commonly used at many public events. They are frequently visible at sp ...

s and

temporary fencing Temporary fencing is a free standing, self-supporting fence panel. The panels are held together with couplers that interlock panels together making it portable and flexible for a wide range of applications. A common type of temporary fencing is ...

. It is owned by

Ashtead Group Ashtead Group plc is a British industrial equipment rental company based in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange as a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History Ashtead was founded in 1947, in the village of Ashtead, Sur ...

, who trade as ''A-Plant''. In 2002 Eve Trakway built the Super Fortress security fence for the

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

. Eve Construction Trakway was at

Lower Heyford Lower Heyford is a village and civil parish beside the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, about west of Bicester. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 492. The parish measures about east–west and about north–south. It is bou ...

, then moved to

Sutton-in-Ashfield Sutton-in-Ashfield is a market town in Nottinghamshire, England, with a population of 48,527 in 2019. It is the largest town in the district of Ashfield, four miles west of Mansfield, two miles from the Derbyshire border and 12 miles nort ...

in the 1970s. * Eve Telecom Eve Transcom, comprised * Eve Transmission - carried out construction and repair of

transmission lines In electrical engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable or other structure designed to conduct electromagnetic waves in a contained manner. The term applies when the conductors are long enough that the wave nature of the transmis ...

for the National Grid * Eve Cellular - in late 1999, it had built over 7,000

mobile phone base station The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such a ...

s throughout the 1990s * Eve Engineering Design Services * Eve Structures

Products

It built

structural steel Structural steel is a category of steel used for making construction materials in a variety of shapes. Many structural steel shapes take the form of an elongated beam having a profile of a specific cross section. Structural steel shapes, sizes, ...

fabricated buildings or structures. *

Electrical substation A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions. Between the generating station and ...

Transmitters

Bilsdale transmitting station The Bilsdale transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, located at Bilsdale West Moor above Bilsdale, close to Helmsley, North Yorkshire, England. The original facility included a Radio masts and towers#Tubular ste ...

on the

North York Moors The North York Moors is an upland area in north-eastern Yorkshire, England. It contains one of the largest expanses of Calluna, heather moorland in the United Kingdom. The area was designated as a national parks of England and Wales, National P ...

Divis transmitting station Divis transmitting station is the main high-power UHF and BBC National FM/DAB station that serves County Antrim and parts of County Down. History Situated just outside Belfast, it is the primary UHF/FM main station in Northern Ireland and wa ...

(500 ft), carries television for eastern Northern Ireland in the mid-1950s *

Durris transmitting station The Durris transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated close to the town of Stonehaven, within Durris Forest, within the area also known historically as Kincardineshire (). It is owned and operated by Arqiv ...

; 38-year-old Thomas Sutherland of Blairgowrie died in its construction on 24 October 1966, falling 175 ft from 300 ft up the mast; the company had a regional office in Edinburgh * The original

Emley Moor The Emley Moor transmitting station is a telecommunications and broadcasting facility on Emley Moor, west of the village centre of Emley, in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It is made up of a concrete tower and apparatus that began ...

steel-tube mast, which collapsed on 19 March 1969.; also built the 50-ton 180 ft top steel lattice, on the top of the current structure in December 1970 * Meldrum transmitting station (500 ft) on Core Hill carries national radio in north-east Scotland, in the mid-1950s *

Selkirk transmitting station The Selkirk transmitting station is a telecommunications facility located next to Lindean Loch, near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders. It includes a high guyed steel lattice mast, surmounted by a UHF television transmitting antenna array, which ...

in 1961/62, which is 925 ft above sea level *

Skelton Transmitting Station The Skelton Transmitting Station is a radio transmitter site at near Skelton, Cumbria, England, about north-west of Penrith, run by Babcock International and owned by the Ministry of Defence. Since the Belmont Mast in Lincolnshire was shor ...

, the tallest structure in the UK at 365 metres, and was built in the war for clandestine broadcasts, now a few miles west of the M6, north of Penrith * Start Point transmitting station on the most southern point of the

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

coast, in the late 1930s * Stockland Hill transmitting station, in the east of Devon, towards Dorset, for the IBA in 1961 for 405-line b/w television *

Tacolneston transmitting station The Tacolneston transmitting station is a facility for both analogue and digital VHF/ FM radio and UHF television transmission near Tacolneston, south-west of Norwich, Norfolk, England. It includes a tall guyed steel lattice mast, which w ...

for the new

BBC East BBC East is one of BBC's English Regions covering Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, northern Buckinghamshire, and the majority of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. It is headquartered in The Forum, Norwich since 2003. It ...

services; the site was known for many years first as the Norwich television transmitter *

Woofferton transmitting station The Woofferton transmitting station is owned and operated by Encompass Digital Media, as one of the BBC's assets which were handed over as part of the privatization of World Service distribution and transmission in 1997. It is the last remainin ...

, at

Woofferton Woofferton is a village to the south of Ludlow, in Shropshire, England. It is one of Shropshire's most southerly villages and lies on the border with Herefordshire. It is part of the civil parish of Richard's Castle. The larger Herefordshire vi ...

in the south of

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, on the

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

boundary, important in clandestine broadcasts in the Second World War

Powerlines

Aust Severn Powerline Crossing Aust Severn Powerline Crossing is the longest overhead power line span in the United Kingdom with a length of . History The crossing spans the River Severn between Aust and Beachley and is part of the National Grid. It was commissioned in 19 ...

(488 ft tall) - the longest powerline crossing in the United Kingdom at 1700 m (5,310 ft) between towers (built around 1955) * 275kV line from

Beauly Beauly ( ; ; gd, A' Mhanachainn) is a village in the Highland area, on the River Beauly, west of Inverness by the Far North railway line. The town is historically within Kilmorack Parish of the Scottish County of Inverness. The land around Be ...

Kintore, Aberdeenshire Kintore (; Gaelic: ''Ceann Tòrr'') is a town and former royal burgh near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, now bypassed by the A96 road between Aberdeen and Inverness. It is situated on the banks of the River Don. Nearby are the remains ...

in 1960, for the

North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (1943–1990) was founded to design, construct and manage hydroelectricity projects in the Highlands of Scotland. It is regarded as one of the major achievements of Scottish politician Thomas Johnston, w ...

Llantarnam Llantarnam ( cy, Llanfihangel Llantarnam) is a suburban village of Cwmbran, and is a community and electoral ward in the county borough of Torfaen in south east Wales. The ward covers the same area as the community, but also includes Southville. ...

to Crumlin''The Engineer'', Vol 195, 1953

References

External links

Grace's Guide

Eve Trakway

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eve, J. L. Construction British companies established in 1930 Companies based in the London Borough of Merton Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1930 Construction and civil engineering companies of the United Kingdom National Grid (Great Britain) Structural steel Technology companies established in 1930 1930 establishments in England