- and the second picture is an aerial shot of the factory that Andy spoke of -
- which was taken sometime nearer 1920, on it, you can clearly see his house (btw this picture is entitled "British Wax Refining C. Ltd., 31 St. John's Road, Red Hill, Surrey", and is attributed to "Pan-Aero Pictures, Kingston on Thames", credit where credit is due ;) -
- checking a modern satellite image of the same area (thank you Google maps), you can see the green arrow pointing at the house (it actually wanted to be just a little bit further down, and a little to the right), and the old site of the Wax factory (now, as you can see, long gone and the site transformed into modern housing)...
I didn't stop there though, a little further poking around revealed that the company didn't just vanish, they moved up the hill to the Holmthorpe industrial estate (near East Surrey College)...
They have a page detailing their history (being founded just at the start of the first World War, about 15 years before Andy popped into existence) and are still going strong now making specialist waxes like fake glass for movie special effects, moulding waxes and brass rubbing wax...
So there we go, found out a little more about where I live and made some interesting discoveries for Andy in one fell swoop... ;)
5 comments:
Some interesting digging you've done there!
Now we know where to go in the event of a nuclear war anyway!
Wow! Well found! :)
My name is Stephen Case-Green and I am a director/owner of the British Wax Refining Company. We moved in 1999 to the site we are on in Holmethorpe Industrial Estate. We ahed been on the site in St Johns road since 1917 and before that had been in south nutfield for 3 years (founded in 1914 by my great grandfather).
In the picture, most of the foregroung is taken up with rows of beeswax left in the sun to bleach. We still refine beeswax, but use more chemical based methods now. Infact before laporte stopped extacting Fullers Earth in Redhill we were probably their nearest customer.
The sheds top right in the picture were detroyed in 1997 in a big fire
the picture brings back great memories of playing and working there as a child (I am 40).
I am the current owner of 31 St Johns road, would love to understand more about the history of the property as believe it was the office for the wax works..
Kind regards
Martin Keast
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