The Diamond Foundry

Current Location

United Kingdom

Classification

Davis Gas Stove Co Diamond Foundry

 

Many men of the Diamond Foundry in Dallow Road enlisted at the outbreak of war, and a significant number were to lay down their lives for their country. Like other large Luton firms, it concentrated on Government work during the duration of the war, and offered help in other ways too.

In November 1914, managing director Mr H. Newsome Davis, backed by employees, offered to adapt their social club, the Davis Institute, for use as a 20-bed Red Cross hospital. Lady Alice Wernher offered to meet the expense of medical equipment and furnishings.

The Davis Gas Stove Company began in London in 1875 as a firm employing two men and a boy to make gas cookers. It also began operating from the Langley Foundry Luton in 1895 after outgrowing available premises in the capital.

In 1907 the Langley Foundry and also Falkirk operations in Scotland were transferred to the newly-built Dallow Road, Luton, factory. It was named the Diamond Foundry after the Diamond gas cooker first produced by the firm in 1897 - Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Many workers transferred to Luton from Falkirk, creating a Scottish colony living in the Dallow Road area.

By the 1920s the Dallow Road factory covered an area of 15 acres and employed 1,500 people. By the 1930s it extended over 20 acres and employed 2,000 people. The announced closure of the factory finally came in 1961.

Object Location

Davis Gas Stove Co Diamond Foundry

Author: Deejaya

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