Alfred Hale, of Arle Drive, Cheltenham, 1939 (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Monday, November 27, 2017, 23:33 (2553 days ago) @ shepway

Well done Mike for excellent research !

All I can add is some local history which hopefully others will find of interest. As you know I'm deeply interested in all things aerospace engineering, both now and past, so the 1939 Register entry grabbed my attention in two respects;

ie "jorby" Arle Drive, Cheltenham M.B., Gloucestershire, England
FIRST NAME(S) LAST NAME(S) DOB SEX OCCUPATION MARITAL STATUS SCHEDULE SCHEDULE SUB NUMBER
Grace Hale 22 Oct 1920 Female Shop Assistant Confectionery Unemployed Single 547 4
Arthur Thomas 08 Oct 1904 Male Metal Blades Polisher (Aircraft Married 547 1
Theresa Thomas 19 Dec 1912 Female Unpaid Domestic Duties Married 547 2

As soon as I saw the address "Arle" I thought of Arle Court, the beautiful mansion which I first visited in 1978 when it was the headquarters of the Dowty Group whose factories employed thousands across the Golden Valley area. Similarly, on seeing Arthur Thomas' role as a Metal Blade Polisher I immediately thought of RoTol aeroplane propellers, who I've always associated with Dowty's.
So I wondered if the Arle Drive address was somewhere on Dowty's Arle Court estate, or was maybe even owned by Dowty ?. Wrong of course ! - Arle was originally a separate and ancient village west of Cheltenham, with it's own water mill etc, as shown in the top L/H corner of this early O.S. map from 1885. These maps can be zoomed-into for close detail viewing. (Links are best opened into a separate tab or window).
http://maps.nls.uk/view/101453199

This 1921 map is one of the few that shows Cheltenham, the village of Arle and Arle Court all on the same sheet.
http://maps.nls.uk/view/102342773

This 1938 O.S. map shows Arle Drive is about a mile north-east of Arle Court, just above the "N" in Cheltenham on the map's lefthand side. Arle Drive's houses are typical 1930s semis and must have been a pleasant new street to live in, perhaps suggesting that Arthur was doing very well for himself ?. In 1938 Arle Drive stood alone amidst orchards & gardens, but one wonders what the family thought from 1946 onwards as their road was swallowed by streets and estates as Cheltenham expanded westwards. Arle Drive is still there but now very much a Cheltenham suburb.
http://maps.nls.uk/view/101453190

The 1938 map places Arle Drive just north of "Sunningend Works", near Lansdowne Railway Station. So the Drive was in the far end of this 1931 photo of the Works, showing just how undeveloped the area was in 1931.
https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW035823

The Sunningend Works had originally been the home of H.H. Martyns, skilled woodworkers who built aircraft during WW1 and helped form the Gloster Aircaft Company. By 1930 Glosters had moved their manufacturing to their Hucclecote airfield, but Martyns continued to produce (metal) aircraft at Sunningend during WW2.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-25136564

In 1931 engineer & inventor George Dowty left Glosters to go alone, designing and building a novel type of aircraft undercarriage. Ironically his first order was for Japan, but thereafter his success and growth was intertwined with that of Gloster's Gladiator, the new RAF fighter. In 1934 he bought Arle Court and built a factory, perfectly placed to supply Glosters who built over 700 Gladiators c1936. The old mansion was used as the Dowty family home as well as offices for his business.

During WW2 Dowty's now-massive output was key to the Allied aircraft industry, along with that of Glosters, Martyns, Rotol, Smiths Instruments, Hoffman bearings at Stonehouse, and so on. These very important companies employed tens of thousands of workers on 24/7 shifts, attracting many hundreds from the Forest of Dean, most were taken there by buses such as Edwards of Lydbrook where my father worked at the time. Post-war the hydraulic undercarriage units remained Dowty's core business, but they also developed hydraulic pit props for the mining industry, some perhaps made by ex-miners from the Dean.

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