Preston - Fylde Road

The origins of the Fyle Road Lampworks are uncertain, but by 1953 it was operating as a factory of Siemens Electric Lamps & Supplies. That company operated a nearby factory in Preston at Strand Road. The adjacent site at Fyle Road was perhaps established to provide additional capacity or to produce a particular kind of lamp - possibly the fluorescent tube, which is known to have been manufactured at Preston for a relatively brief period.

Following the takeover of Siemens by AEI, and of AEI by Thorn Lighting, it was retained for the production of moderately special incandescent lamps that were required in medium volumes. During the 1970s the factory was located in the large building with a black roof in the photograph below. Local historians have cited that the buildings immediately behind this were also occupied by Thorn but no firm evidence has yet been found to support that. That smaller building is known as Canal Foundry, later Stevenson's Foundry. In 1944 it was requisitioned for the war effort and produced aircraft parts under the direction of the nearby English Electric works. Around 1980 there was a serious fire and the factory was rebuilt and reopened - but it was closed down soon afterwards in 1981, with its production being absorbed by Thorn's nearby factory on Kent Street, and also at Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales.