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Page 92

 
full scope of the company's activities as each of the departments was more or less self-contained. Examples of different types of work were chosen, the whole being ingeniously knitted together in the most attractive form.
    With each succeeding year, the value of Enfield with its wide margin for expansion grew more evident. In 1931, it was again necessary to extend the buildings.
    Seven years later further expansion became advisable. The Munich Pact had been signed and war was in the air. In 1936, an engineer from the War Office had surveyed the works in order to assess their war production potentiality. It was made clear that should an emergency arise the company would be given orders as to what to do and where to obtain the material for whatever type of production was required. It was with this possibility in mind that the directors ordered a further bay to be added to the Enfield works. When this had been completed, the building measured 280 feet long with seven bays each 40 feet wide. An immediate advantage of this extension was that one bay could be allocated for making concrete pavement lights in which a brisk trade was being done. This newest branch of manufacture, begun in a basement shop under the old Union Street works, promised to become even more rewarding and the directors had no reason to regret their entry into this field.
    Throughout the fateful year, 1939, a sinister aspect was visible at the works in the construction of strong concrete underground air raid shelters sufficient to accommodate all the workers. Normal peace-time production was being supplemented to an increasing extent by orders for gas-proof and other steel doors for hangars, air raid shelters and other buildings. Ordnance depots and mobilisation centres were also requiring large quantities of roof glazing and lantern lights.
    Whether these would ever be needed hung as yet in the balance. While the year grew older, the scales of history hovered nervously between peace and war until the true intentions of the German dictator were revealed by the ruthless assault upon Poland.