Reference
Z558/4/1
Title
Hewlett & Blondeau Ltd, Omnia Works, Oak Road, Leagrave.
Additions and alterations to factory
Date free text
1914-1919
Production date
From: 1914 To: 1919
Admin/biog history
Manufacturers of aeroplanes throughout the first world war but seeming to disappear very soon after the war ended. Hewlett was in fact Mrs Hilda Hewlett who was herself an aviator. Her partner was Mr Gustave Blondeau.
According to correspondence from Gail Hewlett in 1999 (see CR/EE 93 11/56 and 113) the company acquired a new site on the 24 June 1914 and hired a contractor to build the factory. On the 20 June 1916 they acquired an adjacent piece of land and bought further land on the 21 December 1917. The company entered into a law suit against the contractor over the first building.
Gustave Blondeau was living In Avenue Road, Leagrave in 1914 and may have moved to Oak Road around 1916. He is believed to have latter lived in Marsh Road at a house called 'Maymore'. Mrs Hilda Hewlett was living in a bungalow in Avenue Road in 1918-19.
The 1919 Leagrave valuation list contains a deleted entry for the Hewlett and Blondeau aeroplane works. The reassessment probably of early 1921 shows a reduction of 90% on the rateable value and the gross estimated rental possibly due to the closure or running-down of the factory. In January 1926 the site was bought by Electrolux Ltd. [For drawings relating to the site between 1926 and 1948 see Z558/4/2]
Oak Road, Leagrave, appears to have become Oakley Road at some point, probably in order to distinguish it from Oak Road, Luton.
Level of description
series