In the nineteenth century the village of Helsby was primarily known for the quality of its quarried stone. This was used for such high profile projects as Liverpool Docks, Liverpool Custom House, local churches and a number of buildings in Chester (including repairs to the Cathedral).
However, its main industrial development began in 1886 when the Britannia Telegraph Works was established on the western side of the settlement. This company produced cabling for the electrical industry and provided a source of employment for the Helsby area until the beginning of the twenty-first century.
The company of G C Taylor & Co was established in 1882 and initially built a factory in Neston to produce electrical components. The business relocated to Helsby in 1886 and changed its company name to the Telegraph Manufacturing Company.
The Britannia Telegraph Works was able to utilise gutta percha to insulate electrical wiring for a range of purposes. This natural latex had begun to be used in the 1840s for insulation and was resistant to animal and marine life, which made it particularly suitable for transatlantic cabling. Gutta percha was also used to produce golf balls and tyres at the Helsby factory for a short time. However, the growth of synthetic materials meant that its use was gradually phased out in the electrical industry in the early twentieth century.
The electrical cabling industry saw a number of changes around this time and in 1902 the Telegraph Manufacturing Company was merged with British Insulated Wire Company (which had been established in Prescot in 1890). This new company became known as British Insulated & Helsby Cables Limited and dropped the Helsby part of the name in 1925. A further merger took place in 1949 with Callenders of Erith and the resulting company was then known as British Insulated Callenders Cables Limited (BICC).
These companies saw an increase in demand for their products following the Electrical Supply Act of 1925 and the subsequent establishment of a unified National Grid in 1938.
As a result, the Helsby factory saw the height of its success between the 1940s and 1960s when it employed up to 5,000 people.
In the 1970s BICC had a number of sites in the North West such as Prescot, Kirkby, Leigh and Wrexham (in addition to Helsby), which were manufacturing power and telecommunication cables. However, the company experienced a prolonged decline in demand from this peak and in the 1990s the cabling part of the BICC business was sold.
This resulted in the closure of the Helsby site in 2002 and it is now used for a mixture of industrial and retail purposes. The parent company, BICC plc, still exists today, although it took the name of its subsidiary Balfour Beatty in 2002.
From the cache turn around and you get a great view of the old works and sports facilities which are still used today by the local community.
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