Other Sources of Employment and the Growth of the Town
Employment Opportunities from 1925 to 1960
The bypass (now the A12) was built in 1933 as a venture to provide work for the unemployed and, over the period 1925 to 1958, several new businesses were started in the town.
In 1930 three local businessmen set up a jam factory and a spice packing factory. Three years later the cannery shown in this aerial photograph was built on the market garden between The Thoroughfare and the railway. The cannery was expanded several times over the next 43 years. It initially traded as Woodbridge Canning Co- fruit and vegetable canners - and then as Turban Brand - English canned fruits. The cannery moved out of the town in 1976 and most of the vacated site is now used a car park.
Aerial view of the canning factory which occupied
part of the Hamblin Market Garden.
Culmak, who made shaving brushes, moved from London to Woodbridge during the war. The shaving brushes were of the highest quality and would last a lifetime. They were regularly given as a twenty-first birthday present and this photograph show part of the production line. The company ceased trading in 1975.
Part of Culmak's production
line for shaving brushes.
In 1925 Girdlestone, a London company which had brought electricity to Woodbridge in 1913, started to make refrigeration units in the town. These units were used for cold rooms such as those found in butcher’s shops. In 1957 the business was relocated to the former grain store by the station. The business was subsequently sold and the new owners eventually moved it out of Woodbridge in 2004.
During the Second World War Girdlestone’s electric motor and pump business in London was bombed so they moved it to Woodbridge. This photograph shows part of its assembly line. In 1972 the company moved to a new factory which they had had built in Melton but eventually Girdlestone left the area in 1980.
Girdlestone's electric motor and
pump factory in Woodbridge.
Between 1925 and 1958 the population of the town grew significantly and new houses were been erected in the parts shaded purple on the map to the left. Some of these houses were for rental by Woodbridge Urban District Council.
The other changes of note are that, by 1958, Notcutt’s Nursery had been expanded and several allotments had been created. Suffolk Seed Store Ltd. had also become established in the town and had created a large seed ground by the railway. Woodbridge Urban District Council had been given land to establish Elmhurst Park and to significantly enlarge a park by the riverside.
Map of the town in 1958. The area developed
between 1925 and 1958 are shaded purple.
