42 replies to this topic

[Terry Walker]

The former Lotus works at Cheshunt survive virtually unchanged apart from paint and logos.

They are in Delamare Road, a short walk from the Cheshunt railway station, and comprise two adjacent industrial buildings. The one on the left with a single-story office section attached to the front, is the former Grand Prix Team HQ. The one on the right with the two-storey office section on the front, is the former production facility.

The GP building, now a gym. (The mammoth building to the left is Tesco HQ)




The factory: now a Plastek facility:



And here's the location:

[Gary C]

there should be a blue plaque on those buildings!!

[RTH]

I remember going there on the bus in 1966 ( Iwasn't old enough to drive ), we lived then about 7 miles away, just to go in and see the dispersal sale of mainly obsolete car parts they didn't want to move to Norfolk ( stuff was sold in boxes about 20 items at a time , would be worth a fortune today !
Cheshunt was a much quieter backwater in those days. Now its certainly the road hump capital at least of Hertfordshire !

The late Graham Arnold of Club Lotus funded and fitted a Blue plaque at Hornsey but they didn't get around to Delamare Road.

Lotus was the heroic company in the 1960's a great many people wanted to work there........and many, many did !!!

Anyone got comparitive period pictures of the factory ?

[ian senior]

Says a lot for the state of the country - Delamare Road, once home to one of Britain's most inspiring and inventive car manufacturers, now the home of a megalomaniac supermarket chain.

[Terry Walker]

There's an excellent oblique air photo of Lotus Cheshunt on

www.lotus7register.co.uk

I hesitate to copy and paste the photo here for copyright reasons. In the pic, the side yard to the right of the car factory is stuffed with white cars - Lotus Cortinas in waiting.

[BRG]

Originally posted by ian senior
Says a lot for the state of the country - Delamare Road, once home to one of Britain's most inspiring and inventive car manufacturers, now the home of a megalomaniac supermarket chain.

If the UK had a few more profitable and competitive companies like Tesco, instead of harking after commercial failures like Lotus, now owned by the Malaysians, we might all be a lot better off.

[ian senior]

Originally posted by BRG
If the UK had a few more profitable and competitive companies like Tesco, instead of harking after commercial failures like Lotus, now owned by the Malaysians, we might all be a lot better off.

Just a bunch of shopkeepers, albeit on a masive scale. Talk to one of their suppliers about the effects of supermarkets on their own profitability and competitiveness.

Sorry. One of my hobby horses.

[Geoff E]

Originally posted by ian senior
Says a lot for the state of the country - Delamare Road, once home to one of Britain's most inspiring and inventive car manufacturers, now the home of a megalomaniac supermarket chain.

It seems that Jack Cohen bought land (for growing vegetables) at Cheshunt during the war ... perhaps he was there first! The location also explains why the own-label Tesco name used to be Delamere.

[RTH]

Originally posted by Terry Walker
There's an excellent oblique air photo of Lotus Cheshunt on

www.lotus7register.co.uk

I hesitate to copy and paste the photo here for copyright reasons. In the pic, the side yard to the right of the car factory is stuffed with white cars - Lotus Cortinas in waiting.

can't seem to see that Terry what do you click on ?

[James Page]

If you go to 'Miscellany' from the home page, Richard, it should come up with a bunch of pics, the third one of which is the aerial shot.

[RTH]

Thanks for that James.
Its a much bigger sit than you would think from the road, a lot of cars on site. Interesting the picture 40 + years ago was taked by A.N.E. Bates the chap who went on to produce new Lotus Elite Bodyshells on his own account. Amazing just how little change to the buildings there has been in all that time (Tesco was just a green field ! )

[Lec CRP1]

Btw, Ketteringham Hall (where Team Lotus were based) is now occupied by a food processing company. I know this through my supermarket job - the boxes of Asda chicken nuggets have the address on.

[BRG]

Originally posted by ian senior
Sorry. One of my hobby horses.

And one of mine, although probably in the opposite direction. I don't much like the British 'tall poppy' syndrome.

[Gary C]

'Btw, Ketteringham Hall (where Team Lotus were based) is now occupied by a food processing company. I know this through my supermarket job - the boxes of Asda chicken nuggets have the address on.'
What a bluddy come down!!

[BRG]

Originally posted by Gary C
What a bluddy come down!!

According to Google, the Hall is still owned by the Chapman family but now has several industrial units on site - presumably one of which constructs chicken nuggets (can anyone tell me which part of the bird is a nugget?).

The Hall also host 'inspirational IT courses and aspirational training'. Where's a vomiting emoticon when you need one?

All we need now is for Hethel to be taken over by Morrisons!

[RTH]

Originally posted by BRG
According to Google, the Hall is still owned by the Chapman family but now has several industrial units on site

How on earth have they been allowed to build industrial units on the site it must surely be a listed building ?

[BRG]

I was quoting from http://www.kettering...-courses.co.uk/ which I now note actually says "...the hall has now been redeveloped into business units and is occupied by several companies including Ketteringham Hall Courses' parent company, Advisory Matters."

So they are presumably making the chicken nuggets in the old kitchens of the Hall!

[Lec CRP1]

Originally posted by BRG
I was quoting from http://www.kettering...-courses.co.uk/ which I now note actually says "...the hall has now been redeveloped into business units and is occupied by several companies including Ketteringham Hall Courses' parent company, Advisory Matters."

So they are presumably making the chicken nuggets in the old kitchens of the Hall!

I'm pretty sure they won't be making the chicken (well, whatever kind of parts of whatever animals they use) nuggets at Kett Hall. Processed frozen chicken is usually made in places such as Brazil or Thailand. It's probably just the admin offices at Kett Hall. Still, fancy Lotus's former home making dubious products formed from whatever cheap, shoddy, over-processed stuff they found lying about the place.

Mind you, there was the Lotus 80...

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by BRG
(can anyone tell me which part of the bird is a nugget?).

You really don't want to know ..... : puking smiley :

[kayemod]

Originally posted by BRG
If the UK had a few more profitable and competitive companies like Tesco, instead of harking after commercial failures like Lotus, now owned by the Malaysians, we might all be a lot better off.

Anyone involved in business knows that in the end, it's all down to management though, and in this particular case, I'll take my share of the blame. The issue is clouded by the sad truism that there are always far more potential customers for tins of baked beans than there are for state of the art sports cars. I speak as an ex Lotus employee and a present day Tesco shareholder. Sadly, to be fair to both companies, the latter has proved to be infinitely more rewarding.

[jo-briggs]

That takes me back! Lotus Cortinas were assembled upstairs, you can see on the left of the building towards the rear, the ramp down which they were driven when finished.

On the other side at the back right of the racing shop was where I helped build the Indy cars driven by Jim Clark and Dan Gurney in 1964 - we're still cursing the Dunlop employee who (allegedly) fell asleep on the job and overcooked the tyres causing them to fail during the race. I well remember those huge 4.2 litre V8s with their massive trumpets sprouting out like porcupine quills from between the cams. Len Terry must have been having an off week. because when we came to fit the rear dampers, they stuck out parallel to the floor, and lumps had to be cut out of the rear diaphragm so that they could be fitted correctly. I arrived at work at 8:00AM on the Wednesday and left at 2:00AM on the Friday night, rode my Vespa 1/4 mile down the road and ran out of petrol! I pushed it back to the factory, and we then spent about an hour in a car factory trying to find a can of petrol and some oil suitable for a 2 Stroke.

The yard to the right was used by the service department, plus a miscellany of cars, including at one time an mid engined Elva F3 car, with bent rear suspension, taken in part exchange for something.

Down at the right hand end of the yard were 2 rows of Elite Series 2 bodyshells, attached to which is a tale. I had just worked on a Cortina with a misfire in 1st, I took it down the yard, turned round at the gate, and wellied it back down the yard at full throttle, at which point the throttle spring broke leaving the butterflies fully opened, and me approaching said Elite bodyshells a touch too quickly for my liking! I stood on the brakes, turned off the ignition, and stopped 2 feet short of an expensive mistake and a quick exit from my job!

To the right of the factory is the building site where we parked our cars, and if that was July, somewhere in there is the 1936 Rover 10 I bought from Jock for £16/10/0 - £16.50 to you youngsters.

[flat-16]

If the UK had a few more profitable and competitive companies like Tesco, instead of harking after commercial failures like Lotus, now owned by the Malaysians, we might all be a lot better off.

Edited - not worth it.

A conscience is a talent - a talent not everyone possesses.


Justin

[Ruairidh]

Originally posted by jo-briggs
That takes me back! Lotus Cortinas were assembled upstairs, you can see on the left of the building towards the rear, the ramp down which they were driven when finished............
.

Wonderful stuff. And why TNF remains so good to spend time on........

[kayemod]

Lovely memories of Cheshunt, but I'm obviously much younger than you Jo, my recollections are all of Hethel, though the 'quick exit from job' bit sounds very familiar, Lotus were always notorious hirers and firers, and staff turnover was huge. I remember that Cadbury were running an advertising campaign one year, 'Award yourself the CDM' (Cadburys Dairy Milk). The running joke at Lotus was that a colleague had been awarded the DCM, Don't Come Monday.

[kayemod]

Originally posted by flat-16


Edited - not worth it.

A conscience is a talent - a talent not everyone possesses.


Justin

Justin, I caught the original just before your edit. Sadly, I have to agree with every word.

[Ruairidh]

Originally posted by flat-16


(I'll apologise for taking the bait here in advance)

What would be your definition of "better off" be? Does "better off" means zero independent traders on the High Street with no local family-run shops?

....

If anyone thinks we're "better off" with the desolation that conscience-less, money-grabbing, psychopathic-by-default corporate entities such as Tesco reap, then they would have to be myopic to the extreme...either that or devoid of a conscience....

Just one example: Did you know that Tesco have moved into selling Musical Instruments? Of course, they don't sell the specialist stuff, just the profitable units such as Mexican Fenders and Yamaha acoustic guitars. Your local high street music shop doesn't stay afloat via the "specialist" items, it's the Mex Fenders etc that pay the rent, and they can never compete with Tesco's buying power, so they go under... The High Street becomes homogenised, with branches of "KFC" and "O'Neal's Authentic Irish Pubs"... What a great world to live in; no more music shops run by eccentric musos, no more hubs for the community's musicians... Tesco really know about Musical Instruments don't they? We should leave it to the professionals...

Justin, we've been having this debate for years over here in the US, usually referencing Wal-Mart as the cause of the abandonment of the old fashioned Main Street.

And the economic drivers are as you describe and the cause and effect the same. BUT, you have to remember one key thing. This only happens because the public, in effect, vote with their feet.

And lower prices are a compelling magnet where purchasing decisions are being made and those Chinese Fenders (Mex ones are now moving to the mid-range) are being sold by Fender to the chains 'cos all parties to the bargain think there is money to be made.

And the internet will take the place of local specialist stores - allowing at least some economies of scale, with some temporary price advantage in the US until Federal law imposes State Tax on out-of-state sales.

I'm not taking sides, just pointing out that I don't see these trends changing anytime soon.......

[flat-16]

Just for the record: I live in reality, unfortunately...

Enjoy those shares! No blood on your hands...

I need to go easy on the coffee...



I'd like to thank Terry and Jo for the excellent thread - sorry for the derail - back to lurk mode.

Justin

[Gary C]

Jo, thanks indeed for those memories, keep 'em coming !! I just people like Eddie Dennis & Bob Dance were online too!

[Frank S]

In the early 1970s I had a relatively idle question about the 1966 Elan S2
I was trying to nurture through its decline. I wrote to the Cheshunt address
found in a factory shop manual that came with the car. I don't remember
the question, and I'm not about to open the envelope returned to me
quite a while later, marked in clear but not regular hand printing:

"GONE AWAY"


--
Frank S

[ian senior]

Originally posted by BRG

All we need now is for Hethel to be taken over by Morrisons!

At least Morrisons have some semblance of a conscience. Their supermarket in Bradford, standing on what used to be old Jowett factory, has a frieze on one of the walls depicting a Jowett Bradford. Pity it isn't a Jupiter or Javelin, but nice anyway.

[kayemod]

Originally posted by ian senior
At least Morrisons have some semblance of a conscience. Their supermarket in Bradford, standing on what used to be old Jowett factory, has a frieze on one of the walls depicting a Jowett Bradford. Pity it isn't a Jupiter or Javelin, but nice anyway.

But the Bradford was a van, 'in trade'. No la-di-da pretentions from Sir Ken Morrison tha' knaws.

[RTH]

It was however quite an advanced and impessive piece of kit for it's day.

[jo-briggs]

Guess what - I used to regularly drive a Bradford "Shooting Brake" or as BMW would put it, a "Bradford Touring". It was one of our school cars, flat twin motor flat out at about 2,500 RPM, with a gearbox that seemed to be missing the 3rd gear of 4, but in fact it only had 3, but the rev drop between 2nd and 3rd was about 50% of engine speed, so you went: rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr/RRRRRRRRRRR/Putt putt putt putt.

I was 13 when I started driving it at school (We had a road that went all the way round the playing fields + a bit) after a couple of weeks the Chemistry Master thought he really ought to check my competence, so off I set. Now the corner opposite the workshop side was just flat, but with the extra weight of Toombs (Who could chose from a selection of 1930s Triumphs; a Gloria, a Dolomite, and a Vitesse; for his personal transport), the back end snapped out, a quick flick of opposite lock soon corrected it, and I finished the circuit. As we got out, Toombs told the Head Boy that I had had it on opposite lock, corrected it perfectly, but I was too young to be doing that sort of thing, so I should be supervised for the next couple of months; oh yeah, like anyone took any notice.

[Stoatspeed]

Originally posted by kayemod
Lotus were always notorious hirers and firers, and staff turnover was huge.

As I read this thread and many others on TNF, the phrase "when I worked for Lotus ..." seems to occur very frequently. Out of curiosity, could we poll the TNF'ers (starting on this Lotus-oriented thread, of course) to find out just how many of us will admit to being former or current Lotus employees (and where/when/which division, just for completeness)?

I'll start by declaring myself as Hethel, Lotus Engineering 1994-1995 (left under my own power out of frustration!)

Dave

[David Beard]

Originally posted by Stoatspeed


As I read this thread and many others on TNF, the phrase "when I worked for Lotus ..." seems to occur very frequently. Out of curiosity, could we poll the TNF'ers (starting on this Lotus-oriented thread, of course) to find out just how many of us will admit to being former or current Lotus employees (and where/when/which division, just for completeness)?

I'll start by declaring myself as Hethel, Lotus Engineering 1994-1995 (left under my own power out of frustration!)

Dave

A very excellent idea. Can we make it a new thread, Twinny!?

Peter Ross posts here occasionally...I don't think we will find an earlier employee!

[jo-briggs]

Panshanger, summer of 1962 - School holiday job. Where I met Bob Curl still a friend
Delemare Road 1963 to 64 where I met Bob Sparshott, Bob Dance, Jim Endruit, Len Terry and many other great men; plus one of the most modest people and best drivers I ever knew, Paul Brown. (Short fat Ginger Nob sacked me for chatting up a secretary in factory time)

One of the joys of working at Lotus was you could be wandering through the paddock at a non-championship F1 race and hear "Oi, Jo, come and give us a hand with this engine/gearbox/chassis", and you'd step over the 2' high rope barrier and into wonderland. It made you feel just that bit taller as you stepped out of the crowd and into other peoples dreams.

[cosworth bdg]

Originally posted by BRG
If the UK had a few more profitable and competitive companies like Tesco, instead of harking after commercial failures like Lotus, now owned by the Malaysians, we might all be a lot better off.

Don't worry it's the same down under, we are overloaded with CORPORATE CROOKS. just look at my original employer as a good example of what can and doe's happen.!!!!!!!!

[David Beard]

Originally posted by Terry Walker
The former Lotus works at Cheshunt survive virtually unchanged apart from paint and logos.

The factory: now a Plastek facility:

For comparison, in 1960 it was like this...

[paulhooft]

great photo's:
Perhaps the NEW owners marketing people...
Do not really understand that the former logo gives the building a million times more impact...
-Marketing people always make such mistakes..
That's why those id...s always change these things...
for something ... better...?-
Paul

(Where those famous lotus racing cars really build here?
You must be very proud to be in such a building..!
Yes sir, in fact we are, so we would not change it for the World...)

[kayemod]

Originally posted by paulhooft
great photo's:
Perhaps the NEW owners marketing people...
Do not really understand that the former logo gives the building a million times more impact...
-Marketing people always make such mistakes..
That's why those id...s always change these things...
for something ... better...?-
Paul

(Where those famous lotus racing cars really build here?
You must be very proud to be in such a building..!
Yes sir, in fact we are, so we would not change it for the World...)

The present Lotus/Proton regime would never allow it.

[2F-001]

But best of all, the 1960 version appears to have a Seven parked out front.

[jo-briggs]

Perhaps one of those Blue Plaques

"Jo Briggs worked here"
"1963-1964"

[2F-001]

Perhaps you could sneak up one night and stick one up yourself; that would cause some puzzlement the next day!