The only give-away feature that this building used to be a factory is its immense size and ghost signs declaring 'Lodge Plugs'. The corner has an attractive tower and the three storey windows give it a great presence.
It started life as an iconic shoe factory in the name of Hinde and Mann, so common in these parts. The local school has an excellent article on the factory's history: visit link
'The Hinde & Mann factory, was built on the corner of Wellingborough Road and Midland Road (formerly Station Road because of the location of the railway station), and was officially opened on the 12th of May 1884.
It was founded by William Hinde and Joseph Mann, who had already formed a partnership a few years before. They had a small factory in Back street (now known as East street) at the rear of the shop in the High street which until recently was called Minneys Cycle Shop.
Their business grew and Mr. Mann persuaded Mr. Hinde that they should move to a larger factory. The factory was built over a period of time and was operating for more than a year before its official opening.
When the factory was originally built it had two storeys and was much smaller than the building that is there today. Over the years the factory was extended three times until it was the size it is now.
With the opening of the factory it meant that the first time many people had regular work for the first time, they had a regular income and set hours. People started to look to the future and many brought their own homes. The area around the factory was brought and developed by a local builder and soon workers from the factory occupied many of the new houses. Records show that a house in Station Road (which is now Midland Road) sold for £80. Today a similar house would sell for in excess of £100,000 quite an increase!
When the factory first opened they produced 900 pairs of footwear in the first month. Their aim was to produce 19000 pairs a month.
The business did far better than had ever been expected and within 15 years the boots and shoes produced at the factory were on sale in every large town and city in the United Kingdom and they were being exported to Germany, Austria, South Africa, New Zealand and India. At the peak 13000 pairs of boots and shoes were being produced every week.
On the 17th June 1899 William Hinde retired and Joseph Mann took over the factory. By this time the number of people working at the factory had risen to 330.
The factory hit hard times in 1920s and 30s and output declined with the competition of cheap low quality shoes. The factory was taken over for essential war materials production in August 1940 when Lodge Plugs started to produce spark plugs for aircraft.
Lodge Plugs had already got a large factory in Rugby, but were looking for a site for a shadow factory, in other words a factory in the countryside, which could avoid the bombings, and Olney was an ideal location. They purchased the factory and continued to use it for some time after the war until the Maxwell Corporation purchased it. [Maxwell in the days of Pergamon Press in Oxford used it for Book storage.]
Today the factory is undergoing another transformation and is to be converted to luxury apartments. During the conversion a glass bottle was discovered that buried by the builders during one of the earlier extensions.'
Mr Mynard describes his wartime memories of Lodge Plugs:visit link
'Lodge Plugs moved into the factory building at the top of Midland Road very early in the war, probably at the beginning of 1940. The factory made sparking plugs for aircraft engines and was a subsidiary of Lodge Plugs in Rugby. The workforce was expected to work shifts. The shift started at 7.00 in the morning and the workers would go home for half an hour at midday; they would go home again for half an hour around 5 o'clock and then return until 7.30 or 8.00 pm at night. There must have been more than 100 women working there, but only about half a dozen men. To get there they used to bike from Brafield, Newport Pagnell and other areas in the district.
This detailed history website describes the complete Lodge Plugs company operating across the nation, here we see the period when they were in Olney: visit link
'Between 1939 and 1945, Lodge doubled their output. Soon after war began the firm was registered as "an undertaking under the Essential Works Order." Plugs were produced for almost every kind of internal combustion engine - fitted in motor torpedo boats, landing craft, air-sea rescue launches, all varieties of military vehicle (including tanks), and stationary power equipment, Special adaptations of the sparking plug had to be designed for flame-throwers. And for the new radar branches of all three Services radio screening fittings were made in large quantities.'