AS many people know, the Crown factory at Hamworthy will be closing down this year.

The site has been involved in metal stamping since 1939 when it first became Wallis tin stamping company.

We are trying to piece together some of the history of the company as it started there, before it is lost.

Industrial history is important; it affects populace, living standards, capital available to communities, growth of those communities, infrastructure, industrial migration and many other things.

We are struggling to get some tangible evidence of a few things and so we are appealing to the community at large for their help.

We know that Wallis tin was run by a Colonel Wallis but we can find nothing about him beyond that.

We know that during the Second World War Mosquito aircraft manufacture to some degree took place on the site but again nothing tangible to support this.

And finally we also know there was a tie up with Healey cars where two prototypes were involved with the Wallis site, also we know that lorry coachworks also took place at Hamworthy where the chassis and engine with a driver would drive to the factory for fitting… again no material evidence.

I would welcome any information or pictures relating to these specific items or any other stories or pictures the readers can share about Wallis tin or Metal box at Hamworthy.

We would like to share whatever we find with the community after we have put it together.

I don’t know who said it but I believe the expression “if you don’t know your own history, then you are the prisoner of someone else’s” is apt if we let history slip through our fingers.

Thank you all for any help you can give.

STEWART RUSSELL,
Rushcombe Way, Corfe Mullen