Battleships, Buses and Bombers

A History of Transport in the Lea Valley

Jim Lewis

£9.99

Copies:

ISBN:978 1 904750 87 1
Format:Paperback
Pages:128
Published:2009

About Battleships, Buses and Bombers

Battleships, Buses and Bombers is a highly readable and descriptive account that introduces the reader to a remarkable range of transport firsts and other related developments that occurred within the Lea Valley region. The Thames Ironworks, once situated at the mouth of the River Lea, gave birth to HMS Warrior, the world’s first ironclad battle cruiser, HMS Thunderer, the largest dreadnought class of her day and mid-nineteenth century gunboats for the Peruvian Navy that survive on top of the Andes.

Stratford, in east London, was once the engineering centre of the Great Eastern Railway works, where world records were made and innovative engines designed and built. The modern-day site maintains its locomotive links through the Eurostar maintenance depot. Before railway engines, Stratford was home to Walter Hancock’s workshop where early steam carriages were constructed that ran regular services on London’s roads. In the late nineteenth century Walthamstow was the birthplace of the Bremer car, Britain’s first vehicle with an internal combustion engine. Following on, Walthamstow was also home to what became AEC, the forerunner of Transport for London.

Jim Lewis introduces the reader to a fascinating series of people and facts from A.V. Roe, the Lea Valley flyer to J.A. Prestwich and motorcycle development. Vauxhall Motors is covered in detail, as is the naming of petrol at Hackney Wick.

About Jim Lewis

Dr Jim Lewis has spent most of his career in the consumer electronics industry, apart from a three-year spell in the Royal Air Force servicing airborne and ground wireless communications equipment. When working in the Lea Valley for Thorn EMI Ferguson he represented the company abroad on several occasions and was involved in the exchange of manufacturing technology. Currently he is a Consultant to Terry Farrell & Partners on the historical development of London’s Lea Valley and a Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) tutor teaching industrial history. Among his published works are London’s Lea Valley: Britain’s Best Kept Secret (1999) and London’s Lea Valley: More Secrets Revealed (2001).