Category Archives: Roads

P.B. Cow – India rubber manufacturers in Tramway Path

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P.B. Cow & Co. Ltd. established their factory in Tramway Path, Mitcham, in 1947, according to this ad from the Mitcham Advertiser

Mitcham Advertiser 6 March 1947

P. B. COW (Queensbury) Ltd., require experienced Power Sewing Machinists for a new modern factory at Mitcham; good rates of pay and all piece-work jobs, interesting and pleasant work; also suitable applicants would be trained into first-class Power Sewing Machinist; music while you work; excellent canteen with good meals at moderate prices; first-aid department and a nurse in attendance during all factory hours, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday. 1 hour for lunch and morning and afternoon tea breaks. Apply to Tramway Path, Mitcham, Surrey. Can be reached by buses 80, 80a and 118.

Another ad in 1960 reveals that they were making airbeds, or ‘LI-LO’.

Mitcham Advertiser 4 January 1960

FEMALES are required. for making of air-beds. hours 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., 5-day week., Mon. to Fri.; age 15-40 years; good piece work rates after initial training; canteen, social and sports facilities available. Apply Messrs. P. B. Cow & Co. Ltd., Tramway Path, Mitcham, Surrey.

These ads are from Graces Guide to British Industrial History.

1951 ad for LI-LO

1953 ad

1954 OS map

P.B. COW & Co. Ltd. was listed in the 1954 phone book “India Rubber Mfrs”, Tramway path MIT 2761
but not in the 1963 List of Factories.

Out of copyright Ordnance Survey maps are reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland.

Drewett Memorial Shelter

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A shelter that was originally on the west side of London Road at the Fair Green. It was erected in 1928 as a memorial to councillor J.D. Drewett. In 1952, as part of a redevelopment of the western side of Fair Green, the shelter was moved to the Western Road end. In 1990s it was removed after having been repeatedly vandalised.

Newspaper Articles
Mitcham Advertiser – Thursday 27 June 1929

THE DREWETT SHELTER. Mr. A. N. Drewett and other members of the family of the late Coun. J. D. Drewett wrote thanking the Council for the manner in which his memory has been perpetuated by the erection of the memorial shelter on the Fair Green. It was resolved to add the letters “J.P.” to the inscription.

Mitcham Advertiser – Thursday 02 October 1952

Shelter may be moved lmprovement scheme Mitcham borough engineer (Mr. Riley Schofield) submitted at last week’s meeting of the council two schemes for the reconstruction of the Western Road side of the Fair Green Gardens. A scheme designed to harmonise with the layout of the upper enclosure would. he said, involve the moving of the Drewett memorial shelter from the London Road to the Western Road end of the gardens. The estimated cost was £3,900.

The second scheme, designed to fit in with the conditions at present existing, would not involve the moving of the shelter. The estimated cost of this scheme is £3,600.

Both schemes are to be further considered. The shelter was erected in 1929 as a memorial to the public service of the late Mr. J. D. Drewett, councillor and county councillor, a native of the borough and one of its local historians. It is used mainly by the old men of the town who gather to gossip there. It is a double-sided tiled-roof building. A dozen of them made it clear to an “ Advertiser ” reporter that they preferred the shelter where it is now. “We can see all what goes on round about from here,” was the substance of their remarks. “Down yonder (Western Road) there’s nothing to see at all.”