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The most complex industrial site in Dudbridge. Part of the area was occupied by a small 19th century iron works, but much of the site was a walled garden and orchard up to 1900.
It was here that James Apperly established the Dudbridge Patent Machine Works to manufacture textile machinery, later continued by Cook & Vick. H.G. Holbrow began the manufacture of steam engines on another part of the site, and then J.D. Humpidge combined the two firms to form the Dudbridge Iron Works, which focused mainly on the manufacture of gas engines.
In the 1900s, Wesley Whitfield established an engineering company on part of the site, and between 1927 and 1931 Hampton Cars were assembled here.
Lewis & Hole, a firm which was started in 1946 at Brimscombe Port, moved to Dudbridge in 1965. Their two cupola iron furnaces were well-known landmarks until demolished in 1996.
Orr Products were the last manufacturing company on the site. This was a small engineering firm owned by Mr Orr and his son; they specialised in manufacturing pumps for road tankers and other applications. They moved to Gloucester.
Sainsbury's supermarket was built in 1996-97, on the site of the former Lewis & Hole foundry to designs by Hadfield Cawkwell Davidson of Sheffield. It was the site of national press and TV coverage when local resident Eileen Halliday (described as the Boadicea of Dudbridge), refused offers by Sainsbury's to purchase her cottage on the corner of the site to allow the access road to be built. She won her battle, and the road and car park were relocated.
Two 17th century doorways have been built into the wall of the supermarket. One, dated 1646, has the clothier's mark of Daniel Fowler, the other dates from the 1660s.
From January 2016, this website is managed by Stroud Local
History Society
Revised 2018 EMW
