HIGHAMS PARK: Learn about ping pong factory's past

8:22am Tuesday 18th November 2008

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PING pong balls, washing up bowls, combs and costume jewellery might not usually be considered historical artefacts.

But they will all be treated as such in a retrospective exhibition put on by the Highams Park Society, looking back at the history of the Halex xylonite factory.

The factory, which once stood on the site of the proposed Tesco Village in Highams Park, was one of the largest employers in Waltham Forest from its opening in 1895 until it closed down in 1971.

Society treasurer Andrew Golds, 59, said: “Xylonite is a special plastic invented in the middle of the 19th century.

“The factory made mirrors and trinket boxes and table tennis balls, which were a very large part of the business.”

It reputedly supplied all the world’s ping-pong balls from the end of the 19th century and was also involved in the war effort during WWII.

“They used to make combs and they’d hide things which would be useful to the troops in the middle of them and then drop them in Germany,” Mr Golds said.

It was visited by the Duchess of Kent in March 1945, shortly before the end of WWII, and many of its female employees were volunteer firefighters at the time, serving the factory’s own fire brigade - essential as xylonite was highly flammable.

There was also a Miss Halex contest, a Halex Day and an employee fair at the factory.

And because it employed so many people, many of the former employees and their children and grandchildren are still living in the area and can remember the factory when it was open.

Joyce Chaplin, 83, joined the company at the age of 14, where she began work in the bristle department.

“I started there but then we started getting very busy with table tennis, so I went to that department for a very long time,” she said.

“It was very enjoyable - the work that went into it was quite amazing.”

And it was only later that she discovered her job was classed as war work - as the balls she had been making were used as floatation devices for war planes.

Mrs Chaplin, who lived in Beverley Road, Highams Park at the time and now lives in Maybank Road, South Woodford, worked at the factory until 1948.

She then left to have her first child - a difficult time as her first husband was killed in a road accident when she was three months pregnant.

“We hadn’t been married a year,” she said.

“He never saw his baby. But years ago, you just got on with life.”

She later remarried and also returned to work at the factory, making commemorative cups for the queen’s coronation in 1953.

“It’s a shame it’s gone,” Mrs Chaplin said.

“It was a nice crowd of girls.”

The exhibition is at the Methodist church hall, Winchester Road, Highams Park on November 29 from 10am to 12.30pm.