Ings History
Ings Garage in WW2
Clifton Park started trading in Ings in 1931 having built a small garage and filling station. He was joined in 1934 by Fred Unsworth, fresh out of school. With the outbreak of WW2, both joined the RAF and the garage was closed. For two years the garage was empty, but in 1941, it was taken over by Milestones Service Garage Ltd, evacuated from Kent, to safeguard their manufacture of munitions and small arms tools. Production had to be maintained whilst removing plant and erecting it in the new premises. Equipment had to be hauled through the London blitz at night to arrive in Ings in the early hours of the morning. Machines had to be erected and got into production without delay. Special trips to London had to be made to obtain materials in short supply.
Much of the work was in making dies for bullets. The dies had to be hardened. At first, the smithy at Ings was used, then the Staveley smithy was rented and used for the rest of the War. Demand necessitated an expansion to the premises, the plant and the number of employees. A canteen, a cloakroom for ladies, an office and another workshop were built, all with central heating, which was also added to the existing workshop. New staff were engaged and two twelve-hour shifts arranged, managed in turn by the two directors, Mr Pride and Mr Kelsall, whose daughter Cynthia still lives in Ings. The business then had over forty employees, most of whom were women. The end of the war brought a swift end to the manufactury and Milestones staff returned to Kent to reopen the garage. It had made 107,720 dies. The Ministry of Supply congratulated them in a telegram just after VE day: ‘This was a truly great effort’. Clifton Park returned from the war to Ings and resumed business serving the locals with petrol and maintaining their cars. Fred Unsworth restarted in June 1946, becoming a partner in 1949.
Staveley & District History Society Journal 23 Cynthia Kelsall and Barbara Coupland