Lesney's Matchbox Factory (1)
Part 1 of article
Mave Sipple
When I moved to a house off Ashingdon Road in 1969, there was a huge Ekco factory on the Swaines Estate. When the factory closed down it was taken over by Lesney’s. They made model cars they were called "Matchbox" because they were small enough to fit into a matchbox. The company employed about 2000 people working shifts throughout the day and night. Special Lesney's buses used to bring in the workers from Rayleigh, Shoebury and Southend.
The company had problems and, sadly, it was forced to close down; hundreds of local people lost their jobs. A huge housing estate now stands on the site.
View part 2 of Mave's article
View David Murphy's article