Radenite batteries

Hi, a web search using search terms - radenite batteries 567 foleshill road Coventry - gives the following. Plans showing the location and layout of Radenite Batteries' works at 567/575, Foleshill Road, Coventry. This record is held by Coventry Archives & Research Centre Reference: PA 1562/22/1-6 Title: Plans showing the location and layout of Radenite Batteries' works at 567/575, Foleshill Road, Coventry. Date: November 1912 - 22nd July 1963 Held by: Coventry Archives & Research Centre, not available at The National Archives Language: English Coventry Archives & Research Centre Browse repositories Herbert Art Gallery and Museum Jordan Well Coventry England CV1 5QP Telephone: 024 7623 7583 Email: historycentre@culturecoventry.com Website: Open: Wednesday-Friday 10.30-3.30; alternate Saturdays 10.30-3.30 • Book in advance • Member of CARN scheme • Wheelchair access • Research Service • Readers ticket required Access to original documents is by prior appointment only and have to be ordered by 3.30pm the previous day There will be no access to original documents on Saturdays, ARCHON code: 144 No pictures yet, but a Telegraph article. Coventry Evening Telegraph, Thursday September 26th 1974. Tenant sought for City factory site An industrial tenant is being sought for the former radenite factory in Foleshill Road Coventry. The site between the General Wolfe public house and Blackwell Road is owned by G W Deeley Ltd the Coventry builders. Their application for planning permission to build a supermarket and 6 shops here was turned down by the city council in July. A petition in favour of the supermarket was handed in to the City Council but a row broke out after it was alleged that a number of the names on it were bogus. Later a second petition on the same lines was prepared and handed in. Other residents have expressed opposition to the scheme at a public meeting. Lease. Mr Douglas Sutcliffe of Robinson, Osborne and Moules, agents for Deeleys, said that no appeal against the council's decision was planned. "The factory is now being offered for industrial tenancy and we could discuss a lease of 5 to 10 years with an applicant" he said. In their decision the City Council had termed the proposed development as premature in view of the Foleshill District plan currently being prepared, he said. The council's other objections were that it was in an area primarily residential, there was not enough off- street parking space, and would result in increased traffic. Images, I can't verify the building, can anyone help?

Heathite - that is certainly the correct building with the General Wolfe at extreme left and the junction of Blackwell Rd in the right foreground. Forty years ago I often stood at that bus stop waiting for the 20 to take me home to Bedworth.

Hi and thank you for verifying.

When they demolished Radenite, didn't they find evidence of an older car factory in the floor tiles.

Hi, I've looked a bit further back. I've seen Van Raden mentioned before. Have now gone back to 1912 with the Spennell's directory, it's still Van Raden, that chap was there a long time. Maybe he was the fore-runner of Duracell Batteries Edited by member, 3rd Oct 2018 8:49 pm

Adverts for Radenite in the newspapers say formerly Van Raden & Co Ltd.

Non-local. The Radenite was between Livingstone Road and Lockhurst Lane opposite Broad Street, the Wolfe was the other side of Livingstone along to the right of the picture.

Coventry Archives & Research Centre lists plans showing the location and layout of the Radenite Battery Factory situated at 567-575 Foleshill Rd. It gives the dates as November 1912 to 22 July 1963. The archives record that the company moved to Foleshill Rd to occupy premises previously used as the Payne & Bates Car Factory. Radenite left Foleshill Rd in 1969 to move to a factory in Exhall. The company was said to have ceased trading in 1984 although they appear to still be going strong. Their website says that they have been producing batteries since 1899 and they claim to be the oldest battery company in Europe. They are currently based in the Technology Park, Puma Way, Coventry (the old Rolls Royce/Bristol Siddeley site). A copy of an advertisement is reproduced in a book called 'Godiva's Heritage: Coventry's Industry'. It identifies the company as Radenite & Co Ltd, Von Raden & Co Ltd, Great Heath, Coventry and lists batteries for an Austin 7 (introduced 1922) and other small cars for £1 6s 6d, and for large cars like a Standard Big Nine and Big Twelve for £2 10s 0d. Payne & Bates was a partnership of Walter Payne, a manufacturer of stationary gas and oil engines, and George Bates who provided the money to build the new factory so that they could expand into the building of motor cars. George Bates was killed in a road accident in 1902 and his executors wanted their capital back so the new factory had to be sold to Mr Van Raden. Edited by member, 4th Oct 2018 11:57 am

Thank you for the picture. I knew I had seen it a while ago but couldn`t find it again.

That photograph was taken almost from outside what had been Walter Payne's front door. He lived at Malmo Villa, 440 Foleshill Rd which is directly across the road from his old factory. Walter lost the rented house when it was sold by the Bates family after George's death. In the 1930's it became Great Heath Post Office. In the 1970's there were a greengrocer and a newsagent just to the left of Radenite, then the entry down to the Angel pub, then D. F. Gibbs TV shop, and then the General Wolfe. To the immediate right of Radenite, just across Blackwell Rd, was the motorcycle spares business run by Bob Bull. Kaga mentioned the factory at the junction of Foleshill Rd and Livingstone Rd - that was the very similar looking George Wilson Gas Meter factory (they currently operate from the Aldermans Green Industrial Estate). There is more about Radenite in a previous 'Foleshill' thread which shows that the company was sold by Mr Van Raden to a member of the Starley family. There is a photograph of Walter Payne & Henry Bates in their Godiva motor car in a book 'Coventry's Motorcycle Heritage'. The location is almost certainly the Foleshill Rd factory. The sign across the left side of the factory says, 'PAYNE & BATES Steam & Oil Engineers'. The same sort of sign later advertised Radenite. Edited by member, 4th Oct 2018 7:08 pm

I remember the factory when on Foleshill Road. Waited many times for the 20A at the bus stop outside of it. When I worked for them it was at the factory in Bayton Road. Newspaper cuttings C.E.T. Edited by member, 23rd Apr 2020 10:56 am

More items in my collection. 3 catalogues covering the years 1899-1972 & a full deck of playing cards.

What I have here is a 6 volt battery, but not just any old 6v battery, oh no! One I made myself. Welded the lead plates together, assembled it, put the bars on the top, filled & charged it, because I wanted one at the time. I still had to pay full market price even though I made it for myself. 40 years later, it no longer works, I can't have been that good at making batteries!