Place Name
Industrial heritage. In 1907 a German company formed the Tandem Smelting Syndicate, setting up close to the railway line and served by their own sidings. When the First World War broke out in 1914 the company was taken over by the Board of Trade as an alien concern. In 1917 it was sold to the Eyre Smelting Co Ltd which in turn was acquired in 1925 by Fry’s Metal Foundries Ltd later Fry’s Metals Ltd. Fry’s had been founded in Blackfriars by John Fry in 1911, he died on September 7, 1967, aged 91. The works grew in size until in 1990, a decision was taken to move from the Tandem Works site to a smaller area in Beddington Lane, in part due to the closure of the railway. The move was completed the following year, and in 1995 the works demolished, with the Tandem Retail Centre built in its place. Despite its name, bicycles were never made at Tandem Works, rather metallic compounds including bronzes, solders, whitemetals, typemetals, soldering fluxes and solder paints.
