Gold Thread Works Commemorative Bobbin

A stone bobbin was erected in Preston during 2008, at the junction of Avenham Road and Avenham Lane, as part of a commemorative memorial to the Stephen Simpson Gold Thread Works of Preston. I was out and about several weeks ago and took some pictures of it, as I have done on a number of occasions in the past. It's a fantastic sculpture, and it's a pity that it is tucked away where not a lot of people see it. However, it's placement is significant.

The Simpson’s Gold thread Works, once on Avenham Road, was of major importance to the history and heritage of the city. The company produced gold thread and embroidery for military and commercial uniforms. Apparently, work included thread that decorated the uniforms of the Titanic staff.

During the war the firm undertook a top secret commission to produce German military badges and insignia for use by English spies operating in Germany. 

Gold Thread Works Commemorative Bobbin

Gold Thread Works Commemorative Bobbin

An article from the Lancashire Telegraph on 12th September 2003.

Secret war effort of Gold Thread Works

As the bulldozers loom over a former Preston factory the one-time boss has revealed the secrets of its wartime past.

Tony Pickston, 78, was managing director of the former Gold Thread Works, Avenham Road, for 20 years, taking over the job from his father Leslie.

Military badges, Christmas decorations and telephone cables, all incorporating gold and silver, were made at the factory until its closure in 1991.

But during the Second World War factory bosses were given a top secret assignment -- to make authentic German badges for British spies.

Tony, of Chain House Lane, Lostock Hall, who retired in 1985, said: "My father told me that a small room in the factory had been used by three women to produce authentic badges for English spies going to Germany in the Second World War.

"It was top secret. These women had been working in there from 1941 to 1945 without any of the other workers knowing.

"Even I didn't find out until nearly ten years later."

The factory was established at the beginning of the nineteenth century by businessman Stephen Simpson before being taken over by his son and later the Pickston family.

In its heyday, hundreds of local people were employed there and at the company's foundry in Syke Street where gold and silver was cast into ingots and bars for the manufacture of various artifacts.

Now a planning application has been submitted to Preston City Council to develop the site of the listed building into 26 flats.

Tony said: "The world moves on. It was very difficult to compete with the production in places like India and Pakistan and as the military got smaller so did our orders. It's very sad."

The history of the former Gold Thread Works forms part of an exhibition of Avenham at The Harris Museum, Preston, until February next year.

Lancashire At War

The Lancashire At War website [ LancashireAtWar.co.uk ] had details about the secret department. It’s job was to produce forged German swastika badges from aluminium thread stolen by the Dutch resistance. It stated that they were used on replica German uniforms, worn by British spies. There are some pictures, but they were heavily cropped, so made it difficult to ascertain their origin.

German swastika badges from aluminium thread stolen by the Dutch resistance

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Some pictures surfaced from the exhibition at the Harris Museum that showed the badges within a display of historical artefacts. One of the Harris Museum labels reads as follows:

German Luftwaffe badges, 1940s

During the Second World War Simpson's operated a secret department embroidering replica German Swastika badges from aluminium thread stolen by the Dutch resistance. The badges were sewn onto fake German uniforms of British spies. Production increased in the build up to the Normandy landing on 6 June 1944.

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Further reading and sources of information

Secret war effort of Gold Thread Works - Lancashire Telegraph

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/5882720.secret-war-effort-gold-thread-works/

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Preston's Wartime History Facebook post - Preston History

https://www.facebook.com/groups/historyofpreston/permalink/397502166199498/

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