YESTERYEAR this week looks at the rise and fall of two giant companies which offered work to hundreds of people in and around the town.
Ronson, founded in America in 1898, was a key employer in Leatherhead for almost 40 years.
A potted history of the firm, which was liquidated in this country prior to the demolition of its plant at Randalls Road in 1981, is given in the book Leatherhead – A History, by Edwina Vardey.
She writes that the firm originally made church ornaments in America but in 1918 it began manufacturing cigarette lighters and the rights to sell and service the lighters in the UK were acquired.
"In the Second World War, Ronson moved to Leatherhead from London and bought Dorincourt where their war work was making, among other things, bomb fuses.
"These were manufactured on government-subsidised machinery which after the war was modified to make lighters.
"Five million lighters were produced before Dorincourt was sold in 1953 to Queen Elizabeth's Training College and Ronson moved to its custom-built factory in Randalls Road.
"Here, the firm developed butane and battery lighters, not only inexpensive to buy but incorporating a competitive piezo mechanism.
"The US parent corporation had long been in difficulties yet desperate attempts by Ronson UK to solve the corporation's financial problems only resulted in the liquidisation of Ronson UK and the site and the sale and subsequent demolition of the Leatherhead factory in 1981."
At the east end of Leatherhead the firm Goblin BVC operated for many years.
Edwina Vardey's book notes that the company made vacuum cleaners, washing machines and clocks. The firm employed 1,000 workers in its hey-day.
"The founder was Hubert Cecil Booth. In 1904 he produced the world's first portable vacuum cleaner which only needed two operators, one to pump the bellows and the other to operate the cleaning tool.
"In 1921 his company produced the first electric upright bag model and later manufactured the cylindrical model.
"In 1938, Goblin BVC moved to a new complex in Ermyn Way, [Leatherhead] and during the Second World War made munitions which included mine-sinkers, shell fuses and camouflage netting.
"Post war, Hoover became a major competitor and so dominated the market that vacuum cleaning became known as 'hoovering'. Nevertheless, Goblin had diversified and itself contributed to the generic vocabulary with Goblin 'Teasmade'.
"H.C. Booth died in 1955 and Goblin, in spite of expanding in 1959 to manufacture miniature electric motors (some used in Concorde), slowly had to run down its organisation. It fully closed in 1984 and the valuable site on which they stood was eventually taken over by Esso, which made it their headquarters in 1990."
