Avalon Location History 1978 - 2002
Prestwood (where Avalon started)
Tylers Green, Unit 16 (Avalon's 1st factory)
Tylers Green, Unit 17 (Avalon's 2nd factory)
Slough, (Avalon's 3rd factory)
Manchester, (Avalon's 4th factory)
Avalon's final resting place

Update January 2008

As of the end of 2007 none of the existing employees are now with Avalon.

There are a number of companies that exist that contain ex-Avalon staff who can maintain, service and repair all of the Avalon manufactured equipment.

 

Prestwood

In 1978 Avalon Audio Communications Ltd was started by Dennis Terrett at his house in Prestwood, Bucks.

The name of the house was "Avalon".

 

 

 

 

 

Unit 16, Tylers Green

In 1980 Avalon required more people and therefore more space. The company moved to Unit 16 St Johns Road Industrial Estate, Tylers Green, Bucks.

This building, which had two Portacabins on the side, (not in view) was approximately 1,800sq feet.

 

 

 

Unit 17, Tylers Green

As the company expanded, larger premises were required. A building just behind unit 16 became vacant (unit 17). This building was a bit dilapidated to say the least, but it was a lot larger (approximately 6,000sq feet), so in 1984 we moved everything a few yards.

 

 

in picture Roger

Unit 17, oh what a mess!

This was the condition of the factory when we moved in.

Like most things at Avalon it was a DIY job. We had to build the offices and corridors upstairs and build a showroom, stores and test area downstairs, plus of course paint the whole building!

 

 

 

Unit 17, in full flow

This is the production area with the test department at the bottom corner of the picture.

The ground floor had 7 workstations for module & PCB assembly, an area at the back for loudspeaker assembly and various stores, offices, canteen, reception and showroom.

The 1st floor contained the drawing office, R & D, admin, accounts, sales and project engineering.

Later two additional offices were built as a small mezzanine (see below). These housed project engineers and the new service department manager.

In picture from left to right Nina, Ian's head & Cliff

Unit 17, the end

In 1996 the lease was up and the industrial estate was due to close. It is now a small housing estate. We were off to Slough. (Oh good)!

This was the last photo taken at Unit 17 as we were clearing it out and handing back the keys. It also shows the new mezzanine.

Good times were had at unit 17.

 

In picture Eddie

Slough, Bedford Avenue

On 1st October 1992 Avalon Emergency Systems was purchased by Wormald, part of Tyco International.

Wormald had an office / warehouse on the Slough Trading Estate . As the lease was up at Tylers Green it was decided to build offices and a production area within the unused Wormald warehouse and move Avalon there.

Avalon moved to Slough 5th August 1996.

Upstairs was the main office (see left) plus the R & D office.

In picture from left to right, Clive, Malc, Lesley, & Therms

Slough, Bedford Avenue

Downstairs was a production room, production area, (see left) and shared stores (shared Avalon / Wormald).

After the acquisition of Avalon by Wormald the orders temporarily reduced and unfortunately there were redundancies at Tylers Green. However, most of the staff that remained made the daily trip to Slough.

Eventually the orders picked up and more staff were employed.

 

Manchester, Wormald Park

In 1998 Tyco (owners of Wormald) purchased ADT & Thorn. Part of Thorn was required to move into the Slough premises. Therefore it was decided to move Avalon main production, sales & admin to Manchester.

Some of us did not want to develop webbed feet so R & D and module production was left at Slough.

Unfortunately this meant more redundancies at Slough, leaving only 7 of us.

An area was set aside for Avalon's production (see left) within a large Wormald industrial building.

   
Avalon's final resting place!

In 2001 Tyco purchased Spector Lumenex, another audio manufacturer based in Nottingham. One of two things could have happened. Spector could have been absorbed into Avalon or Avalon could have been absorbed into Spector. Unfortunately for Avalon, as Spector had a larger turnover, the latter happened. In 2002 Avalon finally moved out of the Slough and Manchester offices. Some of us did not want to move to Nottingham which meant more redundancies.

A few Avalon systems were built at Nottingham, but as far as I now know, Avalon only exists for service and maintenance, employing just 2 of the Avalon service staff that were based at Slough.

Avalon 1978 - 2002

Update January 2008

As of the end of 2007 none of the existing employees are now with Avalon.

There are a number of companies that exist that contain ex-Avalon staff who can maintain, service and repair all of the Avalon manufactured equipment.

 

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