Edna Barnett started work for Vent-Axia when she was 18 and worked there until she retired in 1985 when she was 60. Twenty-eight years after retiring, now 91, Edna returned to Vent-Axia to see how the company had changed.Edna Barnett was born in 1925 in Brighton although she grew up in Fulham in London. In 1943 during the war at the age of 18 she went to the labour exchange who sent her to work at fan manufacturer Vent-Axia in Collinette Road, Putney, London.
Early Days
In 1936 Joe Akester had invented the world's first electrically-operated window fan, Vent-Axia was born and became the marketing leading fan manufacturer in the UK. Although, the Vent-Axia that Edna joined was very different in 1943 to today. At the time the manufacturing took place in a garage and Edna worked across the road in Upper Richmond Road, in the accounts epartment in an office which was actually a flat. Since Edna did the accounts she would pay in the cheques she received. Edna remembers receiving a very memorable cheque. “I told the accountant Bill Marsh that I had a cheque from Winnie. He asked, “Who?” and I said “Winston Churchill”. "Bill told me not to pay that cheque in and to give it to the company secretary." The cheque was never paid in.” A replica of the cheque can be seen in Vent-Axias’ reception.
As the company was quite small at the time Edna’s job included a ‘bit of everything’ including the letters, wages and company accounts. But Edna’s first job of the morning was to clean the grate and light the fire! Edna also has fond memories of Joe Akester coming into the office in the morning and sitting in front of the fire. “One day he said to me that he could smell burning and I told him it was the soles of his feet.”
Edna said working at Vent-Axia then was like working for a family and she was happy there. “My first pay was £2.50 a week which was good pay.”
As the company grew Vent-Axia moved to Putney Bridge Road in the early 50s. Edna’s family was also growing with Edna having her first child, William. In 1957 she lived in two cramped rooms with her husband and son, they had a cooker on the landing, a toilet two floors down and no bathroom. But with wartime bombing causing a house shortage she thought they would never live in a house.
Crawley
However, in 1958 she was told by Vent-Axia that she would have a chance of a house as Vent-Axia was moving to the new town Crawley, West Sussex. Edna went to look at the first houses being built in the crescent in Gossips Green in October, she was then the first member of staff to move down in February 1959 so that she could train the staff who moved to Crawley later.
“Crawley was just wonderful, open space, the house and the garden, especially with a two-year-old. My son couldn’t believe it. He was running round everywhere after living in two rooms he now had a garden and space. It was brilliant,” said Edna. When Vent-Axia moved down to Crawley it was originally situated on the opposite corner of Fleming Way and Newtown Road than it stands today. The Manor Royal industrial estate was in its infancy and Vent-Axia had fields opposite. Edna’s family then grew again with the birth of her second son James in 1963. Edna’s work was so valued that she worked at home with Vent-Axia sending a typewriter home with her so that she could continue to work in her home office.
Vent-Axia also continued to grow with the company moving to the opposite corner of Fleming Way and Newton Road where it is situated today. To mark the move the company planted a tree outside the building on the corner. When the company had moved from Colinette Road to Putney Bridge Road Edna had saved a piece of the rationed coal as a lucky keepsake for the company. Edna kept the coal in her drawer and it moved with Vent-Axia to Crawley. When the company made its final move Edna gave the coal to the managing director at the time Eddie Taylor who planted it with the tree. Edna retired in 1985 aged 60, she still lives in the same house in Crawley.
Vent-Axia Today
“I can’t believe it, how much Vent-Axia has grown. We would have never thought it would be like this. It’s amazing. I only wish Joe Akester was here to see it,” said Edna Edna was shocked by the changes to the accounts department: “It just seems impossible. The offices were so new and modern with computers everywhere. When I worked in accounts I didn’t even have a calculator, I did it all in my head.”
“Vent-Axia was such a lovely firm to work for. You were somebody, you were not a number. If you had a problem, even a personal one you could take it to them and they would help.”
Edna loved working at Vent-Axia, so much so that on her recent visit to Vent-Axia she asked the Finance Director for a job!