The picture below was sent me by Sharon Ellis. It shows her Great Uncle, James Charles Emberson, working on the construction of the Selo Factory. James Charles is seated on the bricks, at the far left.

More recently, Ingrid Billings (nee Emberson) has also been in touch. James Charles Emberson was Ingrid's Grandfather. The Emberson family lived in Woodman Road almost next to the Selo Works and Ingrid's father, John Emberson, was born there. Unfortunately, a fire in the 1930s destroyed the terraced house, and also the one next door.

Ingrid tells me her father, John, worked at the Selo factory for many years and was also on the Selo Works Fire Brigade Team. Eventually, when the Selo factory closed (early 1980s), Ingrid's father transferred to the Mobberly site, commuting weekly from Brentwood.

He was a very keen amateur photographer and she has pictures and slides of herself when young, taken by her father. John worked in the Testing Department (Ingrid thinks) and she has pictures of him with others he worked with. He played for the Selo Bowls Team that had a Bowls Green further down Woodman Road. As a child of one of the workers, Ingrid remembers going to the social club Christmas party and also on a summer trip. A name that comes to her mind is "Uncle Taffy". She also recalls how the original social club transferred to a larger site.

Apart from her own family connections with Ilford, Ingrid has discovered that her husband's Grandmother also worked for Ilford Ltd, in Ilford, plus some other relatives as well.

Below is another picture sent to me by Sharon Ellis. She says:

"I've recently been given a photo' taken sometime in the 1960s (I would think) of a group of employees at Selo Brentwood Essex.
It was given to me by a friend, whose father worked there for many years and has recently passed away. Her father was in the company fire brigade and when the friend got married in 1970, she had her wedding reception in the old hall. She also remembers Uncle Taffy, who would organise Christmas parties and dress up as Father Christmas."

"My friends Dad (named Sydney Bourdon) is in the front row, centre."

The above photograph has been recognised (February 2015) by Don Cornish, whose daughter, Trish Vincent, had previously sent me some reminiscences of her father working at Woodman Road.

Trish recalls that during the time her father worked at the Selo factory, Selo (Ilford, Ltd) put a telephone in their home in the early 1960s as her father was constantly dealing with strikes at the factory. He worked with Jack Nash, Roy Stevenson, Vic Bright, Tom Silver and many others. All these colleagues had children around the same age as herself and her two brothers, Derek and Andy (who still live in Brentwood near her parents). Her mother, Betty Cornish (née Marrett) also worked at Selo for a time. Trish remembers watching the Cup Final at the Selo factory social club and going on holiday with the children of Pat & Vic Bright. "We all went to the Selo Christmas party every year."

Don has sent his own reminiscences:
"I was employed by Ilford Ltd at Woodman Road, Brentwood from 1943 until 1984 and was Manager of the Sensitising Group from 1962 to 1978, working mainly at Brentwood but making numerous visits to Ilford subsidiaries at e.g. Lyon, Basle, Friborg and Valca (Bilbao). I recognise many of the people and illustrations on your website.
I knew many and various people from all levels of the organisation.
The group photograph (above) is a retirement photograph for Bill Bassam (a Shift Manager). It shows part of 'D' shift - I can still remember most of their names even though it was 40 years ago. I am in the photograph - top left - without white clothing. I have many such photographs. Even a group picture of the 'Selo Follies', which was a variety show in the 1940's-1950's performed by Selo employees Mon-Fri for other Selo employees and also the local Brentwood residents. We had lots of talent and were used to making our own entertainment in those days.
For information, the Sensitising Area had a 4 x 7 day and 3 x 5 day shift system working 24 hours per day (downtime on coating application machines was very expensive).
My final years with Ilford were involved with closing down the Woodman Road site and relocating and settling in some of the Essex employees to Mobberly.
My last two years were spent between Essex and Mobberley, Cheshire".

Dave Hawes, via Keith Walker, found the above comments by Don Cornish and added his own recollections. "When I joined Ilford Films, Selo Works, as an Assistant Departmental Manager, it was owned by ICI and Ciba Geigy in a 50/50 partnership (between 1963 and 1969). Later (from 1969) Ciba Geigy bought out ICI to own it 100%. I worked with the people mentioned by Don Cornish (above).
Vic Bright was my first boss, Jack Nash was Production Manager, Roy Stevenson was his Assistant. Other managers and assistants on the production side were Clive Tanner, Reg Floyd, Dave Clay, John Cresswell, Stan Ralph, Norman Smith and Eric Dalton. Jack Pratt was Head of Accounts, CJ Smith was Works Manager.
I am quite grateful to Ilford Films for its training programmes, which enabled me to gain Management qualifications which were more useful than a degree in Chemistry.

Another employee at the Selo Factory was Robert (Bob) Patience. Bob had previously been the tail gunner on a bombing raid over Hamburg in 1943, part of Operation Gomorrah to destroy Germany's second largest city. Their 'plane was badly shot up and the entire crew invalided out. Bob was able to supply Selo film to his Royal Navy chum, Ron Rendle. See their story in the 2017 'slot' of my Ilford Chronology.

Bob Patience is better known as the owner manager of The Barn restaurant and night club in Baintree, Essex, in which Ron was his partner. The Barn achieved notoriety in 1972 when it was the scene of an armed robbery and Bob Patience's wife Muriel was murdered. George Ince was arrested but later cleared, though jailed for his part in a bullion robbery. The Barn closed after New Year's Eve, 1977.

From Sally J Lawrence I've learned that her husband, Eddie Lawrence, worked at Woodman Road from 1976 through to the site's closure. As soon as he got his driving license in 1977, he took a job as a driver. During the railway strike he drove one of the mini-buses to bring office workers from Brentwood to Tottenham Court Road. He also picked up mail in London and Basildon and took it to the sorting office in Brentwood. From there he quickly became a chauffeur assigned to the director and drove him between locations in England, Germany and Paris, just about every week.

The director often liked to perform surprise inspections to catch people sleeping at night. He'd turn on the lights, hence ruining all the film that was exposed at the time. Eddie was known to make a discreet phone call when he could to give the heads-up before they arrived.

Like many workers, Eddie didn't want to move north and it became his duty in his last weeks of work, after all the buildings had been emptied and cleared, to go to the smaller buildings like the social club and laboratory and clear out all the cupboards. When he saw the pictures on this website of film boxes with Selo soldiers, he remembered how he'd thrown stacks and stacks of them in the bin. (Such a pity!).

Vivian Bayliss has e-mailed (Feb 2016) to say ".....thought you might like to add these to your article about the Selo Factory. My father, Derek Bayliss (known as Dai; he came from Merthyr Tydfil, S. Wales ~ hence the name), was a keen footballer. He played for the Essex Regiment when he was in the army. When he was demobbed he played for Mountnessing in 1947/48 and was managed by the Selo manager Terry Gabb at the time. Dad then worked at the Selo in 1949 and played for the team. They ended up 9th in the Romford & District 1949/50 season. In the seasons leading up to this the team were mid-table. Then they won the league and cup double in the 1953/54 season.

When Viv's Dad left 'The Selo' he went on to work for NV Tools "down at Brentwood Station" and played for their company team.

These are all fond memories for Viv and he asks whether anybody else remembers these teams?

1949 Selo team

Viv's father, Dai Bayliss, is 2nd from the left, in the front row.
Not all of the team are known, but Viv says that C. Bawden, W. Price, L. Milton, V. Cross, J. Palmer, J. Bear, P. Smith, G. Spence and Davies are mentioned on the back of the photo.

1954 Selo team; Romford league and Cup winners

Back row: G. Wills, B. Price, T. Pringle, R. Willis, M. Stevenson, J. Morris, J. Smith, J. Copeland
Front row: B. Emberson, D. Bayliss, R. Stevenson, B. Hudson, J. Bear.

They not only won the league and cup but also went on to win the 'Film Cup', Brentwood Charity Cup, Battle of Britain Cup and were runners up in the Essex Cup.

Names he recalls from the early 1970s are Bill Smith (mentioned elsewhere on this website), Mike Moore, Maurice Becket, Peter Warhurst and Maureen Cresswell. "In fact, Maurice, Peter and Maureen all lived close to us in Goodmayes, Essex, and our families used to holiday together each year".

"The Sports and Social club in Ilford Lane was sold off and a new club built near the Papermakers Arms near the Ilford site". Alan remembers many a great night there with discos and snooker evenings.

Alan's Dad was made redundant from Ilford around the time of the take over by Ciba (1969) and the move to Brentwood/Basildon (1976). By then Alan was playing for the Ilford Films football team at their ground in Horns Road, Ilford and continued to play for them for several years. Team members he recalls are Arthur Meadows, Barry Higgs, Brian Crisp, Colin Smith, Dave Richards, David Walpole, Doug Cresswell, Ernie Howe, Keith Little, Kenny Buckmaster, Kenny Horn, Kevin Owen, Micky Taylor, Pete Commons, Roy Hearn, Roy Sutton, Steve Commons, Tommy Randell, Tony Warwick.

They played in the Essex Business Houses league and this led to them playing at some great venues. Alan says "The Horns Road site was a brilliant pitch and when Ilford decided to sell it, the (then) Ilford Football Club (in the Isthmian League) wanted to purchase it but (best Alan understands) they could not raise the necessary funds. The grounds became flats and the football team moved to Hainault". Alan drove around Ilford Lane and Horns Road recently. "Of course the Ilford site is now a Sainsbury's and the Horns Road ground is still flats. A great shame for both".

Alan thinks the Ilford Films team was separate to the Selo team (pictured above).

Female Selo Soldiers:
The picture left is taken from the site: http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/redls-3611
The site's accompanying text reads:

During World War II, the British government encouraged the public to buy War Bonds to pay for the cost of the War. These savings certificates were promoted by various civic events including Warship Weeks. At these events, local firms e.g. Ilford Limited, had decorated displays. In this case local female workers shown advertising Selo films. The money raised during Warship Week was in theory to pay for a newly built warship which was adopted by the Local Authority. During WW II Ilford Borough raised enough money for a Royal Navy destroyer, H.M.S URCHIN. This ship fought througout WW II and survived until 1964 when she was scrapped.

Permission to show this image has been applied for.

A gentleman named Cheyenne Morrison (click his name link to see his website), living in Queensland, Australia, has sent me the image alongside with his permission to display it here.

He says:
"I thought you may appreciate the ILFORD poster that I created from a 1953 advertisement. It was the rear page of a booklet published about the Coronation in 1953", see below.

"I thoroughly edited the image to repair the rips and damage, and now have a poster size version".

Terry Brown (in January 2020) says:

"I stumbled across this photo of my late wife (Barbara Cooper, on the right) and two of her colleagues with the Brentwood Carnival Ilford Films float."

"I think the year was 1964."

"On the left is Maureen Southwell. I don't remember the name of the girl in the centre. We all worked in Ilford's Ramsden Laboratory."

The Ramsden Laboratory was also located in Brentwood.