Bird's eye view of Newport's biggest factory

Get out your magnifying glasses, and prepare to start holding your paper sideways and upside down as you try to get your bearings with these aerial pictures showing what was once Newport's biggest employer.

In its final form it was called Serck Audco, but a story going back over 100 years ended 20 years ago, in July 1999, when it closed with the loss of the 148 remaining jobs.

Once central to Newport's industrial life, it now lives on only in memories and local history books.

Where it once stood, people may now do their shopping – part of the site is covered by Newport's Waitrose – or they may even live there in one of the new houses which have been built in the years since.

Both these pictures are from the collection of the late Malcolm Miles, the renowned Newport local historian, and are courtesy of his widow Sue.

They are in an album in which Malcolm wrote a covering note at the start reading: "These photographs were given by Jany Graaf Hessing whose father, P.J. Hessing, was a manager at Audley Engineering around 1955 to 1956. The company was at its peak and was expanding on to the new site at the end of Audley Avenue and soon would merge with Serck to become Serck Audco..."

Having trouble working out what's what? Then let us help you. One of the pictures looks as if it was taken in the 1950s and top right is Newport Junior School, and the tree-lined Audley Avenue runs diagonally through the picture from the top left.

Newport Royal British Legion club is just visible upper left.

The second picture is considerably older, perhaps 1940s, or maybe even 1930s. Of course, if you see anything on it that narrows down the date, feel free to drop us a line.

In this older picture, the road snaking around the industrial site is Audley Road.

For years Serck Audco was both Newport’s biggest employer and the biggest manufacturer of valves in Britain – and we're talking pipeline valves and suchlike, not electrical valves.

From twin sites at Audley Road and Audley Avenue, the 900 workers produced 400,000 valves a year for the home and export market.

We can take a dip into a chapter in one of Malcolm's books to trace the history, called "Newport People – The Story of a Shropshire Market Town."

Malcolm wrote that he original factory was built in 1869 by Mr William Underhill to make and repair the small amount of agricultural machinery then used, but a variety of other products were made, including some of the first all-metal bicycles.

It became the Audley Engineering Company in 1905, making iron cocks and metal valves on a small scale.

During the war the firm made valves for the war effort, including Pluto, the Pipeline Under The Ocean, and Fido, a fog dispersal system on airfields.

The post-war period brought boom years, and the company expanded in the 1950s.

The firm became Audco – from the words Audley and Company – in 1961, and then in 1968 became Serck Audco to reflect its links with the Birmingham-based Serck Radiator Group, although the amalgamation had actually taken place in 1955.