During World War Two both Celestion and British Rola were restricted to the manufacture of one type of loudspeaker, the utility "W" type, these being produced at Celestion’s Kingston factory, whilst Rola made theirs at Ferry Works, Summer Road, Thames Ditton and their other dispersal works at Pans Lane, Devizes, Wilts. The Ferry Works site had previously been occupied by Astor Engines, a manufacturer of steam engines who had used their own generators to power the plant. It is believed that this site was the first in the country to be illuminated entirely by electricity!

    With the coming of peace the British Rola dispersal factory in Bideford closed down on 31st January 1946, personnel being transferred to Thames Ditton for the assembly of loudspeakers. Because of the lack of post-war building material necessary for extensions the Thames Ditton factory progress was slow, and the Devizes factory stayed open to ease the problem. Joint Works Managers at this time were Mr. Jack Jones and Mr. Loach. The Technical Director was Mr.Poole. The British Rola motif was a picture of a bird on a branch with the words ‘The speaker you know by ear’. The factory was virtually self-sufficient, producing cones, suspensions, voice coils and transformers ‘in-house’.

    The extremely hard winter and fuel crisis of 1947 caused havoc to production, and two interesting extracts from the Surrey Comet newspaper for 15th February illustrate this problem:-

    ‘In an effort to get production started again, Celestion, Kingston, have bought petrol driven generators, but yesterday they were still trying to obtain permission from the Ministry to use them and to get the petrol to run them. If they are successful they will be able to bring some of their 240 workers, most of whom are women, back on the job, but at the moment production is at a complete standstill’.

    ‘Over 300 employees at British Rola’s Ferry works, Thames Ditton, will continue for a further week to receive guaranteed wages as a minimum. Previous decision to close the factory if power were not obtainable on Monday has been cancelled because, according to the Works Manager (Mr.J.Jones) the staff have responded magnificently to an "all hands on deck" appeal by the directors. They have been clearing up following building work on the factory, and making wireless transformers with the help of a concrete mixer driving an air compressor. Ninety per cent of the firm’s loudspeaker output is for export’.

    British Rola acquired Celestion Ltd. on 13th April 1947 together with a subsidiary firm, Pressmach Limited, which originated at Woolacombe, Devon, and another small pressing firm, Belark Limited, also came under British Rola control. The Investors Chronicle for 1946 reported that British Rola would be responsible for the production of considerably more than half of the loudspeaker trade in the United Kingdom, and the two companies together covered practically the entire export loudspeaker business.

    During July 1948 Celestion ceased production at Kingston-upon-Thames, and production machinery and personnel moved to Thames Ditton as a consolidation of the two companies. The company title became Rola Celestion Limited, and Celestion was adopted and registered as the trade mark for the company’s product.

    As the post war market evolved and product demand was established, it became evident that the new wonder - television - would account for a large number of loudspeakers, although of course the radio speaker market was still strong. As the television population grew, so did the need for speakers for them and the Thames Ditton production lines were fully engaged meeting the manufacturers’ deadlines.

    Another change in fortune came about during 1949 when Rola Celestion Limited was acquired by Truvox Limited, a company based in Wembley and well known for its Public Address loudspeakers and systems. These covered the whole spectrum of this market and included such units as horns and loudspeakers for cinemas and many acoustic devices for the Forces which Truvox had developed and produced during World War Two. The new Company was now owned and chaired by Mr.D.D.Prenn and the Head Office situated at Mount Street, London, with the joint Managing Directors, Billy Page and Jimmy Tyrrell, and Technical Director Arthur Young resident at Thames Ditton. This brought the Public Address loudspeaker systems into the Celestion range, where they were further developed by demands from the new petrochemical and allied industries.
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