Herbert George Mullard and the Cowley Concrete company, 1895 to 1976

The talk by RHC Club member, Martin Buckland, told the story of Cowley Concrete, a company based in Abingdon off the Radley Road. It was founded in the early 1920s in Cowley by ‘Bert’ Mullard and operated in Abingdon until the late 1970s after which the site was redeveloped as a housing estate called Radley Green.  Relocating to Abingdon allowed Cowley Concrete to take advantage of the area’s geology which is rich in gravel, a material heavily used in concrete production.

Cowley Concrete as a company produced many products from those that imitated stone, to those used in the construction of transport infrastructure, and to houses and even some art along the way. Cowley Concrete produced beams used in the Chiswick flyover and over the widened lines of the Underground near Kings Cross Station in London. The enormous concrete beams left the factory on long loaders which often proved a challenge for the drivers on the way to their destination with some of the small and bendy roads in the area at the time.

In terms of buildings around to Oxford, they built the earlier version of the Seacourt Tower in Botley, Research laboratories on South Parks Road in Oxford, the Cowley Centre and numerous social houses. Later in life, Bert Mullard became a member of Abingdon Town Council in 1945, later becoming Mayor of Abingdon 1951-53. In 1960 he was granted the status of Honorary Freeman of the borough of Abingdon. He turned later in life to Philanthropy and was a significant benefactor of Christ’s Hospital in Abingdon, a local charity dating from 1553.

Message from Martin: Martin Buckland thanks all those who spoke to him after the talk and added much useful information, particularly about themselves or their relatives who worked at Cowley Concrete. He would be most grateful if they could send their recollections to him at: martin.buckland@outlook.com. It all adds to the history of Abingdon people and employers maintained by the Abingdon Area Archaeology and History Society (AAAHS), and would be of great interest to the Knight family who provided much of the material for the talk.