J. L. Eve Construction was a civil engineering company from south London.

History

Chain Home towers at Bawdsey in Suffolk in May 1945

The company was formed on 8 February 1930[1] by John Leonard Eve (3 February 1887 - 25 June 1954)[2] from Aveley in Essex. In 1924 he was appointed as the Chief Engineer for the river crossings of the Scottish area of the Central Electricity Board (CEB, which existed from 1926 to 1947). He worked with Robert Chandler-Brown. The CEGB came into existence in 1957. J.L. Eve left a son and a daughter.

Chain Home and National Grid

In the 1930s the company built steel-lattice towers for the new National Grid and for the Chain Home transmitters. The electrical cable was often supplied by Pirelli UK of Eastleigh in Hampshire (now Prysmian Group).

The Air Ministry had contacted the company to build two test radar transmitters, one on the south coast, and one on Orkney. After 1939, the company extended it to over fifty radar sites. It built the first part of the supergrid in 1952 from Tilbury to Elstree - with a 275kV voltage instead of 132kV and 136 ft instead of 85 ft, with 45 miles for the British Electricity Authority[3]

400kV transmission line near Offley in Hertfordshire, which traverses from Chalton, Bedfordshire (Sundon Substation, next to the M1) to St Ippolyts (Wymondley Transforming Station, next to the A602)

Ownership

From 1982 to 1988 it was known as Eve Construction. It would later be known as Eve Group plc from April 1988, then Eve Group Ltd and Babcock Networks Ltd from 2004. It was bought by the Peterhouse Group plc in January 2000.

Babcock Networks, its successor, is situated off the M1 at Sherwood Park at Annesley, next to E.ON UK; its training base is at the former RAF Newton in Nottinghamshire.

Sponsorship

From 1982 to 2000, it sponsored the Surrey Championship (cricket), being replaced by Castle Lager.

Structure

It was based at Minster House on Plough Lane in Tooting. It was based south of Summerstown on the B235, north of Haydons Road railway station (on the A218).

Divisions

Eve Trakway

Later divisions of Eve Group were:

Eve Transcom, comprised

  • Eve Transmission - carried out construction and repair of transmission lines for the National Grid
  • Eve Cellular - in late 1999, it had built over 7,000 mobile phone base stations throughout the 1990s
  • Eve Engineering Design Services
  • Eve Structures

Products

Emley Moor wreckage in March 1969

It built structural steel fabricated buildings or structures.

Transmitters

Powerlines

See also

References

  1. Companies House
  2. John Leonard Eve
  3. Times Tuesday 30 December 1952, page 2
  4. Aberdeen Press and Journal Thursday 12 January 1967, page 3
  5. MB21 Emley Moor
  6. The Stage Thursday 3 December 1970, page 12
  7. The Stage Thursday 29 June 1961, page 10
  8. The Stage Thursday 9 November 1961, page 12
  9. Liverpool Echo Monday 14 March 1955, page 5
  10. Highways and Bridges and Engineering Works, Volume 23, 1955
  11. The Electrical Journal Vol 164, 1960
  12. The Engineer, Vol 195, 1953

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