Hidden Enterprise

Countryside Column for 15 November 2013

Hidden Enterprise

I never cease to be amazed by the scope of rural industry – small units tucked away in obscure corners of the countryside.

A year or two back I needed some oak for a new kitchen work surface.  I searched around online and in local papers and came across a firm pleasingly named Plankee in Westfield.  I drove down to collect the wood from a small industrial estate and, after loading it on the car, spotted an old mate sitting outside another workshop on a break.  Turned out he was with a vintage aircraft restoration firm in the next unit. He showed me the wooden fuselage of a 1917 de Havilland DH.9 - a very early (and apparently somewhat unreliable) WW1 British bomber that they were recreating.

Really, who’d have thought you could find a firm deep in the Sussex countryside that stocked parts for 100 year-old Sopwith Camels?

Then in a tiny workshop rather nearer to me, a friend builds the most extraordinary chopper motorbikes.  At first I thought that taking apart a perfectly serviceable Harley and reconstructing it on an extended and lowered fame with long forks and acres of chrome, was tantamount to sacrilege. But when you see the results you realise they are real works of art.  Often he’ll scour junk yards for parts he can reuse: a 2CV headlight here, a tractor seat there, and incorporate then into his creations.

Travelling to visit my dentist the other day, (there are only two NHS practices left in the entire area and mine is about 15 miles away) I came across an outdoor clothing manufacturer.  Well, actually the clothing is mainly manufactured in Bogotá, Colombia, but the company’s headquarters are distributed across various buildings in this East Sussex village.  From small beginnings in the 1980s, the firm is now internationally renowned for its premium products.

A recent survey identified nearly a hundred small businesses operating in our parish alone.  But it also found many believe the biggest factor preventing their expansion is poor broadband speed.  Modern business just cannot function without a fast internet connection.  And, by and large, that means replacing the old copper cables with fibre optic.  It doesn’t have to be the whole way to the consumer, but upgrading needs to spread from the exchange to intermediate boxes.  In rural parts, despite frequent promises from government and county council, there’s little sign of that happening.