Permanite: Smart Moves in Construction
Susan Payne
Mead Lane
At the start of the 20th century, Josiah Smart of Stevenage was an established asphalt and tar paving contractor for road construction. A small part of the Smart and Son firm’s holdings was a gravel pit in Mead Lane, to the east of Hertford.
Early days
As a canny businessman, Josiah Smart senior’s eye was taken by a new London-based company, called Permanite. They made roofing felt and damp-coursing material designed to protect buildings from water damage. Smart senior became its chairman in about 1912.
Josiah Smart junior succeeded his father during the first world war and established Permanite’s Hertford works on the old gravel pit. The site consisted of 3 sheds and an office building, with electricity being installed as late as 1929. For decades the Hertford site remained a small part of the company. This was time when the works used oakum collected by prisoners on hard labour and when deliveries came either by the nearby GER railway (solid bitumen) or by road (anthracite).
The next generation of Smarts’ took over chairmanship in 1940 (J. F. Smart). World War 2 and the blitz was the signal for Permanite to increase production at the Hertford site, for fear of interruption to manufacture in London.
Hertford Works
Through the 1950s the company came to depend on the Hertford works, which took over production as the London site became too small.
By this time roofing felts in many varieties were in production at Mead Lane. The felts were made from thick absorbent paper coated with bitumen, which was distilled from crude petroleum. Before cooling, finely ground sand or coloured mineral particles were applied. The site developed specialised coloured roofing felt, as well as products incorporating asbestos and glass fibres.
Sales took off in a construction boom across the UK. Exports increased too, covering 50 countries including South Africa, India, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
Production Hazards
The pressure for increased production sometimes led to accidents. In 1958 for example, the firm was fined £20 for using dangerous machinery. A young employee was injured while cleaning a working roller, part of a 50-yard machine used to treat the felt.
The machinery would not have been the only hazard. Bitumen is combustible and its application when heated produces fumes that can cause skin and breathing problems1. Safety must have been a constant concern. The dangers of asbestos were not fully understood until some years after, when in its use began to be prohibited in 1985.
In 1977, the company announce the development of a new roofing material created at the Hertford works, called Permabit. This could be used in damp-proof coursing in brick, stone, or concrete wall construction. A particular strength was that it could be used in extreme climates and lead to new customers as far afield as Finland and Oman, in the Persian Gulf. For the Hertford works, this meant new buildings adjoining the Mead Lane site. Surplus land from the town’s sewage works was brought from the council, which was seeking to raise the greater part of the construction costs for the Castle Hall (now Hertford Theatre).
Brought out
In the early 1980s, Permanite in Hertford needed reorganisation and modernisation to remain competitive. Plans were approved for new buildings, along with the suggestion of redeveloping surplus land for workshops associated with adjoining gas board land.
By the end of the decade, the company had been taken over by Marley (UK) Ltd, a subsidiary of Tarmac. The Permanite products lived on when in 1993 Tarmac launched its own waterproofing product, Ruberoid. The site of the Hertford works now houses small industrial units, stretching from Mead Lane to the Lea River, opposite Hertford Lock.
1 Bituminous waterproofing. Wikipedia, accessed 28/01/2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bituminous_waterproofing#Roofing_felt
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