Our talk this evening was provided by the PYE trust members Roger and Mike who took us through the years from 1896 when Mr. W.G. PYE started a business making scientific instruments in his garden shed which grew through the years to be one of Cambridge’s largest private sector employer.  At it’s peak in 1966 the company consisted of more than sixty UK companies with more than 20 companies overseas, it had over 30,000 employees worldwide and the headquarters always remained in Cambridge.

Although mostly known for their radios, PYE also made components, valves, early mobile phones, televisions, portable communications units for the military during WW2 and later even outside broadcast equipment for the BBC and ITV.

However, in 1966 the PYE ’empire’ began to have business problems which led to a takeover by Philips who later found there was too much duplicationin the arraignment and gradually various PYE divisions were closed. Over the next thirty years, PYE slowly disappeared from the market.

A small group of ex-PYE employees wanted to keep the name and ethos alive by forming the PYE History Project to create a charitable trust to secure artefacts, documents, and photos for the future and create a permanent exhibition to commemorate Pye’s history and keep the memories of former employees.

You can view the entire story at:  www.pye-story.org                                or  www.pyemuseum.org