H.J. Smith & Co., established in 1910 as the Electric Wire & Cable Co. at the Trafalgar Works in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, moved into new premises on the other side of Stowfield Road near the River Wye and adjacent to the then Steam Railway Junction in 1912, to be known as the Lydbrook Cable Works. During the First World War, the Cable Works employed around 650 people, producing cable for the field telephones. Some 15,000 miles of it was made. The factory was then acquired by the Edison Swan Electric Co. in the mid 1920s, then employing around double the amount of staff (1200 people), producing Power Line Cables. It closed down in 1965 with the loss of some 840 jobs.

With the site known from 1991 as SCA Packaging Ltd., the factory was then taken over the following year by Reed Corrugated Cases Ltd. - a manufacturer of boxes and other packaging materials, employing approximately 450 people in 1985 and 270 in 1993.