Manufacturing in central southern England

 The central strip of southern England running south from Milton Keynes to the Isle of Wight has a surprisingly ancient manufacturing history as well as being home to much contemporary hi-tech innovation.

Milton Keynes

A new town designated in 1967 hosts the Red Bull motor sport team. You can read more about the Milton Keynes story by following this link.

Towcester

Plessey opened their R&D facility at Caswell House. Silverstone circuit with Aston Martin F1 and a host of small supporting hi-tech business are nearby. Silverstone is very much the heart of 'Motorsport Valley', stretching from south of Birmingham through Oxfordshire and which contains most of the British motorsport industry.

Banbury

Home to Haas F1 motor sport team. Follow this link to read more of what came before.

Bedford

At nearby Old Warden is Shuttleworth Hall which exhibits old aircraft and other production of the Lincoln firm of Clayton & Shuttleworth

Brackley

Historically a staple and then coaching down. Now home to Mercedes motor sport and supporting engineering business. Also food companies including Avara Foods formed in 2018 from a merger between Cargill Uk and Faccenda.

Kidlington

YASA, a subsidiary of Mercedes is developing electric motors for EVs.

Oxford

Just outside Oxford, at Cowley, William Morris set up Morris motors. It became a major car making centre, adding specialist Pressed Steel and a whole supply chain. The site is now occupied by BMW Mini. The University is a major collaborator with British industry. Read more in this link.

Harwell

Harwell is home to the Space Cluster a centre of research built on seventy-five years of research beginning with the Atomic Energy Research Establishment.

Didcot

Once home to a vast Ordnance Depot, It is also the caretaker of the Great Western Railway heritage.

Abingdon

The town was home to MG cars before manufacturing and ownership left for China. It is now home to Oxford Instruments who manufacture hi-tec research equipment.

Wantage

Birthplace of Alfred the Great. Now Williams motor sport F1 team is based at nearby Grove.

Leighton Buzzard

In the twenties the American foundation garment manufacturer, Gossard, set up in the town. It would later achieve independence as a British public company only to fall into the hands of Courtaulds some years later. In the late twentieth century Hone All Precision set up here to provide high specification parts for aerospace and related industries.

Aylesbury

Ecko relocated part of is manufacturing during the Second World War. Glaxo set up manufacturing here after the war.

Swindon

Famously a railway town. I tell much more in this link.

Reading

Home to Huntley and Palmers biscuit factory. I tell its story in this link.

Guildford

Home to Dennis Commercial vehicles famous for their patented worm-driven rear axle, introduced in 1904. . The successor company which manufactures electric buses has a new factory in Farnborough. Like Godalming and Kingston, it was a centre of tanning.

Godalming

In 1881, Siemens Brothers installed a small generating station at Godalming in Surrey powered by water from the river Wey.

Woking

In the nineteenth century a number of paper mills and print works were founded; one became part of the Staples Group. Ken Wood began his kitchen appliance business here before moving to Havant. The Maclaren Technology Centre is based here.

Weybridge

Home to Brooklands Race Track aircraft manufacture and testing. Read more in this link.

Kingston upon Thames

A Surrey town close to London. Historically home to tanners. In the twentieth century it was aircraft and support for the war effort that re-created the economy. Home to Hawker-Siddeley. Read more in this link.

Farnborough

Home to the British aircraft industry with the Royal Aircraft Factory and subsequently the Royal Aircraft Establishment. Vickers had their Balloon factory there for early airships. I write more in this link.

Farnham

In nearby Waverley Abbey Cistercian monks made their first settlement in the twelfth century. Their impact would be huge for they were skilled at agriculture particularly the breeding of sheep. Sheep had been brought from the Middle East at around 3,000 BC and were present in many parts of the country. As the Cistercians spread they cleared the land sometimes of whole villages to expand their flocks. They became the most significant woolgrowers in the land. In the fourteenth century there were estimated to be eight million sheep in England compared to five million people.

Bracknell

One of the new towns designated after the Second World War. ICI set up its agricultural research laboratory here, now owned by Syngenta. ICL had a presence in the town with a large office block, now the Fujitsu HQ. Now a technological hub and the home to Rowney Artist materials. Read more by following the link.

Basingstoke

Original home to Burberry raincoats. Thornycroft commercial vehicles were made here. Read more by following the link.

Winchester

The ancient capital of King Arthur and Alfred the Great was buried in the cathedral. Winchester, like many English towns, was a centre of the wool industry which drove the English economy in the Middle Ages. It was a staple town as indicated by the presence of wool weights dating from the 1350s. Nothing lasts and as elsewhere wool work moved from the city to the surrounding rural areas. In the fifteenth century there was a move away from narrow worsted cloth to much heavier woollen fulled broadcloth. This much larger cloth required more space and more people. It also attracted a higher price and was in demand in export markets as well as at home. This was good for the English economy but less so for the towns and cities which lost workers.

Salisbury

The city was a centre of the wool trade and at nearby Wilton carpets are still made.

Gosport

For centuries, home to support for the Royal Navy. The town’s shipbuilding skills were importantly directed also to the building of yachts. Related maritime electronics brought necessary skills to Ferguson television.

Havant

Kenwood kitchen appliances were made here, later bought by Thorn. They moved from Woking in 1962.

Fareham

A town supplying the shipyards of Portsmouth. Read more in this link.

Romsey

Plessey's Roke Manor Research opened in 1956 with a focus on military communications.

Southampton

A major port not least for the age of the great transatlantic liners. Read more by following the link.

Eastleigh

Railway workshops were built here at the end of the nineteenth century and found increased activity in the interwar years with the southern region electrification.

Portsmouth

The Royal dockyards were by the mid eighteenth century the 'greatest industrial power in the world'. Read more by following this link.

Chichester

Rolls-Royce Motors have a large manufacturing complex on the Goodwood Estate. Chichester itself was home to Shippams producer of meat and fish pastes.

Bournemouth and Christchurch

Plessey took over the site of the MOD Signals Research and Development Establishment.

Isle of Wight

Plessey Radar was manufactured here. Britten-Norman began manufacture of light aircraft in the sixties then moved overseas and have recently re-shored production. Saunders Roe manufactured seaplanes and hovercraft. Vestas manufacture wind turbine blades. Read more by following this link.

South East England manufacturing history

 The south east, mirroring Metroland, welcomed businesses moving out of London and the many new businesses setting up with good access to airports and seaports, plus importantly inward investment largely from the USA. Historically Kent and Sussex had contained the Weald which was the birth place of Britain's iron industry. In common with much of the country these counties were also home to millions of sheep and so wool played a big part in their economy. The image is of the Brighton pavilion domes depicted in one of the windows on Brighton pier.

Reigate and Redhill

Home to Windmills, Redland Tiles and Monotype. I write more in this link.

Crawley

One of the new towns designated after the Second World War. These towns were intended to have a good number of SME manufacturing businesses and looking at Dun & Bradstreet, Crawley would seem to be an exemplar. I write more on Crawley in this link. In nearby Brockham, in 1945 the Beecham Research Laboratories were established and in 1947 moved to a bespoke site open by Sir Alexander Fleming.

Chiddingford and Wealden Glass making

It is possible that Romans made glass in Britain but the evidence points more to its being imported. The first evidence of British glass making is to be found in 1226 in the village of Chiddingford where Laurence Vitearius was granted 20 acres of land in which he made window glass probably for Salisbury Cathedral. I write more about the British glass story in this link.

Heathfield and Wealden Iron and Gun casting

Home to the iron foundry of the Fuller family where they cast cannon for the Board of Ordnance. I write more of the Wealden Iron and Gun casting industry in this link.

Buxted

The first blast furnace to be installed in England in 1491. Much later the mass production of poultry.

Horsham

At one time home to five breweries.

East Grinstead

At nearby Gravetye, iron masters cast cannon. Rolls-Royce manufactures mtu engines for military vehicles.

Brighton

A classic nineteenth century seaside resort much loved by Londoners with easy access by railway. The town did try to attract manufactures. Allen West electrical engineers was probably the largest with 4,000 employees during the Second World War, working on radar and other electronics. It became part of the American GE. Brighton is now home to a good number of designer makers.

KENT

Crayford

Crayford was first home to Maxim Nordenfeldt and machine gun production in the First World War. I write more in this link.

Erith

Home to British Insulated Callender's Cables which created much of the national grid. You can read more in this link.

Dartford

In 1889 the Wellcome Chemical Works set up their first factory in Dartford in 1889 and that remained their main UK manufacturing base. Home to the Portland cement industry. I write more in this link.

Gravesend and Northfleet

Home to a Bowater paper mill, now part of Kimberly Clark, and more generally on the Thames the Blue Circle cement works.

The Medway Towns: Gillingham, Rochester and Chatham

Chatham was home to the Royal Dockyards with everything needed to build and maintain naval ships. HMS Victory had been built there. Shorts built Stirling bombers in Rochester in the Second World War. You can read much more by following this link.

Sittingbourne

Edward Lloyd set up a paper mill here once the water of the Lea became too polluted for the original mill at Bow. DS Smith Kemsley Paper Mill formerly Bowater manufactures from recycled paper.

Canterbury

Nearby Chartham was home to paper making owned by Wiggins Teape.

Maidstone

Birthplace of the Rootes Motor Group. Nearby Harrietsham was home to Marley tiles. I write more in this link.

Horsmonden

Brass cannon were cast here largely for the navy because they were lighter than iron. Later iron took over on the grounds of cost.

Cranbrook

Famous for its heavy woollen cloth

Ashford

Railway workshops were built here in 1847. With the introduction of diesel electric in the 1950s the future of the worksop became uncertain and other industries were encouraged to move to the town.

Margate

Home to the Hornby factory from the fifties making model railways, Dinky toys and Meccano.

Dover

The major cross-channel port.

Metroland manufacturing history

 John Betjemin used the term to describe those areas made accessible to London by the building of the extensions to the London Underground. For me it also describes those areas just outside and to the north of the Thames in what were in my childhood referred to as the Home Counties. The image is of a model of a tube station at Bekonscot in Beaconsfield. From the point of view of manufacturing history, it was where many business moved out of London. It was home to New Towns.

Luton

Where Vauxhall moved from south London; in the Second World War, they manufactured Churchill tanks here. Commer trucks were made here and later became part of the Rootes Group. Also Lucas Aerospace had a presence along with a former English Electric factory beside Luton Airport. The town's origin was in hat making. You can read more in this blog piece.

Dunstable

Home of Bedford, the commercial vehicle arm of Vauxhall with a main base at nearby Luton.

Hertford and Ware

Glaxo bought Allen & Hanbury which had its main manufacturing facility at nearby Ware having moved from Bethnal Green . Follow this link to find out more.

Letchworth

The first Garden City before the First World War. You can read more by following this link

Baldock

A town founded by the Knights Templar with the intention of making it the English Baghdad. Nonetheless it was a busy market town known for its malting and brewing.

Royston

The world’s first catalysts to control vehicle pollution were produced at Johnson Matthey’s Royston plant

Hitchin

A town, the product of its soil. Read more by following this link.

Stevenage

One of the new towns designated after the Second World War. Now home to GSK, Airbus and MBDA the missile joint venture between BAE Systems, Airbus and Leonardo. Stevenage has been given the nickname Space City recognising its role in satellite manufacture. You can read more by following this link.

Radlett

EMI set up a factory to manufacture its CAT scanner. Handley Page aircraft moved to nearby Radlett Aerodrome from Cricklewood and manufactured many great aircraft before falling into voluntary liquidation in 1969.

Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield

One of the first designated new towns which became home to Shredded Wheat, Murphy television and a Unilever research laboratory for food stuffs. Nearby Hatfield was home to de Havilland aircraft which later became part of Hawker Siddeley and then BAE Systems; production ceased in 1992. Read more by following this link.

Harlow

One of the new towns designated after the Second World War, former home to the Edison Swan Laboratory as a legacy of their joint venture in incandescent bulbs. In the sixties Gilbey's Gin built a striking new factory moving its production from London. Follow this link to find out more.

Hemel Hempstead

This was one of the new towns designated after the Second World War building on the substantial and long standing John Dickinson paper mill at nearby Aspley Mill You can find more by following this link.

Watford

The home of printing. You can read more by following this link.

St Albans

Before the Roman invasion, Verulamium (St Albans) was capital of Catuvellauni under king Cunobelinus (brought to life for us by Shakespeare in his play Cymbeline). It was occupied by the Romans and destroyed by Bodeca.

Waltham Abbey

The Royal Gunpowder Factory was here.

Borehamwood

During the Second World War the Admiralty enabled Elliott Brothers to take a redundant fuse factory in order to increase their production of fire control systems. Elliott Automation, as it became following a merger, was in 1957 the largest automation and instrumentation company in Europe, with some 35,000 employees. They are one of the few companies still active in the fifties who exhibited at the Great Exhibition; then they offered drawing instruments, theodolites, transit instruments, slide-rule, azimuth and altitude instruments. During the war, Elliott had worked with the navy on fire control and had developed electro-mechanical devices. In 1947, Elliott created their Borehamwood Research Laboratory and there pursued an advanced digital system building on their earlier naval work. They became part of GEC Avionics. Ugo Foods, manufacturers of pasta, moved from Holloway in 1998 where the company moved in 1952 having set up in Soho in 1929.

Slough

Home to light industry and much inward investment. Read more by following this link.

High Wycombe

Home of furniture making including Gomme with their famous G Plan, and William Hands. You can read more by following this link.

Princess Risborough

Ercol furniture moved their offices, design and factory here from High Wycombe in 2002.

Denham

Home to Martin-Baker ejector seats for aircraft and Bosch UK.

Beaconsfield

Rotax (part of Lucas) moved magneto production here after its Willesden factory was bombed in the Second World War. Wiggins Teape research centre was founded at Butlers Court. Perkin Elmer made instruments in the town.

Amersham

Home to the nuclear diagnostic company that bore the towns name and which became part of GE Healthcare whose UK HQ is at nearby Chalfont St Giles.

Hayes

Fairey Aviation was founded here in 1915. The Gramophone company set up in 1906 and would become part of EMI. You can read more by following this link.

Uxbridge

The town that made the flour for London's bakers. You can read more by following this link.