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 I am on a virtual tour of Britain seeking to discover its manufacturing history and I am adding posts twice a week. You can find more on my BritishManufacturingHistory website.  https://britishmanufacturinghistory.uk/

Warwick and Leamington manufacturing history

 Nicholas Paris first made his mark in Warwick in 1670 as a blacksmith and clockmaker. In clockmaking he had been preceded by John Wyse who had learnt his craft as an apprentice in London, but it is the Paris family which would be better known. As well as clocks they made guns with wonderful ornamental designs.

Interestingly in his book on Warwick, Charles Lines notes the Napoleonic wars as kick starting manufacturing in the town, but with the weaving of worsted cloth rather than anything to do with metal. William Parkes factory employed 500 people and a 24 hp steam engine.

Of more enduring impact was William Glover a wheelwright whose Eagle Works went on to manufacture what we used to know as dustbin lorries. Eagle merged with Dennis and still manufacture in Leamington.

Another thriving Leamington business is Rangemaster which manufactures cookers. The iron for its AGA cookers was cast in Coalbrookdale. As with so many British companies, factory sites keep the old alongside the new. (the image taken from the canal)

Thwaites dumper trucks have been made in Leamington since 1937. I recall that a former client Newage Transmissions of Coventry supplied Thwaites.

The University of Warwick was well known for its mechanical engineering focused on the West Midlands motor industry. This focus expanded in 1980 by the formation of the Warwick Manufacturing Group with a mission on developing new technologies, products and skills in collaboration with manufacturing industry.

Further reading

Charles Lines, The Book ofWarwick (Buckingham: Barracuda Books, 1985)

Wellingborough manufacturing history

 Like so many towns in agricultural areas, cottage industries emerged because of the necessity to supplement the income of agricultural labourers. In the Wellingborough area, again like so many, it was the spinning and weaving of wool and the tanning of hides and making of simple footwear. To add to this in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the hand making of lace to sell to the better off.

In terms of industry, the area was rich in iron ore and blast furnaces were erected to supply local foundries and those further afield. At one time parts of the town was constantly covered in ash from the furnaces.

Wellingborough smelters supplied the Stanton Iron works in Derbyshire which company took the opportunity of hard times to buy the Wellingborough iron company, which eventually became part of United and then British Steel. One of the the larger local foundries was bought by the Morris Motor Company for casting engine blocks.

In the part of England which the Romans set apart for grain production, a local family company is making waves in the twenty-first century. Whitworth Brothers had mills in Bedford which were destroyed by fire in 1884. Frank Whitworth used the proceeds of insurance to build a new flour mill by the river Nene in Wellingborough. Completed in 1886, the company used the latest technology for roller mills, but also had more than an eye for fire protection. (The image offers the contrast of old mill and more recent additions.)

Some thirty years earlier Nathaniel Sharman had built a shoe factory and warehouse in the town. I tell of the Northamptonshire footwear industry in my blog piece on Northampton. In Wellingborough a number of businesses started, thrived and then closed. An exception is George Cox, a former brewer, whose company still produces its famous 'brothel creepers' in the town. Barkers Shoes are still made at nearby Earls Barton.

Whitworth remained a successful business supplying local bakers until the thirties when a new generation of the Whitworth family expanded by buying a mill of similar size, Cadge and Colman, in Peterborough. The company then added its own bakery to utilise the new mill to the full.

A new generation took over the company in 1997 and began a major programme of investment. Two further mills were built in Wellinghborough and two more in Peterborough. New technology was employed to the full. The new century offered opportunities for expansion by acquisition and the company now also has mills in Selby and Trafford Park in Manchester. From 1% of he market, it has grown to one third. The company produces bakers, bespoke and heat treated flour.

There was another side to Whitworths as producers of dried fruit and nuts. This is now a separate company and operates downstream from Wellingborough at Irthlingborough. The business has recently changed hands at the time of writing and is carrying out an extensive factory building project.

Further reading

Joyce and Maurice Palmer, A History of Wellingborough (Earls Barton: Steepleprint, 1972)