In the fifteenth century Gloucester was another centre for the wool and cloth industry. Work with iron was if anything more important with smelting from the Forest of Dean and foundries in the city. There is evidence then of further metal trades: cutlers, bladesmiths, coopers, farriers and pinners. In the thirteenth century, more towns had come to be known for their product: Lincoln for cloth (dyed green or scarlet), Grimsby for fish, Corfe for marble and Gloucester for iron.
In the sixteenth century the wool trade declined, but the city was appointed a port which went some way to increase trade, although Bristol continued to dominate. Cheltenham made its name as a Spa Town. The eighteenth century also saw Gloucester run more by the gentry, but the coming of the canals and railways, as elsewhere, brought manufacturing industry to the city.
This was in the shape of one remarkable company, the Gloucester Carriage and Wagon Company formed in 1860. Its traditional business had been fine carriages for the gentry, but the need to transport coal brought in the coal wagon for use on railways of which the company manufactured a great many. The design of wagons was developed and a greater use was made of iron and steel. Passenger carriages were produced mainly for overseas customers. The London Underground became a major customers with carriages produced for a number of lines. The company worked with English Electric on rolling stock for electrified railways. The company ceased manufacture in 1986.
In Cheltenham in 1888, Herbert Henry Martyn founded a company of wood, stone and plaster carvers, metal and glass workers. The company gained a national reputation for the excellence of their work. During the First World War, Hugh Burroughs of the Aircraft Manufacturing Company of Hendon (Airco) was looking for subcontractors to make wooden DH2 Scout aircraft. He was advised to visit Alfred Martyn who had taken over from his father. Burroughs was impressed and gave the order. Clearly a good relationship developed because Burroughs and Martyn set up a new company, the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company, owned by their respective companies.
The Gloucestershire Aircraft Company or Gloster Aircraft as it became, began by building large numbers of Bristol Fighters and Nieuport Nighthawks and, after the war ended, set about using large quantities of surplus Nighthawk parts to produce a series of planes derived from the Nighthawk which they named the Sparrowhawk and many of which were bought by the Japanese Navy. The Schneider Trophy beckoned and the company made a number of racing seaplanes. The interwar years were spent in experimentation as designs were tried out moving from wood to metal construction. This cost dear and Gloster became part of the much larger Hawker Siddeley which drew the company into the Hawker fold. A large number of aircraft were built including the Gladiator, the last bi-plane fighter.
Gloster had the distinction of being the first aircraft manufacturer in the UK or US to design, build and fly an aircraft fitted with a jet engine. I write about the development of the jet in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World. The company went on to produce the highly successful Meteor.
Gloucester was home to Rotol, formed by Bristol aircraft and Rolls-Royce to manufacture propellers. Dowty Aviation with which Rotol later merged was based in Cheltenham specialising in undercarriages. The Dowty Heritage site has much more excellent detail. George Dowty, the founder of the company in 1930, had been a draughtsman at Gloster Aircraft designing internally sprung aircraft wheels in his spare time. Joe Bowstead and John Dexter joined him on their first contract for struts for the de Havilland autogyro. Soon they went full time and began building a company that would provide vital parts for the growing aircraft industry. George Dowty was a great believer in subcontracting, both to hold steady the company's employee numbers and to drawn on more specialist skills. I write more of the post war British aircraft industry in Vehicles to Vaccines.
Unilever set up their Walls ice cream factory in Gloucester. In nearby Coleford, Lucazade and Ribena are produced. Ribena was produce by H.C Carter and was bought by Beecham and joined by Lucazade. They were sold by GSK to Suntori in 2013.
Further reading:
- Carolyn Heighway, Gloucester - A History and Guide (Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1985)
- Peter Dancy, British Aircraft Manufacturers since 1909, (Fonthill Media, 2014).
- The Engineer 7 October 1971
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