Dudley Manufacturing History

 There is evidence of iron working in Dudley in the Domesday Book. It shared the availability of raw materials with its neighbour, Stourbridge. The source of energy for Dudley though was from the surrounding forest. This it had in common with its iron smelting rivals in the Weald in Sussex. In contrast the work coming out of blacksmiths in Dudley were more utilitarian with little evidence remaining of decorative work.

Dudley took the lead over Sussex by virtue of its reserves of coal, once the secret of smelting with coal had been discovered.

The Earl of Dudley and his son, known as Dud, were strongly influential in the way the iron industry and industry generally developed in the area between the towns of Dudley and Stourbridge. Dud claimed to have used coal to smelt iron, but nothing came of it until Abraham Darby succeeded in Telford in 1765. From then on the town of Dudley's future was mapped out until reserves of raw materials ran out.

In the early days it was nails that the men and women of Dudley made. Many of them worked for Richard Foley who had discovered the Swedish method of splitting which revolutionised the industry. Along with nails, chains were made and locks and tools. The coming of the canal both enabled Dudley to export coal to other areas particularly for glass making but also to find a larger market for its produce.

Of course the reserves of raw materials did run out but the companies of Dudley adapted.

Michael Grazebrook took over some collieries and an old blast furnace at Netherton. He installed a Boulton & Watt steam engine and then electricity and the internal combustion engine. In the 1930s he established welding and foundry shops. In the Second World War he made block buster bombs. Anther business with which eventually bought Grazebrook was Hingleys which specialised in chain making and file manufacture. Hingleys installed a Naysmyth steam hammer allowing the manufacture of large anchors. Hingleys were bought by metal workers FH Lloyd which eventually became part of Triplex Lloyd.

Samuel Lewis is another company still in business making pressings, forgings, farm harrows and hand made chains. Files are still manufactured at Vaughan's Hope Works.

National businesses came to Dudley attracted by the skills base. John Thompson of Wolverhampton came to make boilers, chimneys and tanks. Ewarts made motor accessories and we can glory in brass petrol taps, bonnet fasteners, caps and nuts. Dudley became a centre for the covering of metal tanks with protective material. Metallisation Ltd is still in operation. Nearby Brierley Hill was home to the Round Oak Steel Works which became part of Tube Investments.

Further reading:

G. Chandler and I.C. Hannah, Dudley - As it was and as it is today (London: Batsford, 1949)

Kidderminster manufacturing history

Kidderminster is of course known for carpets, along with Wilton and Axminister and a number of Yorkshire wool towns including Halifax. With the suffix 'minster', it was quite possibly established as a minster church as early as the arrival of St Augustine in 597 AD. Oddly, or perhaps not, Axminster is a similar name.

The town was well placed being near to Wales and the hard wearing wool of hill sheep and the growing population of the Black Country. Wool weavers turned their attention to floor covering. Wilton was a clear rival and Kidderminster man, John Broom determined not to let them get ahead, visited Belgium to learn the latest techniques. These he brought back together with a Belgian weaver and the town went from strength to strength. By 1800 there were 1,000 looms in the town with most weavers working from their own dwelling. The arrival of the canals in the 1770s gave the town vital access both to more distant markets and to fuel.

The progression of carpet making was a mix of the technical and economic. The raw material was wool but a carpet that made best use of the least material has an economic attraction. Then came the speed of weaving and effective mechanisation even in the small dwellings where most carpets were still made. Lastly came design and colour. Here we have the science of dyeing and the Jacquard technique which enabled the weaving of complex patterns by machine.

In time weavers were collected together in manufactories with machines powered by steam engines. Kidderminster was making half of the carpets made in England. The town’s businesses led the field. Brintons, which remains a major employer in the town, began in the late eighteenth century and were best known for the invention of the Brinton Jacquard gripper Axminster loom. There were then the companies that would join with Halifax carpet makers to form Carpets International which fell into receivership in 2003. A third company, Brockways, only set up in the 1930s, is still trading. Kidderminster has now lost most of its carpet industry to foreign competition.

In time cheaper materials were sought to make the less visible parts of the carpet. Jute was used to back certain carpets. I write in Vehicles to Vaccines how manmade fibres were brought into carpet making.

Now it is jute that is made into a variety of products by Jute Products Ltd some of which are still used in carpet making. Jute, as a natural sustainable material is seen to have great potential in a post plastics world.

In the Second World War, the Rover company managed a shadow factory in Drakelow Tunnels manufacturing aircraft parts. The tunnels later became a cold war bunker. In my auditing days, I recall visiting a hot water bottle manufacturing business in the town.

Further reading:

Ken Tomkinson and George Hall, Kidderminster since 1800 (Kidderminster: Kenneth Tomlinson, 1975)

 

Redditch manufacturing history

 From needle making to alloys for aerospace.

Redditch, to the south of Birmingham, was one of a group of towns and villages where needles were made. It was a labour intensive cottage industry, and one not conducive to good health with the sharpening of the needles. The needle makers were fiercely protective of their trade and resisted mechanisation even for ventilation which would transform the work environment.

As was always the case, mechanisation crept in with steam power. The coming of the canals and railways enabled Redditch to assume pole position, attracting needle makers from towns across the country as much as from neighbouring villages. It was big business; we are talking of five million needles a week in 1824 rising to fifteen million in 1840. Needles were made for textile workers but also for surgeons. Redditch became renowned the world over. The same skills were appropriate for fish hooks and from there, fishing tackle more generally.

Needle making demanded a range of metal working skills: wire drawers, file makers, tool makers, bellow makers, grindstone trimmers, and miilwrights. This held the town in good stead for it attracted light metal industry in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Metal workers could make springs which were in demand in the new industries of the bicycle and motor cycle. Royal Enfield and Herbert Terry bicycles were made in Redditch. BSA relocated their manufacturing to the town making motor cycles, motor cars and, of course, small arms. In the First World War, Nife Alkaline Batteries supplied power for the new submarines.

With the coming of the Second World War, a number of businesses set up in the town: Cadmium and Chromium plating, machine tools, wire drawing and springing machinery and air compressors.

High Duty Alloys were one of those companies which became part of the shadow factory initiative. Their business was the making and moulding of alloys used in aircraft production. They were based in Slough which was thought vulnerable to enemy bombing and so they built a factory in Redditch but also one in Cumbria. When the Slough factory was hit by bombs Redditch came into its own.

During the Second World War the company supplied pistons and other aircraft parts by the thousand to engine manufacturers including Rolls-Royce, Napier, de Havilland and Bristol. By 1945 the company employed 13,000 people over its three sites, Slough having returned to production and importantly research.

In the post war world it was the jet engine that demanded the skills that HDA had to offer. High temperatures, massive power - all these demanded the alloy with the right properties. HDA alloy castings were to be found in structural aluminium, Concorde and the British missiles of the Cold War. The company is now called Ferris Aerospace and it continues to supply the aerospace industry from Redditch.

In the sixties Redditch was designated a new town and attracted inward investment and the attention of a new generation of town planners and architects. The plan placed emphasis on public transport with residents working in the town where they live.

John James still make needles in Redditch as part of ENTACO (English Needle and Fishing Tackle Company) formed in the thirties from the combination of long standing needle manufacturers Milward and Hall. The main business of ENTACO are medical products including needles.

Further reading:

• https://www.aerosociety.com/media/21427/paper-2023-03-buttler-high-duty-alloys.pdf
• John G Rollins, A History of Redditch (Chichester: Phillimore, 1984)