Ilford manufacturing history

 The manufacturer of photographic film that shares the name of the town was founded in 1879 and moved to a larger factory in Basildon in 1976

Plessey had started out in Marylebone in London after the First World War as mechanical engineers exploiting the talents of a German born engineer, William Oscar Heyne. The first products were jigs and tools. In 1919 the company moved to Holloway with investment from American, Bryan Clark.

Marconi, through their Marconiphone company, produced valve receivers, but not many. They subcontracted manufacture to Plessey and the relationship continued successfully until Marconi established their own manufacturing in 1926, and Plessey reverted to component manufacture. In 1923 Plessey had moved to Ilford where they also manufactured telephone equipment and equipment for the RAF and motor manufacturers. In 1929 Plessey made the first television invented by John Logie Baird. They also made the first portable radio. Bryan Clark's son, Allan, introduced mass production of standard components.

Plessey took on licences to produce American aircraft equipment. In the Second World War, Plessey produced many different types of components and equipment for the war effort, including shell cases, aircraft parts, and radio equipment such as the R1155 (receiver) and T1154 (transmitter). Following bombing of their Ilford factory they moved production to unused sections of the Central Underground Line. They also opened a factory in Swindon and took on the management of shadow factories. They set up a research establishment at Caswell House near Towcester. At the end of the war they employed 11,000 people, a workforce which reduced with the coming of peace.

Allan Clark's sons, John and Michael joined the company and senior managers, John Cunningham and Raymond Brown, left Plessey to form Racal. The company made many thousands of television sets for EMI. With the growth of the hydraulics business, the company formed two separate divisions, Fuel Systems which was moved to Titchfield, Hampshire and Industrial Hydraulics which went to Swindon, Wiltshire.

The next break came with telephones. The existing system, Strowger, was ‘hopelessly out of date’ and the development of electronic exchanges still some way off. The answer was the Crossbar system which AT & E had developed. Plessey bought both Automatic Telephone & Electric (with their Liverpool and Bridgnorth factories) and Ericcson, taking over the Beeston factory, and won twenty-six out of the thirty-two orders placed. I write of this in Vehicles to Vaccines.

In 1961 the company had 17,500 employees. Six years later the payroll had grown to 68,000 employees with 6,500 in research and development with R&D labs at Caswell in South Wales, Roke Manor near Romsey, Taplow in Berkshire and Havant and Poole in Hampshire and Dorset.

Plessey were important suppliers to the Ministry of Defence and I write of this in my piece on Kingston upon Thames and Isle of Wight. Plessey made a failed bid for English Electric in 1968. In the eighties they went head to head with GEC over the next generation of telephones. In the event it was Ericcson which won with their System Y as opposed to System X which was developed by Plessey and GEC. Through the machinations of corporate bids, the Plessey telecoms business ended up with Ericcson and its defence related business eventually became part of BAE Systems via its merger with Marconi (the new name of GEC). I also wrote of this in Vehicles to Vaccines.

One part of Plessey did survive intact in Plymouth as Plessey Semiconductors which also took in Marconi Semiconductors.

I am grateful to Graces Guide which supplemented the earlier research I did for my books How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World and Vehicles to Vaccines.

Burton on Trent manufacturing history

 At one time Burton was home to thirty breweries, having been connected by the Trent and Mersey canal bringing goods from Preston down to Shardlow and the navigable river Trent. We can think of Bass, Marstons (which still brews in Burton) and Ind Coupe to name but three. As long ago as the eighties Ind Coope joined with Tetley of Leeds and Ansells of Birmingham in Allied Breweries

Shardlow

Most breweries have now closed or been replaced by new technology with a fraction of the former workforce and new often overseas owners. The biggest brewery is owned by the Canadian Molson Coors. There are though a good number of small independent breweries.

Most breweries have now closed

Much architecture remains to tell of Burton’s past

Close by was the original Branston Pickle factory which became a Central Ordnance depot for army clothing. It is now a heritage site.

More recently the Toyota factory was built at Burnaston.

Unilever built its UK condiments business in Burton. Also close by at Tutbury in 1901 Nestle built a factory for the making of condensed milk. By the fifties the demand for this wained and the factory was repurposed to make instant coffee.

Oxford manufacturing history

 Oxford is home to one of our ancient universities, until a century or so ago committed to the teaching of the classics and theology. The university stood up against any suggestions that railways may come to the city, indeed although passed by the House of Commons, the university used its influence in the House of Lords to kill the first railway bill. In time of course the railways came and began to link the city to London and other industrial centres.

The Corporation of the city had been enthusiastic when GWR suggested that they might locate their workshops in the city. Once again the university protested that they didn’t want mere mechanics. It seems they were content to accept the population of tradespeople and servants who enabled the university to run. These people were faced with poverty when the colleges broke for their annual long vacation. No wonder the city wanted to attract other employment.

Employment did come in the wake of the First World War when William Morris set up Morris Motors. I drew on the biography of Lord Nuffield to write about Morris motors in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World.

In her book, A History of the City of Oxford, Ruth Fasnacht offers some insightful asides. Before Morris set up his garage in 1908, the population of the City was 50,000. By 1921 it had risen to 67,000 and by 1951, 97,000.

Morris began by sourcing components largely from other companies. He obtained the axle from E.G. Wrigley and pressed steel wheels from Sankey. White & Poppe of Coventry supplied carburettors and would have built engines except that those from America were cheaper. When that supply ceased Morris turned to Hotchkiss in Coventry. Other components were obtained from two small companies, Smiths of London and Lucas of Birmingham. In time Morris made their own engines but continued with Smiths and Lucas.

In 1939 Morris employed 3,700 people and its subsidiary Morris radiators 1,000. The Pressed Steel Company, which set up alongside Morris to provide all steel bodies for the cars, employed 5,000. Morris also had operations in Coventry where the heart of motor industry was. They undertook work that required skilled labour in Coventry, leaving less skilled assembly to Oxford. In 1938/39 Morris was making one quarter of all British made cars and employed 40% of Oxford’s workforce.

Villages surrounding the city were transformed as workers migrated to the area for work with Morris. Interestingly, the people of Oxford didn’t suffer unemployment in the depression years because Morris’s performance kept pace with the availability of labour. It therefore came as a shock when production ceased on the declaration of war and didn’t resume with war work until a year later. In 1945, the transition to peacetime conditions was relatively smooth until raw material shortages hit in the early fifties. Pressed Steel diversified into refrigeration with PressCold and Morris merged with Austin to become BMC in (1951). In 1950, Morris had manufactured 150,000 cars compared with Austin at 166,000. Ford was the UK leader at 185,000 vehicles.

Of course Morris (and Pressed Steel) weren’t alone. There was the Eagle Iron Works and the Oxford University Press.

BMW now manufacture Mini in Cowley. I write of the story in Vehicles to Vaccines.

The University has spun out many successful companies from its research. Oxford University is a valued collaborator in manufacturing most recently with Astra Zeneca in vaccines but further back with Oxford Instruments which was the first commercial spin out from Oxford University in 1959.

Further reading:

Ruth Fasnacht, A History of the City of Oxford (Oxford: Blackwell, 1954)