We now have a dust cover with images
Today it seems a brave, or even reckless, assertion to suggest that Britain might have shaped the manufacturing world. Yet, looking back through history, there is a grubby British thumb-print on many of the world’s manufacturing industries. In this book I try to explore the assertion by unfolding what is quite a remarkable story.
I am not saying that Britain alone created the manufacturing world, but, as I will explain, it almost certainly started a process that would continue over many decades. The role played by Britain diminished as that played by other nations increased, but it didn’t disappear; indeed, it remained strongly influential.
My interest in the subject was sparked by research I carried out for my books on how the British army was supplied in the two world wars (War on Wheels, Ordnance and Dunkirk to D Day).
I was bowled over by the wholehearted commitment of all manner of businesses of Britain in support of the war effort. I had to discover who was behind these companies, where they had come from, but also where they went. It soon became clear that the questions, although related, could not be accommodated in the same volume, so this volume began by research into the first two: whence they had come.
The peoples of the British Isles gave to the world the foundations on which modern manufacturing economies are built. This is quite an assertion, but history shows that, in the late eighteenth century, a remarkable combination of factors and circumstances combined to give birth to Britain as the first manufacturing nation. Further factors allowed it to remain top manufacturing dog well into the twentieth century, although other countries were busy playing catch up. Through two world wars and the surrounding years, British manufacturing remained strong, albeit whilst ceding the lead to the United States.
This book seeks to tell the remarkable story of British manufacturing, using the Great Exhibition of 1851 as a prism. Prince Albert and Sir Henry Cole had conceived an idea of bringing together exhibits from manufacturers across the world to show to its many millions of visitors the pre-eminence of the British. 1851 was not the start, but rather a pause for a bask in glory.
The book traces back from the exhibits in Hyde Park’s crystal palace to identify the factors that gave rise to this pre-eminence. It then follows developments up until the Festival of Britain exactly one century later. Steam power and communication by electric telegraph, both British inventions, predated the Exhibition. After it, came the sewing machine and bicycle, motor car and aeroplane, but also electrical power, radio and the chemical and pharmaceutical industries where Britain played a leading part.
Phil Hamlyn Williams’s great grandfather exhibited at the Great Exhibition; his grandfather was an inventor and his father spearheaded the mechanisation of the British Army in WW2 and then was a leader in the motor industry. Phil has most recently written Dunkirk to D-Day about The Men of the RAOC and Re-arming the British Army. This followed War on Wheels and Ordnance in which he explored the role of British Manufacturing in the two world wars. Building on these, and his studies of the Industrial Revolution and the Interwar period as part of his BA as a mature student in 2008, he now brings this and extensive further research to tell this story.
The book is to be published by Pen&Sword in 2022
My first has to be Ronald Weeks, first Pilkington then WW2 and finally chairman of Vickers.
Sir Brian Robertson was first MD of Dunlop in South Africa then WW2 and military governor of the British zone before taking command in the Middle East. He then oversaw the introduction of diesel electric into British Railways, whilst chairman of the Transport Executive.
Brian Robertson in 1934
The peoples of the British Isles gave to the world the foundations on which modern manufacturing economies are built. This is quite an assertion, but history shows that, in the late eighteenth century, a remarkable combination of factors and circumstances combined to give birth to Britain as the first manufacturing nation. Further factors allowed it to remain top manufacturing dog well into the twentieth century, although other countries were busy playing catch up. Through two world wars and the surrounding years, British manufacturing remained strong, albeit whilst ceding the lead to the United States.
This book seeks to tell the remarkable story of British manufacturing, using the Great Exhibition of 1851 as a prism. Prince Albert and Sir Henry Cole had conceived an idea of bringing together exhibits from manufacturers across the world to show to its many millions of visitors the pre-eminence of the British. 1851 was not the start, but rather a pause for a bask in glory.
I trace back from the exhibits in Hyde Park’s crystal palace to identify the factors that gave rise to this pre-eminence. I then follow developments up until the Festival of Britain exactly one century later. Steam power and communication by electric telegraph, both British inventions, predated the Exhibition. After it, came the sewing machine and bicycle, motor car and aeroplane, but also electrical power, radio and the chemical and pharmaceutical industries where Britain played a leading part.
The power for the kick start for the Industrial Revolution was water. Arkwright’s mill in deepest Derbyshire was powered by water rushing down from the peaks.
A little later, in Northumberland, a young William Armstrong walked through moors outside Newcastle and marvelled at the latent power in the streams. He would harness this hydraulic power in many of the machines he made, not least in the docks of New Grimsby.
Later, William Siemens would harness water power to drive the generator he installed to light the Surrey town of Godalming.
Later still, the smelting of aluminium was made economically possible by the use of Scottish hydro-electric power.
The Festival of Britain celebrated the potential of water power in the exhibition at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow.
These are perhaps small examples from the history of British manufacturing which underline the age old fact that nothing is new. We had power before fossil fuels and will do so again once they have ceased to be used.
It is though a question of scale. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Britain both exported more coal than any other country and imported more oil. What we now have a plenty are talented engineers ready to take on the challenge of net zero.
The future of British manufacturing looks to other means of transport. British Volt is just one example.
My exploration of British manufacturing has been sector by sector and chronological. I am now beginning to join up the dots and explore thos...
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