Bracknell manufacturing history

 A small village on the road to the west of England was how Bracknell was described in the mid nineteenth century. It then set about growing. Thomas Lawrence founded a brickworks producing twelve million bricks a year by the end of the nineteenth century, bricks that would find their way into buildings including Eton College, 10 Downing Street and Westminster Cathedral.

Its designation as a new town came in the late forties with work beginning in 1950. The plan was ambitious and provided for employment as well as homes and leisure. Work on the first factory for Fluidrive began in 1951 followed by Kent Bros. & Phillips. In 1961 the numbers employed in factories passed 6,000.

George Rowney & Co, founded in 1783, opened their factory in Bracknell moving from units in Chalk Farm and the Euston Road. Rowney became part of Morgan Crucible and set up their head office in Bracknell. They were later bought by Dale Board, another artist materials business, and still manufacture in the town. Rowney are one of the few companies at both the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the Festival of Britain a century later.

The American Sperry, with their artificial horizon equipment for aircraft, moved their whole UK establishment from Brentford in 1968. Sperry would remain the largest employer until the plant was closed under the ownership of BAE Systems.

Racal set up their first factory in the fifties bussing their workforce of one hundred daily from Isleworth until houses were completed. By 1981, Racal had a worldwide workforce of 18,000. Racal spun off Vodaphone which continued a presence in the town.

Expandite, a supplier to the construction industry, bought Secomastic in 1956 and manufactured alongside operating a contracting division. ICI's agricultural research centre was nearby at Jealott's Hill. Ferranti digital systems and aircraft design was based here.

Honeywell Control Systems, ICL (now Fujitsu), 3M, Dell, NetGear, Panasonic, Hewlett Packard Techologies and Micron Technologies semi-conductors are some of the companies with a presence in Bracknell making it a technological hub and part of the Thames Valley 'Silicon Valley'.

Further reading:

Henry and Judith Parris, Bracknell - The making of a New Town (Bracknell Development Corporation, 1981)

Fareham manufacturing history

Fareham is a coastal town just about half way between Southampton and Portsmouth and it is to Portsmouth I look for clues to the town's commercial success.

I write in my blog piece on Portsmouth of the key role it had in British naval history. It looked to Fareham for key manufactures at its time of greatest need: the Napoleonic Wars. The Navy needed iron for various uses in its ships and a Gosport blacksmith named Henry Cort had taken on a business of supplying chains. Cort was not satisfied by the then current methods of making iron and through extensive experimentation arrived at his puddling process which produced strong wrought iron. In this venture he took on a foundry in Fareham where he produced iron for the Navy. Cort's methods were adopted widely and he is regarded as the father of the iron industry. I write of him in how Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World.

The second contribution came later when Lord Palmerston ordered the building of defences around Portsmouth and this time Fareham supplied great quantities of high quality bricks. There is evidence of the Romans making bricks from the mud of the estuary mixed with shell fragments. Later rich reserves of clay were discovered to make the London Blue which can be seen in much of the railway infrastructure. Fareham Reds can be seen in the Albert Hall and at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. As well as bricks, chimney pots and tiles were made and supplied to nearly all western counties.The clay was also used for making pipes when tobacco became more generally available. Cigars and cigarettes later put pay to clay pipes.

The third contribution is probably the oldest and is the production of leather. The tanneries of Fareham date back as far as bricks if not farther. Leather was used as a strong flexible material before the days of plastics, as well as for shoes, clothing, bags etc. Coaches and wagons were comprised largely of leather and of course there were many million saddles and bridles. The Army and Navy were major users and hides came to Fareham from all over the country.

There is no record of whether the fourth contribution was supplied to the Navy, it was however enjoyed by many in the towns and cities: strawberries grown over 2,500 acres.

During the Second World War, Fareham became the location for the construction of the Mulberry Harbours for the D Day landings.

Further reading:

Lesley Burton and Brian Musselwhite, An illustrated History of Fareham (Southampton: Ensign Publications, 1991)

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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)

Banbury manufacturing history

 A market town in an agricultural county, it is perhaps not surprising that Banbury's first venture into engineering manufacturing was into agricultural machinery. Bernhard Samuelson had been in business in Tours in France and, on visiting Banbury, saw the urgent need for labour saving equipment to support agricultural production. His company produced at their Britannia Works a prize winning turnip cutter, digging machines, mowing machines, chaff and linseed cutters and an oil cake breaker. Importantly he took a license to manufacture the American McCormick reaper of which he sold thousands. In 1871 he employed 500 people. He was a philanthropist, as well as a businessman who paid above average wages, and provided a good deal of the infrastructure of the growing town. He served as member of parliament for the town for some ten years. His business became a limited company in 1873 but closed in 1933.

Thus the approach of the Second World War saw the town without major manufacturing employment. The council managed to attract .The Northern Aluminium Company (later known as Alcan) of Canada. The company's role during the war would be vital, providing aluminium for Spitfires and Bailey Bridges. It became the town's largest employer with a workforce at one time of 2,300. During the early years of the war, the plant supplied 40% of aluminium sheet and extrusion vital for the manufacture of aircraft. Aluminium ingots were brought from as far a field as Canada and scrap from crashed aircraft would be melted down for re-use. The factory acted as the central store of aluminium for the Ministry of Aircraft Production Light Metals Committee which was based there. The factory continued its role as part of Alcan's research laboratory until closure in 2003. I write more about the UK aluminium industry in Vehicles to Vaccines.

After the war Banbury agreed to accept overspill from both London and Birmingham the latter of which relocated the Birds factory owned by General Foods of America and then Kraft of America.

Another company attracted was Automotive Products of Leamington about which I write more in my piece of Warwick and Leamington

Further reading

Ted Clark, Banbury (Stroud: Alan Sutton, 1992)

Telford manufacturing history

 Telford is rightly known as the place where in 1708 Abraham Darby discovered the way to use coke to smelt iron ore and I wrote about this in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World. It is worth pondering that this was an environmentally friendly development since before this it is said a small iron furnace would consume 2,000 acres of woodland annually.

Iron smelting had been carried out in Telford and its surrounding for perhaps two millennia. It was perfectly placed in a gorge running down to the river Severn. High up the gorge there was limestone and coal along with iron ore. Darby leased an existing furnace from the Brook family and adapted it to his new process. The gorge had fast running water to power the bellows for blast furnace. The resulting pig iron and in due finished goods could then be taken downhill to the river for onwards transmission. In due course the banks of the Severn were lined with iron works, tile works, china works and limestone quarries.

Darby's Coalbrookdale Company continued in one form or another until 2017. It began with pig iron but then specific castings including the famous iron bridge, pillars, boilers for steam engines and rails. As a Quaker, he would not cast cannon Much later the company cast parts for Rayburn and AGA eventually being owned by Glynwed. In the meantime it extended its interests into coal mines and metal work.

The process of making coke from coal produced by-products including gas and tar, the latter being combined with the spent material from the furnaces to make asphalt. It also later provided the base material for many chemicals. Gas from coke production would, of course, light the nation's towns until North Sea gas came on stream.

There were other iron masters and other major employers. Among these, John 'Iron mad' Wilkinson was an iron master with works at nearby Broseley and at one time provided one eighth of Britain's iron output. He cast boilers for Boulton & Watt. He developed a method of casting cannon in a single solid form which would then be bored out to form the barrel. He then devised a method whereby the cannon was rotated whilst the boring tool remained fixed and this greatly improved accuracy. Later he made the first iron barge for use on the river Severn.

The Lilleshall Company founded in 1764 traded until 1964 and was the largest employer. Owned by landed gentry it sought to exploit the natural resources that lay underground. It built several iron works, a glass works, brick works, mines, canals and stretches of railway. In the mid nineteenth century Lilleshall ws producing 15,000 tons of finished iron a year as well as a million bricks and massive steam engines.

None of this would have been possible without a skilled workforce whose experience in iron working stretched back many generations. Nothing stood still. The Ketley iron works was repurposed for the production of rain water goods.

Coalport manufactured bone china. The company came about by the joining of the landowning Browne family who brought clay, coal and capital and a talented engraver Thomas Turner who had been apprenticed at the Worcester factory. Production continued from 1750 until 1926. There is now a Coalport Museum.

The Shropshire canal opened in 1797 and provided a vital link and was followed as elsewhere by railways. In and around Telford just about every large factory and mine had its own branch line; it was a wonder of modern transport. Electricity arrived in 1876 with the production of Elwell and Parker High Speed Electric Engines. Coalbrookdale installed its own power generating station in 1906.

The General Strike saw declines in both Lilleshall and Coalbrookdale and Coalport moved to the potteries. Other businesses prospered: the Horsehay Company made bridges and crains, Heybridge Steel produced miles of wire and Walkers and Corbetts made tanks and boilers. Ever Ready Batteries set up a factory and Joseph Sankey took over Briggs Bodies and made car parts especially wheels. Chad Valley had two factories making toys.

In 1939 work began on the vast Ordnance depot at Donnington and I tell its extraordinary story in War on Wheels. It remains a Ministry of Defence establishment.

Lucas automotive manufactured lighting and Rists wiring. Sankey also produced armoured vehicles at the Hadley Castle works until it became part of GKN, then Alvis and BAE Systems. It is now RBSL (owned by Rheinmetall and BAE Systems) and which now produced the Boxer fighting vehicle and Challenger 3 tanks.

Further reading

• https://www.ironbridge.org.uk/visit/coalbrookdale-museum-of-iron/
• George Evans, Telford's Living Landscape (Wellington: Vision Books, 1993)