Shill Birmingham's Industrial Heritage

1900-2000
1. Auflage 2003
ISBN: 978-0-7509-5411-2
Verlag: The History Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 208 Seiten

Birmingham was a renowned manufacturing centre by the 18th century and the city rapidly grew into the primary industrial centre of the Midlands. An account of Birmingham's heyday of heavy industry is recorded and the story is brought up to date with the story of the decline of heavy industry and its subsequent replacement by design, technology and computing. The proposed redevelopment of Rover's Longbridge site as a science park is symptomatic of this change.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Shill, Ray

Leseproben

INTRODUCTION

Birmingham is a great working city whose lifeblood is the manufacturing and service industries. It lies at the heart of a busy manufacturing region that today is still respected for the quality products made there. The story of Birmingham industry is one that encompasses change and innovation. Vast resources of workers with different skills have all contributed to the continuing industrial metamorphosis that has made Birmingham great. Birmingham industry is built on experience and trial, where no task was too large to undertake and each new challenge was a problem to be solved. Every manufacturing town and city has to face such challenges to survive.

The keenness for experiment and innovation led to a variety of trades being established in Birmingham, hence it being called ‘A City of a Thousand Trades’. If a count was made of all the different firms and the jobs undertaken therein the figure of a thousand might prove to be a conservative estimate. However, the city of Birmingham should not be viewed in isolation. The industry in this region was, and is, a partnership of firms, frequently forming a supply chain, where specific tasks undertaken by one firm would provide a product for another. Whenever Birmingham industry is discussed, therefore, it is important to consider it in association with the surrounding area. This includes the Black Country towns of Dudley, Oldbury, Smethwick, Tipton, Walsall and Wednesbury, the newly created city of Wolverhampton, Redditch, Telford and the cities of Coventry and Lichfield. An evenly distributed industrial conurbation has replaced the former manufacturing concentrations of the nineteenth century. Yet the role of this area in supplying Britain and the rest of the world is just as relevant today as it was in the past.

The aim of this book is to look at Birmingham industry during the twentieth century, and information for this project has been compiled during the year 2000. Methods of production and workers’ roles will be examined, focusing on particular trades such as car-making, motor-cycle manufacture, gun-making, jewellery and rubber.

Despite all the pageant and ceremony that heralded the end of 1999, the true end of the century was 31 December 2000. Here in Birmingham ice and snow lay on the ground. A bitter wind drove freezing rain that gradually melted the ice. On the following morning, 1 January 2001, the sun came out on the city, raising the hopes for a new age. The weather had been just as grim a hundred years before, when floods had caused serious problems in the region. Celebrations for the dawn of the twentieth century were conducted on 1 January 1901. It was a vastly different age from today. Victoria was still Queen of England, and although she died a month later, the last breath of Victorian times and Victorian values were present at the start of the new century. Britain was also a nation at war, engaged in a conflict with the Boers, fighting on the opposite side of the globe in South Africa. It was an age of new invention. Electricity was being put to many more uses, such as lighting and to power traction for street tramways. Municipal and private enterprise were establishing generating stations for this purpose. One of the most important developments at this time was the petrol engine. This powered both the automobile and the motor cycle. An industry in decline was bicycle manufacture, which had flourished a few years before.

One of the many facets of Birmingham industry was its resilience and ability to adapt. When trade fell off in one sector, another developed. The skills of the gun-makers were readily put to use in bicycle manufacture. When trade in bicycles reduced, those skills were put to use making automobiles. Lamp-making was an important business. In the pre-electric age lamps burnt acetylene gas, town gas or oil and were sold all over the world. The universal use of electric lighting diminished the market, but lamp manufacturers turned their skills to new areas. Joseph Lucas, who had a busy lamp-making firm, incorporated the new order to make not just electric lamps but other forms of electrical equipment for the rapidly developing automotive industry.

By 1901 the city of Birmingham encompassed the old town of Birmingham, Edgbaston, parts of old Aston (Deritend, Bordesley, Duddeston, Nechells, Saltley, Washwood Heath and Little Bromwich) and Balsall Heath, which had formerly belonged to the parish of Kings Norton. The suburbs extended outside the city into the counties of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Industry was dispersed throughout and intermixed with residential properties. The greatest concentration of firms formed a ring around the city centre, which was a densely populated area crammed with back-to-back houses, foundries, rolling mills and a myriad of factory premises.

Birmingham Bull Ring, early twentieth century. (Heartland Press Collection)

Kelly’s Trade Directory, 1902

The following extract from Kelly’s Trade Directory describes industrial development in Birmingham in 1901.

Many of the large factories constitute establishments of almost public character. The works at Soho were founded in 1757, but came into the possession of Matthew Boulton in 1762, and formed one of the great schools of mechanical engineering and the arts of design, under Matthew Boulton, James Watt, William Murdoch and Francis Eggington. The Soho Foundry was erected at Smethwick some years later, and the manufacture of steam engines, coin presses and the minting of coin were carried on by the firm of James Watt and Co. up to the year 1895. In 1896 the business was acquired from the trustees by W. & T. Avery Ltd, by whom it is now carried on. In the year 1850 the old Soho Mint was dismantled and the machinery sold; and not a vestige of the building remains. Messrs Tangyes Ltd, hydraulic and general engineers, and manufacturers of several specialities, are proprietors of the Cornwall Works, Soho. Messenger & Son’s manufactory in Broad Street is for ornamental work in bronze and ormolu. In Cheapside is the brass foundry and gas, steam and water-fitting establishment of Messrs Samuel Booth and Co. and the screw works of Mr Joseph Fitter. Messrs Perry and Co. Ltd are manufacturers of steel pens and cycle chains and accessories; their works are in Lancaster Street, and cover nearly 2 acres. The extensive steel pen and penholder manufactory of Messrs Gillott is in Graham Street. The bolt and rivet works of Barwells Ltd are in Brookfields Road. Brass and copper wire is extensively manufactured here; and amongst others, by the Birmingham Battery Co. Ltd of Selly Oak; Heaton and Dugard, of Shadwell Street Mills; and Samuel Walker Ltd of Fazeley Street. The Mint, Birmingham, Ltd, Icknield Street, produce brass and copper strips, sheets, wire and tubes. Screwing tackle is the speciality of the Victoria Works of Mr Thomas Chatwin, Great Tindal Street, Ladywood. Messrs F. and C. Osler’s works, in Broad Street, are well known for the excellence of their productions in crystal glass. Messrs Chance’s glass works, at Smethwick, are very extensive; they have also an important lighthouse works, established in 1850, and the only works of the kind in the kingdom. The old electroplate works of Elkington and Co. Ltd are in Newhall Street. S.A. Daniell Ltd of the Lion Works, Edward Street, Parade, are manufacturers of copying presses, screw stocks, dies, taps, ratchets, braces &c.; H. Hope and Sons Ltd of Lionel Street, of horticultural buildings and hot water apparatus, wind and waterproof casements &c.; Messrs J. and J. Hughes’ brass and gun-metal works are in Woodcock Street; Harrison and Smith Ltd, of Alma Street, are button manufacturers and Messrs J. Nicklin and Co., of Great Charles Street, are pin manufacturers, and Hindes Ltd, of Bromsgrove Street, are manufacturers of brushes.

Industry also spilled out of the city centre along the main communication routes – the canals, railways and main roads. The canal network was begun during the eighteenth century and completed during the nineteenth century. It brought the much-needed raw materials for Birmingham industry and took away many of its finished products. The railway system that developed provided access to new markets for Birmingham goods, while road improvements created the vital link between the factory and the goods station.

By 1911 Birmingham had grown in size, absorbing the suburbs within ‘Greater Birmingham’. The enlarged city now included the parishes of Aston Manor, Castle Bromwich, Erdington, Handsworth, Kings Norton, Northfield, Selly Oak, Witton and Yardley. Industry followed the boundary changes by taking advantage of the open spaces. Bigger and greater factories became possible, and both established and new manufacturers took the opportunity to establish works in these suburban areas. Expansion was particularly noticeable around Castle Bromwich, Erdington, Hall Green and Tyseley.

War is often a stimulus for industrial growth and several industries were to benefit from the new factory building programme that was required to supply munitions and equipment to the armed forces during the First World War. The Austin car plant at Longbridge was trebled in size, while new works were also provided for BSA at Small Heath.

Various town-planning schemes were proposed between 1910 and 1919, and a number of these proposals were adopted. Birmingham City Council began to formulate policies for regulating industrial growth to specific areas and developed the remainder for residential purposes. New businesses and homes were, in future, to be segregated and it is this view that shaped the development of industry between 1920 and 1940. Twenty years is a long time and many changes in manufacturing practice took place. The...