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Penfold Golf ball factory. Bromford Lane

V

val

knowlegable brummie
This is for anyone who used to work at the Penfold Golf ball factory, in Bromford lane, Ward End. Sadly it is being demolished to make way for a new development, and it has been a view that I have looked at for years. I am taking photos every day, and here are a few from today.
Penfold1.jpg



penfold2.jpg
 
Ha ha this brings back memories. My Mom never worked whilst I was still at school, but the year I left 1962 she decided she wanted a job. She managed to get one at Penfield. Towards the end of her first week we were sitting around our table having tea and my dad asked how her day had been? She was full of general chitchat telling about us about the girls she worked with and so on. Then she told us about the forman a Mr Woodcock ............now bear in mind I was 15, had never ever heard my parents swear or anything like that,....... my Mom comes out with a classic. You'll never guess what the girls call him ............ "Mr Timber....."........ I nearly choked on my meal. To this day I'll never know how I managed to keep a straight face, partly because of what she said and partly because I'd never heard her say anaything like that before....... nor as it happed ever again.
But on a serious note its a shame its going another one of Birmingham trades gone to the wind!
 
Hi Jude, how funny! We dont think our parents can talk like that ! It is a shame its going, but it is a good thing because its been in such a state since Amber windows took over, then moved to bigger premises.
 
Thanks for posting the photos of Penfolds, Val. Very sad looking. I remember it well since it was on the route we took first by bus and then car to go to my Aunt Jessie's house in Shirley. I always used to look out for it. Did Penfold's go out of business altogether?
 
Hi jennyann, I believe, well this is what an ex worker told me, they sold out to a foreign buyer, then after they sold out, there was a part of the production the buyers couldn't do, so Penfold got a small factory and did that part of the process. I should imagine they have stopped altogether now. It makes me so mad that foreign buyers can buy up our flourishing companies and move production abroad, its like the HP factory, it just shouldn't be allowed!!
 
Thats a sad sight.:(

When I played Golf (Its the X-BOX now ) I was working at BCT Tyburn Road and a workmate Vic Smith's wife worked at Penfold and he got me loads of reject Balls to replace the new one's I'd made into rejects after a round of Golf each week. Must have saved me a packet.

He also taught me to play Chess which I enjoy from time to time now, bless him.:)
 
ohh thats so sad :(
_________
John Glenn
 
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Thanks for the pictures of Penfolds, my mother worked there from 1972 till July 1978 anyone remember her Kitty Lowe? she passed away in March 1997 would love to hear from anyone I have some pictures from when some one was getting married.
 
Just come across the Penfold Golf Ball factory, my grandparents lived in St. Margarets Avenue and my mom worked there, not sure if it was before or after she got married. It was a long long time ago though, just in case her name was Lilian Barry (nee Pugh)
Denise
 
val said:
I should imagine they have stopped altogether now.
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Penfold is actually still going and is still based in Birmingham. I should know - I just started working for them! There are a couple of people here who worked at Bromford Lane so I will ask them about the names that have been mentioned in this thread.

There's a bit about Penfold's history including the Bromford Lane years on the Penfold website https://www.penfoldgolf.com/british-golfing-history/index.html As you can imagine, the company is now a lot smaller than it was back in the day but the Penfold name is still going strong!
 
Just a vague memory from my boyhood,did it have two stone golf balls on pillars at the entrance,and would I have seen it walking along the canal towpath from Aston?.
 
moseleymile said:
Penfold is actually still going and is still based in Birmingham. I should know - I just started working for them! There are a couple of people here who worked at Bromford Lane so I will ask them about the names that have been mentioned in this thread.

There's a bit about Penfold's history including the Bromford Lane years on the Penfold website https://www.penfoldgolf.com/british-golfing-history/index.html As you can imagine, the company is now a lot smaller than it was back in the day but the Penfold name is still going strong!
Click to expand...

It did used to stink a bit when i used to pass it!...where is it based now then?.
 
Ray Barrett said:
Just a vague memory from my boyhood,did it have two stone golf balls on pillars at the entrance,and would I have seen it walking along the canal towpath from Aston?.
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I think it did have the golf balls but it's a bit away from a canal.
 
Ray Barrett said:
Just a vague memory from my boyhood,did it have two stone golf balls on pillars at the entrance,and would I have seen it walking along the canal towpath from Aston?.
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There were two pillars with large concrete golf balls on top, i don`t think you would have seen them from a canal, it was built on hill & the canal water would have flowed very fast and possibly flooded the old Bromford Racecourse!, it could been seen from a No 11 bus going towards Stetchford. Len.
 
Thanks Len,I was half right then.Don't know where the canal bit came from,used to walk that towpath often,Aston to Tamworth.
As a point of interest does anyone remember the barge that used to take the workers from Aston to Fort Dunlop?.
 
Ray, the nearest canal is by The Navigation pub now called Buffet Island towards Tyburn Road. Len
 
I have no contact to the Penfold Factory other than driving past it on Bromford Lane many times. Today, I have been on a tour of the building that replaced the factory. It's now a nursing home, it's been open about 12 months. The wife of a friend of mine is to go there for a few weeks respite care. It looks a very nice facility.
 
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gunmaker said:
I have no contact to the Penfold Factory other than driving past it on Bromford Lane many times. Today, I have been on a tour of the building that replaced the factory. It's now a nursing home, it's been open about 12 months. The wife of a friend of mine is to go there for a few weeks respite care. It looks a very nice facility.
/QUOTE

I think the nursing home is on the site of where Walter Smith the Butcher was. The Penfold factory was next door which is still a empty boarded up plot.
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Frothblower said:
I think the nursing home is on the site of where Walter Smith the Butcher was. The Penfold factory was next door which is still a empty boarded up plot.
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You may well be right Frothblower. I asked the manager what was on the site before the nursing home and she replied, "a golf ball factory". Next time I go past I will check what's there.
 
penball.jpg


I know I've put penball but I do mean penfold. As you see the nursing home is not on the Golf ball ( Penfold) factory site
 
my late mom worked there way back in the fifties her name was dorothy maiden name jackson.
she came from st'margarets road.it did have the golf balls at the main entrance.
 
Yes the nursing home is on the old Walter Smith plot. Plans for the Penfold plot have been submitted again, lets see if they do build this time!
 
Looking at Frothblowers pic, I would respectfully suggest that the Penfold was where the "Walter Smith" is shown. My wife worked there briefly in the late 60's

I remember when the site of the Police Station just up the road from this pic was a brick factory, with sloping-wall kilns and a huge claypit at the back, where there is now an open space. My mates from Ingleton Road often climbed down into the clay pit . It was opposite the clay factory that a dray horse dropped dead in its harnesses , causing most of the older kids from Ingleton Road school to go and have a look at it as it lay there dead.
 
Ingleton said:
Looking at Frothblowers pic, I would respectfully suggest that the Penfold was where the "Walter Smith" is shown. My wife worked there briefly in the late 60's
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Hi Ingleton, Frothblowers picture is correct, and I know for sure as I have lived opposite for 40 years, if you remember Penfold was right on the corner.
 
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