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Lucas Mere Green

Aliye

Brummie babby
My mum and Aunt worked at Lucas Mere Green before that both at Gt King Street. I joined Mere Green in around 1972 on and off for 6 years. Anyone there during the 70’s.?
 
Not during the 1970s but I was there from 1982 and through the years when it became linked to College Road, when Alex McDonald was General Manager, later Operations Director and John Lewis was Chief Engineer.
 
Not during the 1970s but I was there from 1982 and through the years when it became linked to College Road, when Alex McDonald was General Manager, later Operations Director and John Lewis was Chief Engineer.
Not during the 1970s but I was there from 1982 and through the years when it became linked to College Road, when Alex McDonald was General Manager, later Operations Director and John Lewis was Chief Engineer.
 
Worked there in the eirley eightys for a contractors (pipework) the training school later became the works engineers .worked there contracting again was there when concord flew from birmingham airport and during the lune eclips
 
What was manufactured at Lucas, Mere green?
Lucas made electronic assemblies for the car industry, customers were Rover Group and others, the Chief Engineer was John Lewis, and the General Manager was Alex McDonald. I worked there for a while in purchasing around 1988 with Etta Campbell, the site buyer.
 
Lucas made electronic assemblies for the car industry, customers were Rover Group and others, the Chief Engineer was John Lewis, and the General Manager was Alex McDonald. I worked there for a while in purchasing around 1988 with Etta Campbell, the site buyer.
Sub-assemblies of what. Starters,alternators, injection, distributors?
 
You may be aware but site has been purchased by Aldi or Lidl (sorry can't remember which!). It's ready for building on but many objections from locals. Opposite a large Sainsburys, the main objection is traffic as right turn into Sainsburys is a nightmare even at quiet times, but there's no other way in or out.
 
Sub-assemblies of what. Starters,alternators, injection, distributors?
electronic engine control units for lighting, thick film, various really, it was really a daughter plant to the mother plant at College Road, much smaller than CR, i think its a tesco supermarket these days as Lucas was sold to Varity, then it became TRW, then ZF bought it all out. Sad another old British name went to dust !.
 
You may be aware but site has been purchased by Aldi or Lidl (sorry can't remember which!). It's ready for building on but many objections from locals. Opposite a large Sainsburys, the main objection is traffic as right turn into Sainsburys is a nightmare even at quiet times, but there's no other way in or out.
I thought it was Tesco but your right it was a supermarket of sorts I heard...
 
electronic engine control units for lighting, thick film, various really, it was really a daughter plant to the mother plant at College Road, much smaller than CR, i think its a tesco supermarket these days as Lucas was sold to Varity, then it became TRW, then ZF bought it all out. Sad another old British name went to dust !.
Thanks for that.
Would be interesting to find out what different Lucas factories made.
Batteries were made at Formans road.

Starter motors..........

Dynamos.....

Alternators.....

Flasher units....

Wiper motors....

Distributors.....

The list goes on.
 
During my time involved with Lucas at Mere Green ( 1979-85 ), the site principally made semiconductors for the automotive industry, mainly diodes for alternators and thick film circuits. Latterly I was a development engineer in the chip design section which supported other Lucas sites. I remember Etta, a very nice lady who was in the Engineering and Design department when I started. I continued in the semiconductor industry after leaving Lucas and find it disappointing that the site is now another supermarket. There were some good skills and people there.
 
During my time involved with Lucas at Mere Green ( 1979-85 ), the site principally made semiconductors for the automotive industry, mainly diodes for alternators and thick film circuits. Latterly I was a development engineer in the chip design section which supported other Lucas sites. I remember Etta, a very nice lady who was in the Engineering and Design department when I started. I continued in the semiconductor industry after leaving Lucas and find it disappointing that the site is now another supermarket. There were some good skills and people there.
Thanks for that info, it fills a gap in my knowledge about Lucas, Mere Green.
 
During my time involved with Lucas at Mere Green ( 1979-85 ), the site principally made semiconductors for the automotive industry, mainly diodes for alternators and thick film circuits. Latterly I was a development engineer in the chip design section which supported other Lucas sites. I remember Etta, a very nice lady who was in the Engineering and Design department when I started. I continued in the semiconductor industry after leaving Lucas and find it disappointing that the site is now another supermarket. There were some good skills and people there.

If you mean Etta McKenzie-Campbell she was the site buyer when I worked at Mere Green in 1987, she had office in the main Engineering dept, i moved to College Road later then other places but yes LMG was a good place to work...if you didnt upset Alec McDonald the Operations Manager that is...
 
My mother worked the evening shift there 6-10 p.m. from about '74-'84. She painted a protective layer on I think semiconductor chips. She wanted a higher position but management were quite frank that she would need to sleep with people to get it...
 
Lucas also had another factory on the other side of the road, between Mere Green Road and the tennis courts; where Sainsbury's now stands, although all that was knocked down in the mid-late 80s
 
What always intrigued me about the Lucas site was how it was composed of two such completely different buildings. There was the art deco-ish part on the right and the steel and glass part on the left. Does anyone know why that was?
 
electronic engine control units for lighting, thick film, various really, it was really a daughter plant to the mother plant at College Road, much smaller than CR, i think its a tesco supermarket these days as Lucas was sold to Varity, then it became TRW, then ZF bought it all out. Sad another old British name went to dust !.
I was only 15 when my mum left in '84 so I only ever had a child's understanding of it, but it seemed to me that Lucas was always about to tilt over into financial meltdown; it always seemed to be struggling.

The site is now a Lidl. It's strange, as a child I always longed to visit the plant and have a look around but of course was never allowed to, and there I was a couple of months ago, visiting my parents, standing in the Lidl Car Park, with it occurring to me that I could have been standing in the exact same spot that my mother worked all those years ago...
 
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