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Ariel Automotive works, Birmingham June'09

Virusman26

Virusman26

master brummie
Ariel was a bicycle, motorcycle and automobile marque manufacturer based in Bournbrook, Birmingham, England. Car production moved to Coventry in 1911. The company dates back to 1847 when Ariel made an early pneumatic-tyred wheel for horse drawn carriages. The name was revived by James Starley and William Hillman in 1870 when they invented the wire-spoke wheel which allowed them to build a lighter weight bicycle and named it Ariel (the spirit of the air).In 1902, Components Ltd., owned by Charles Sangster, bought the company and began producing motorcycles, but the company suffered several financial crises including spells in receivership in 1911 and the early 1930s. In 1932, Components Ltd went bankrupt, and Jack Sangster, Charles Sangster's son, bought the Ariel subsidiary from the receivers at a bargain price. The company was renamed Ariel Motors (J.S.) Ltd, and promptly resumed production.The company name was reused in 1999 for the formation of Ariel Ltd, a sports car producer.

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Looks like the Sky Rat killer has moved from the Birmingham Battery and Metal to here!!
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Not too sure about dates, but when the Ariel manufacture stopped on this site, a company called Boxfoldia took over. They are a huge cardboard carton maker, who are now based in Redditch.

The site has been used as an art installation, and is heavilly graff'd inside. Not much remains internally, other than a cool open area with the chimney still in place.

Due to be pulled down, as of this week.

Hope this is of some use to someone!!!
 
thanks for those pics neil....looks like thats a fairly large piece of land there....no guesses as to what is most likely plannned to be built there....

lyn
 
hi neil
I seem to remember some part of the ariel works on the bristol road selly oak, right by the railway bridge on the hill, sometime in the early 60's I remember looking down into the yard and seeing row.s and row,s of the ariel arrow, and leader,??
regards
paul stacey
 
Hi Paul.

From the description, that sounds about right. The Birmingham Battery and Metal Company ran all the way down the Bristol road and almost met the Ariel works by the bridge. Bothe are now gone with shops, retail parks, and Student digs in their place. What on earth is happening to the HUGE industry that was ours?! Madness.
 
hi neil
quite right, I remember as a boy and youth in the early mornings, bus loads of workers,and on bikes and motor bikes all going to cadburys, the austin, birmingham battery and lucas, bus stops full of waiting workers, with their snap tins in WW2 karki bags on their shoulders, when you add dunlop, and gkn steel, bsa, and all the other small/medium manufactoring companys, I really feel quite sad for our great city as the centre of industry for nearly 150 yrs.
regards
paul stacey
 
I never realised that the Ariel works was so big! I mentioned on another thread that my first job was at Birmingham University, and the 61, 62 and 63 buses were packed with workers from Ariel, B'ham Battery, and other factories in Selly Oak.

What really makes me so bloody angry about UK industry is that our splendid New Labour government had the opportunity to make it just as difficult for large employers to shed British jobs as it was (and is) in France, Germany, Italy, etc. Most multinationals looking to shed jobs just close down UK factories because they know there will be no official opposition. And where are our once-powerful unions these days? Any major manufacturing closure in France results in immediate action on the part of the unions.

I know what many people think of her, but Thatcher was instrumental in getting overseas companies to invest in the UK, particularly the Japanese electronic companies. Since 1997 Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi and at least a couple of others have more or less closed down their UK manufacture, without so much as a whimper from No 10.

Big Gee
 
Big Gee said:
I know what many people think of her, but Thatcher was instrumental in getting overseas companies to invest in the UK, particularly the Japanese electronic companies. Since 1997 Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi and at least a couple of others have more or less closed down their UK manufacture, without so much as a whimper from No 10. Big Gee
Click to expand...

You must understand that overseas companies investments were only to learn our ways, then do it more cheaply back home.
Does anyone seriously think that the Chinese MG production at Longbridge will last more than a token couple of years?
And where are our once-powerful unions these days? Any major manufacturing closure in France results in immediate action on the part of the unions.
Click to expand...
The Thatcher government stabbed unions in the back, and gave the working man his chance to buy his council house. With a mortgage to fund as well as feed his family, no-one could afford to strike again. The rich land (and factory) owners could tread all over the workers, then throw them on the streets as they sold the business know-how abroad. Politicians are too busy buying duck islands and funding the building of bedrooms for au-pairs from our taxes to do anything for the country.
 
Hi Lloyd,

You must understand that overseas companies investments were only to learn our ways, then do it more cheaply back home.
Does anyone seriously think that the Chinese MG production at Longbridge will last more than a token couple of years?
Click to expand...

I don't think we could teach the Japanese much about electronic manufacture in the 1980's, when their big companies open UK plants. They wanted a European manufacturing base, and the Thatcher government came up with the best deal in the EC, including grants, favourable loan-rates, and so forth. The Japanese had nicked their technology from the USA in the 1950's and early 1960's, and developed it way beyond anything the USA could match.

I visited Nissan Sunderland shortly after it opened (1990-ish) and I was absolutely astounded at the difference between it and 'our' car factories at the time, which were still floundering around with what was basically 1960's production technology. What really hit me was how Nissan operated with so few 'human' workers, courtesy of their state-of-the-art robotics.

I thought the Chinese MG production had stopped already?

I hear what you say about the unions, Lloyd, and I suppose to an extent you're right, but there's much more to it than that, I think. Maybe this is not the place to develope this debate.

Big Gee
 
There are for and against arguments for any story, but manufacturing is close to my heart as that is my job! Yes, there has been a major change since 1997, and not for the better. Only now are companies starting to come back around from years of neglect and under-funding. Mr Brown has recently had 175 millon quid to put back into a worthwhile cause. What did he do? Put it back into the banking system!! They lost all the bloody money in the first place! That money could have been better spent. Give 1 million to 175 flailing, but profitable companies, and kick start the uk manufacturing scene. NO, to bloody obvious.

So now, we have more and more companies, and amazing old Victorian buildings like this one ready for the bull dozers.

Gutted.
 
I think sometimes we are our own worst enemy. I remember my sister in laws Dad woked in a large engineering company. They had many visits in the late 50's early 60's by the Japanese he was always given the day off as he was in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Why did they make so many visits? We have a Rover 75 over ten years old it's a lovely car and believe me my husband drives many different high class cars in his work as a chauffeur. I knew the man who helped develop the engine for this car and remember how he felt when Rover was in decline. Sadly he died not long after he left of a heart attack. I often wonder if it was a broken heart.
 
Too true Wendy - on far too many occasions the British public have failed to support manufacturing here in the UK. To not buy "home made" products in say Germany or France would be considered a scandal, and rightly so. Eg LDV vans ( formerly Freight Rover ) could have been supported by the ambulance service buying much more of their products, but no they bought imported Mercedes,Renault etc. Utter madness.
 
phil72 i wish i could agree with you, i bought british made cars since i was able to drive, (1987) rover being the main ones, i had a rover 45 , an excellent car if it wasnt for the head gaskets constantly need replacing (3 in 3 years) i found out that it was a common problem with rovers, very very expensive to replace, now if this was a common problem how come it wasnt sorted ? i now drive a german built car and the difference in quality and reliabilty is vast, i truly wish that i could support british jobs and where i can i do, but i have to support myself first. please dont think i am knocking the average british worker because i sincerly am not, but if rover would have sorted out the problem with the headgasket i would have gladly bought british, but to replace a head gasket every year ??? and like i said a common problem. it seemed to me that rover just stood still with little investment in new models etc and now they have paid the price........very sad
as for the ambulance service buying ldv........they did a few years ago, they were always in workshops because they was constantly breaking down, as for the renault ? i would rather walk, mercedes ?? very expensive but reliable , what would you prefer to roll up outside your house in an emergency ??? like i said please dont think i am knocking the average british worker its the lack of investment and forward thinking that i get upset about. its like a house , if you invest in it then one day it will fall down. totally off topic tho.....cadburys, another british company that will in 5 years will cease to exist here, hp ring any bells ??? the company is already owned by americans (40%) its all about money and nothing else. and this government will just sit back and talk about it. this would never happen in france or germany so why do we allow it here.
 
Hi Captblack - the biggest question is what you summed up all too well with your last line of reply "why do we allow it here"? And the answer has to be, that collectively as a country ( those all too few individuals apart ), us Brits are a bunch of mugs. We are the laughing stock of Europe. The french or Germans wouldn't care less if anything they produced was the best / worst available, or even if it broke down - it's their's and that's that. Keeping their own people in jobs, telling the rest of the world to keep their mitts off them, etc. What has happened to Cadbury's make me so angry, here we have a great British company, renown the world over for quality,AND they even make a profit ! Yes as I just heard during the programme "Working lunch" https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qc04y/Working_Lunch_19_01_2010/ the shareholders do own the company, yes they approved the sale - but with circa 6000 British jobs potentially at risk now, the British goverment should have stepped in and said enough's enough. For the greater good - we are stopping this takeover ( and a hostile one at that ). Watching the Cadbury's staff interviewed on this programme makes me wonder just who the shareholders are?! I bet the majority of them have never set foot inside Bournville.
 
phil you are right we are a bunch of mugs, how many more british companies and jobs are going to be lost until someone somewhere high up actually DOES something, we elect these people and they supposed to represent us and have our interests at heart, it all comes down to money in the end, politicians who say they care really dont, they complain that its just the way of the world or there is nothing they can do because its the law of the land, well THEY are the ones who make the laws, the likes of me and you and those who will lose their jobs dont make the laws, why dont they just admit it , they dont care, Rover was a company losing money for years, what has happened to those greedy b***ards known as the pheonix four? they certainly seemed to have come out of it rather rich didnt they, the workers didnt, but what was done about it??? nothing, politicians bleated about how it was wrong but there was nothing they could do about it, no one was able to do anything, but the politicians could have closed the moral loophole in the law that enabled it to happen in the first place, THEY HAVENT, so it will happen again and again. Cadburys, as you have said is a company making a profit but you just wait, kraft havent really filled people with security and from what i have heard on the radio they will decimate the place, and still this government will stand back and let it happen. they will set up an enquiry that will cost the tax payer millions (money that could be put to better use) and then they will leave it at that, very very very sad.
 
I have the misfortune to be working at LDV. and have done for twenty years. and sad to say am having to witness the demolition of the paint shop which is only 10years old. It is heart breaking to watch it going I can put faces to most of the work stations in the paint and V block and the maintenance departments. I have taken Photoes of the demolition as it progressed and also the emptying of the press shop F block and so on the Chinese once more have stripped most of the assets and shipped the back to china. I will post some of the picture as soon as I have cataloged them. I have a little bit of good news to come out of the demolition of the paint shop on removing a wall in the S block sub station a crain made by ROYCE of Manchester was found it appears that this crane was one in about 4 or 5 royce made before teaming up with Rolls nd was put into place in 1904. I will give more information on it as i find out more.
PHIL72 said:
Too true Wendy - on far too many occasions the British public have failed to support manufacturing here in the UK. To not buy "home made" products in say Germany or France would be considered a scandal, and rightly so. Eg LDV vans ( formerly Freight Rover ) could have been supported by the ambulance service buying much more of their products, but no they bought imported Mercedes,Renault etc. Utter madness.
Click to expand...
 
Hi all
My grandfather Walter Chance worked at the Ariel motorbike untill he retired in about 1960 Just before BSA became involved with the company.
I can remember Wal telling me that the Arrow was first designed as the answer to the Labretta scooter but was redesigned as a motor bike hence the tank under the saddle and a false tank /glove box. The Leader was designed by BSA. and sold under the badge of the Ariel. I have a photograph of an Ariel motorbike that dad owned for a short time the flying horse is missing off the tank and a two engined plane simular to the decota was on the side of the tank this was used for a short time before reinstating pegasus.
 
I bought an Ariel Leader in 1959 after finishing my National Service. Damn good machine too. It's registration number was YOB 50, be worth a lot of money now possibly.
 
I remember the "Leader & Arrow" and a chap down our road rode a "Square Four" all done up in a trench mac and goggles, huge machine to a young lad.
paul
 
The Ariel in York Rd was, as has been said, one of the oldest manufacturer's of Motorcycles in B';ham. There were two reasons for it's demise. First, like Velocette in Hall Green with the LE, they went up a blind alley with the Leader & Arrow machines, incorrectly reading the market. Second, they became joined up into the mess that was BSA/Triumph after Jack Sangster had opened the door for this 20 years previously. Unfortunately, this was the 50's & 60s when the Dockers and their cronies were on the Board of Directors ... people who DETESTED motorcycles but enjoyed spending the wealth they produced. Banning all development/Sport work they let the factories decline. New models were envisaged, even made, but were squashed by order of Turner & Jofeh and others. The 1969 Honda 750/4 - acknowledged as THE most influential machine of over 100 years, could have hit the road with a BSA badge on it in 1963.
Its a huge story, but essentially its down to the greed of complacent, corrupt Management I'm afraid. That's not some Socialist outcry, but proven History. Read "Whatever happened to the British Motorcycle Industry" By Bert Hopgood.
 
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