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BSA Factory 1940s Onwards

I am interested not in the guns made by BSA but in any old records that may have survived. My husbands great grandfather was a gunsmith in Birmingham. When he died in 1888 he was a widower and his 4 children were sent to Canada by Middlemore Homes. We have just discovered that their fare (or at least some of it) was paid for by workmen at a Small Arms Company with a grant from their hospital fund. I presume this to be a fairly large company so BSA comes to mind. At some time before his death their father had travelled to Austria presumably representing a gunmaking company. Some time ago another relative wrote to BSA but was told that they had no records. Does anyone know of any local historian who would maybe know about the early days of this company. It was started by 14 individuals and we wonder was John Garner maybe one of the early owners. Thanks for any assistance you can give.
Regards
Pat
 
Interesting videos, my father worked in the Smithy in the 50s my mother also worked at the BSA. During the war ( 2nd ) my mother was insulted by a German pow, the German later apologised and gave her his Panzer regiment tank badge which I still have
 
BSA 1917.png my father worked at the BSA during ww2, I don't know what his occupation was but he finished his working life as a viewer at The Brook Tool factory in Greet. I remember when I was little more than a toddler Mom and Dad took me and my ywo brothers to a Military Tattoo of some sort and we could see the factory from where we were sitting on the grass
 
My mother worked at the BSA during the war years. During the 50s and 60s she also worked an evening shift ( 6pm-10pm ). During the war there was a German POW working in the same shop as her, he apparently insulted her and she threw a large spanner at him. The following day he apologized and gave her his panzer regimental badge which I now have. My father also worked at the BSA after the war he worked in the smithy. Mom at one time was spraying the Bantam petrol tanks and hand painted a thin red line along the tank, these were for Spanish police bikes.
 
Hi stitcher,great photograph just as i remember it , it was my daily route to work as an apprentice in Bordesley green from Greet,
walked it,cycled it,bused it not to mention on motor cycles (BSA A7 and others) before getting a van,bet it's changed in the last 40 years
 
Great pics... Does any one know what happend to a memorial fountain that was fixable from Small Heath by-pass. It was like a large tripod that was wind powered.
 
In the 1960s/70s. It's claimed that the BSA sign was once the largest neon sign in Birmingham. Love the wings on the "B". Viv.

image.jpeg
 
In 1940 the BSA took a bit of a pounding from the Luftwaffe and 53 people lost their lives, but this didn't daunt the spirit of the workforce of mostly women who had taken the place of the men who were fighting in the army.
1. Armoury Road soon after the bombing.
2. The BSA Monument to the victims.
3. The Workforce in 1944

Small Heath Armoury Rd BSA Bombing.JPG Small Heath BSA War Memorial.JPG Small Heath BSA Workers c1944.JPG
 
I ad family's sides who worked at the BSA. My father Roland Bott, grandfather James Henry Bott and my grandmothers side the Quincey's.
Are any of these names in lyndeloos book please.
 
Hi Phil .Are you sure that pic 1 is Armoury Road ..We have looked at this picture in earlier posts and there was some doubt
 
Interesting posts. I worked on the line with B33's, Gold Flashes etc in my youth (circa 1952). My friend was son of the (then) Sales Director who had 'procured' an ex "Six Day Trial" B31. He had it restored to original for his Son who had been lending me his Bantam to learn on - and take my test. This was presented to him a week before my test and he said "You'll just have to go on this". Photo was taken - with me looking smug - on the BSA 'Rec' on the day he had his new bike. Wonder what it would be worth in that condition today ?
 

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My dad started nights after ww2 having left Rover,one morning he came home and told my mom that he was leaving, mom asked why ,he told her that they had let the Japan try some new nylon ball bearings in theBSA bikes and that it would not be long before BSA WOULD BE FINNISED and what happened
 
Interesting posts. I worked on the line with B33's, Gold Flashes etc in my youth (circa 1952). My friend was son of the (then) Sales Director who had 'procured' an ex "Six Day Trial" B31. He had it restored to original for his Son who had been lending me his Bantam to learn on - and take my test. This was presented to him a week before my test and he said "You'll just have to go on this". Photo was taken - with me looking smug - on the BSA 'Rec' on the day he had his 'new' bike. Wonder what it would be worth in that condition today ?
 

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Jeff Smith & Brian Povey were star trials riders, Jeff married a school girlfriend (though she never knew it) I was very jealous. Brian had a business and - after my RAF service - I went to work for him.
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Nigel Edwards said:
Jeff Smith & Brian Povey were star trials riders, Jeff married a school girlfriend (though she never knew it) I was very jealous. Brian had a business and - after my RAF service - I went to work for him.
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great stuff. i started there in 63 and me my number was ba 414. when i started there, you had to be inisiated in our dept. they coverd your wiz in swarfega and washing powder. :mad:did you remember jeff smith in the compt dept. my sister worked in the office when they got robbed when i left school..after my 6d dinner in the canteen i would walk through the crome plant, and have a nose in the final despatch dept. or go over the canal bridge to the club. i alter'd a tiger cub frame and put a bantam d7 engine in it. to play over the cow fields in shard end. my road bike was a trident 750. wish i still had any of them now.
 
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mw0njm, Can't remember the 6d dinner. Do remember falling into the canal once, probably showing off - only my pride damaged. My previous thread mentioned the B31 'thrust' upon me to take my test which I had been training for on the Bantam. The test was, in those good old days, fairly rudimentary involving going down from the Moseley test centre to Yardley Wood Road, left then a 180 then left, another 180 back to the test centre. The joke being the examiner could not see the rider most of the time! The real joke was me arriving at the test and struggling to get the B31 on the stand! after the Bantam a 'bit' heavier. A kind gent saw my struggle and helped. I entered the test centre, waited my turn only then to see the 'kind gent' appear and call my name. I thought "This is a fail". I passed and his parting words were "You must master the stand" - with a smile.
 
mw0njm. said:
and me my number was ba 414. when i started there, you had to be inisiated in our dept. they coverd your wiz in swarfega and washing powder. :mad:did you remember jeff smith in the compt dept. my sister worked in the office when they got robbed
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Luckily, I was never initiated. I first worked there on the Beagle Cylinder heads ( strangely, I've never seen a beagle on the road) before moving to D Section working on the A50 /A65 crankcases. I too used to wander around the factory in my dinner time and sometimes also scavenged the scrap site for parts that were damaged. If anything was not too damaged, i.e small dents, chrome plating that had imperfections or any other "seconds" that were suitable, I would take them to the office and pay a token price for them. I don't think I ever paid more than £1. As you can see, I had quite a few "modern" additions to my 1955 A7 combo ( chrome mudguards-twin clocks-chrome headlamp cowls- passenger handrail etc ) before I sold it to buy a car in 1965.
1965 copy.jpg
 
Banjo said:
Luckily, I was never initiated. I first worked there on the Beagle Cylinder heads ( strangely, I've never seen a beagle on the road) before moving to D Section working on the A50 /A65 crankcases. I too used to wander around the factory in my dinner time and sometimes also scavenged the scrap site for parts that were damaged. If anything was not too damaged, i.e small dents, chrome plating that had imperfections or any other "seconds" that were suitable, I would take them to the office and pay a token price for them. I don't think I ever paid more than £1. As you can see, I had quite a few "modern" additions to my 1955 A7 combo ( chrome mudguards-twin clocks-chrome headlamp cowls- passenger handrail etc ) before I sold it to buy a car in 1965.
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i too worked on the beagle heads, with a bloke called buster.putting in valves and rockers. dad had a bsa combo. i used to ride it around his works yard of a weekend. shaking my arms trying to steer it.:sweat:
 
mw0njm. said:
great stuff. i started there in 63 and me my number was ba 414. when i started there, you had to be inisiated in our dept. they coverd your wiz in swarfega and washing powder. :mad:did you remember jeff smith in the compt dept. my sister worked in the office when they got robbed when i left school..after my 6d dinner in the canteen i would walk through the crome plant, and have a nose in the final despatch dept. or go over the canal bridge to the club. i alter'd a tiger cub frame and put a bantam d7 engine in it. to play over the cow fields in shard end. my road bike was a trident 750. wish i still had any of them now.
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You must remember FANNY in the canteen, a white haired "mature lady" used to serve the 6d dinners after which I'd also walk through the plating shop, over the canal bridge for a game of snooker in the club house, half a shandy then back to work...........great days. 1960 to 1969.
 
That mature lady Fanny Grosvnor was my nanny my cousins and I use to meet her on the way home from work and she would have make us apple turnovers to eat on our way home
 
rosielab said:
That mature lady Fanny Grosvnor was my nanny my cousins and I use to meet her on the way home from work and she would have make us apple turnovers to eat on our way home
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Dear old Fanny, what a smashing lady, there were many ladies working in the canteen but Fanny is the only one I can remember, not to be messed with but a great laugh and a rather saucy sense of humour. Mid morning break, can of coke and a toasted "hot cross bun" but Fanny flatly refused to toast one on a Good Friday. I can still see her like it was yesterday and will never forget what she called prunes and custard.
 
You described her to a tea she passed away when I was 8 but have fond memories of her she would have a big Christmas tree and cover it with chocolates but us kids couldn't have one until we did a turn e.g. dance sing or read a poem
 
sylviasayers said:
I worked for the BSA in the Export Sales Department from July 1957 just after I got married and
went to live in Small Heath and thought it too far to travel to Norton Motors in Aston!! This was just after the Bernard Docker era and BSA was making the Gold Star a wonderful motorbike. The Japanese were just starting to make inroads into our motorcycle industry then.

I could weep when I think of all the old famous firms which have gone by the wayside as listed by Aston, plus Norton Motors, Sun Cycles, Dunlop (my dad would turn in his grave if he knew what happened to them - he started at Aston Cross when he came out of the army about 1919/1920 moved to Pype Hayes with them, and worked there until he retired in 1966). Also Ansells, M & B, Atkinsons Breweries (my first job) so many. Birmingham was known as the workshop of the world - I dread to think what the future holds.
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My mum ivy Webb / Stephens worked at the nsa factory small heath putting ball bearings in the pedals of the bikes. She told me her and a friend were asked to go outside and have there picture taken with the bike. I think this was in the 50/60’s. She has just passed away aged 90. She also lived in flower road small heath.
 
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