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Holder and Bishop Ltd in Balsall Heath Road

R

Redwood

Brummie babby
Does anyone remember the Holder and Bishop factory in Balsall Heath Road? It was at No. 166. Raven Works, (between Cox Street West and Upper Cox Street) and was some sort of engineering factory. My grandfather was Arthur Claud Bishop, managing director from ( I think) the 1930s until the 1960s, although I don't know exact years. I don't know what they made, but during WW2 they did "important war work" - could it have been some sort of munitions? Perhaps that's why bombs were dropped around it. They missed but the bombed out area next to it was, I believe, used as a cycle speedway track. I don't know a lot about it and have never seen a photo (despite studying the background to photos of the speedway track on this site!). Be interested to know if anyone can remember it!
Redwood
 
Redwood said:
Does anyone remember the Holder and Bishop factory in Balsall Heath Road? It was at No. 166. Raven Works, (between Cox Street West and Upper Cox Street) and was some sort of engineering factory. My grandfather was Arthur Claud Bishop, managing director from ( I think) the 1930s until the 1960s, although I don't know exact years. I don't know what they made, but during WW2 they did "important war work" - could it have been some sort of munitions? Perhaps that's why bombs were dropped around it. They missed but the bombed out area next to it was, I believe, used as a cycle speedway track. I don't know a lot about it and have never seen a photo (despite studying the background to photos of the speedway track on this site!). Be interested to know if anyone can remember it!
Redwood
Click to expand...
Hello Redwood, I certainly can’t remember them. I did try to look them up and there was not much I could see, maybe other members can.
What I did find was that they made tools (very broad term) and were founded in about 1938. The company was dissolved in the ‘90’s but I got the sense that production stopped sometime prior to that!
Good luck with your search!
 
Thanks Richard Dye, it's interesting to know when they were founded. The map seems to imply the factory was behind a narrow frontage - perhaps it could be seen better from the bomb peck next to it. I wonder if some of these factories grew up behind ordinary terraced houses? I think it must have been the building marked "tool works" in the middle.
Redwood
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They were recruiting for staff in the papers till 1969. The cutting below from 1940 shows they were doing aircraft and gun work

Birm mail.30.5.1940.jpg
 
Thanks Mikejee, that's interesting. It sounds like he bought the property in 1938 when the area was a respectable lower class one, then the war hit in and affected Balsall Heath really badly, the property prices dropped like a stone and the reputation of the area also took a hit. I suppose the factory was a legitimate target as far as the Germans were concerned.
Redwood
 
Redwood said:
Thanks Mikejee, that's interesting. It sounds like he bought the property in 1938 when the area was a respectable lower class one, then the war hit in and affected Balsall Heath really badly, the property prices dropped like a stone and the reputation of the area also took a hit. I suppose the factory was a legitimate target as far as the Germans were concerned.
Redwood
Click to expand...
Redwood, there is information available on company directors into the 1990’s
 
Redwood said:
Does anyone remember the Holder and Bishop factory in Balsall Heath Road? It was at No. 166. Raven Works, (between Cox Street West and Upper Cox Street) and was some sort of engineering factory. My grandfather was Arthur Claud Bishop, managing director from ( I think) the 1930s until the 1960s, although I don't know exact years. I don't know what they made, but during WW2 they did "important war work" - could it have been some sort of munitions? Perhaps that's why bombs were dropped around it. They missed but the bombed out area next to it was, I believe, used as a cycle speedway track. I don't know a lot about it and have never seen a photo (despite studying the background to photos of the speedway track on this site!). Be interested to know if anyone can remember it!
Redwood
Click to expand...
I do not personally remember Holder and Bishop but my dad used to work there, in the 1940's I think, maybe during the war because he told me that he was in one of the reserved professions, a toolmaker. Here is a picture of him in what i think is the factory :
 

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What a great photo! Thanks so much for sharing it. Do you think the photo dates from the war years? I think it could well be Holder and Bishop's - I was taken there once when I was quite young in the early 60s. My hazy memory is of a room not that wide, with machinery down both sides.
Best wishes, Redwood
 
Thanks. I am not too sure about the date to be honest. It would have been the early 1940's i guess. After the war he started at Fisher and Ludlow on the Chester Rd in Erdington.
 
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