Richard Dye
master brummie
Super photos!
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Longbridge Factory
- Thread starter Pamelawagster
- Start date
nice photos...looks like he is wearing a chauffeurs uniform in one of the photos..do you know the location of the 2 car photos ? as your grandad sadly died due to an accident at work i would think it was reported in the newspapers..
lyn
A very informative 1920s advert, it also mentions the Austin Village. Thread link here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...ustin-village-turves-green.56825/#post-804911
Source : British Newspaper Archive
Source : British Newspaper Archive
Richard Dye
master brummie
Great advertisement Viv, so very sad that Austin went th3 way they did along with many others.
Thank you!
Hi Lyn,
Sorry for the delay in replying to you. I don't know where the car photos are taken, unfortunately. My grandad always lived around the Shell Corner area of Halesowen, but I've not spotted anything that matches the houses in the photos around there (I don't live in the area so it is tricky to decipher locations); I'm not sure if they had travelled somewhere else to have these photos taken. I'm not sure if the man in the chauffer uniform is family - there's no one still living who can give me any context for the photo, so I don't know if the subject of the photo is the person or the car.
Have had a look through some newspaper archives to see if I can find a report. No luck yet but I know articles are getting uploaded to all the times. The only clipping I have is one that my dad's family kept (attached).
Attachments
I am interested in the Foundry where your father worked. Do you know if it was North or East Works at Longbridge?
I'm interested to know if you worked there and the years. Also if you know for sure the Foundry at North Works was there until the end and never moved to East Works. It might settle a debate
I worked in the North Works machine shop and was gone by 1979. I had friends and acquaintances all over the plant and I'm not aware of a foundry in the East Works in my time there. However the factory was running for 26 years after I left and I couldn't vouch for the years after I left.
I just feel it's unlikely that there would be two foundries even in a factory of those proportions.
Very useful, thanks. My research interest is Wellingborough Foundry that cast Blocks and Heads for BMC/BL, many of which were sent to Longbridge, we think North Works and likely your Machine Works. They were marked with a W in a complete diamond. Others produced at Courthouse Green, Coventry were marked with an M in an incomplete diamond. And then there was Beans, their castings marked with a B in a circle.
In my years in the North Works machine shop the castings we were working on were A series, B series and, from circa 1978, O series. I hope that helps.
In addition to Wellingborough, Beans and Coventry (Morris Engines), cylinder blocks and heads were supplied by West Yorkshire foundry in Leeds. In the 1970's and 1980's, I worked for the company that supplied the different coloured block and head paints for all of these sites.
Yes WYF. You could be very useful to my research. There has been some debate regarding the Wellingborough Foundry Block and Head colours on leaving the Foundry. My contacts who worked there say eau de lnil green but I also have a photo of Wellingborough Blocks from 1981 (year of closure) in what I believe is red oxide. We could discuss by private message as this is off topic?
yes very helpful, thanks
Do you know if there was also a Machine Shop at East Works and if so did it receive castings from other Foundries?
Sorry JonJB. I don't have that information.
spirehouse22
New Member
Sadly it's a mass housing estate now there were alot of tunnels under the former works the former flight shed roof ended up in a Saltley scrapyard.
Some urban explorers did a few visits 28days later was one site, cofton park was where all the union meetings were held and at the east works there was a prototype jet engine car a former pond was used to test something as there was shakles embedded into the towpath.
Quite sad that it's all but gone now
Some urban explorers did a few visits 28days later was one site, cofton park was where all the union meetings were held and at the east works there was a prototype jet engine car a former pond was used to test something as there was shakles embedded into the towpath.
Quite sad that it's all but gone now
spirehouse22
New Member
The k series casting was at the east works lps it was called during the miners strike they stored coke for the boilers on the east works carpark also bare morris ital bodyshells...on there to.
The east works was a shadow factory in the war all that remains is a few road names which seem pitaful considering it's history.
The east works was a shadow factory in the war all that remains is a few road names which seem pitaful considering it's history.
Ian McLachlan
New Member
My family always called it ‘the Austin’. All day we could hear a big thumping sound, presumably from the foundry hammer.
When I first started school I used to catch the bus at the top of Longbridge Lane and see the mini shells being loaded by cranes onto waiting Lorries to then be taken up Lickey Road into the assembly plant. They built a bridge not long after and the doors opening onto the Bristol Road were no longer needed.
When I first started school I used to catch the bus at the top of Longbridge Lane and see the mini shells being loaded by cranes onto waiting Lorries to then be taken up Lickey Road into the assembly plant. They built a bridge not long after and the doors opening onto the Bristol Road were no longer needed.
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splinter555
knowlegable brummie
There was quite a large machine shop at east works, machining gears and crankshafts from rough castings. They were then used on the engine assembly tracks also in east works. Some engines were taken to Oxford for the Marina that was made there. I was a fork lift driver unloading the trucks that transported the castings from Sheffield and another company in Leeds as well as other companies.
l think the north works foundry only supplied a small amount of castings for the engines made in the east works.
Sorry just seen this, do you think Block and Head castings produced at the North Works Foundry were machined at North Works before being sent to the Engines Assembly at East Works?
splinter555
knowlegable brummie
I,m not sure on that, the north and south had their own engine assembly lines also. Because of the layout of the site various car parts were criss crossed all around the factory depending on which model was being made and where.
rich duisberg
New Member
Hello, I'm new here, I found this thread during my research for a new book I am writing about Derek 'Red Robbo' Robinson.
It's a long shot, but I would love to contact anyone who knew Robinson, or worked at Longbridge (or Rover, or suppliers to the company) anytime from the 60s to closure, in order to hear their experiences of those turbulent times. I'm compiling a list of the unrest, strikes and other workplace incidents that happened during that time (quite an eye-opener) and have accessed a lot of factory records and archives already. Now I'm hoping to build up contacts with people first hand, and hope that there might be folks on here able to help. A quick google of my name will show I'm a real person (motoring Journo and occasional writer) and hope I'll do the story justice. I think you can message me via this forum. Thanks.
PS - Oh, Happy Christmas! I ought to log off and buy some prezzies...
It's a long shot, but I would love to contact anyone who knew Robinson, or worked at Longbridge (or Rover, or suppliers to the company) anytime from the 60s to closure, in order to hear their experiences of those turbulent times. I'm compiling a list of the unrest, strikes and other workplace incidents that happened during that time (quite an eye-opener) and have accessed a lot of factory records and archives already. Now I'm hoping to build up contacts with people first hand, and hope that there might be folks on here able to help. A quick google of my name will show I'm a real person (motoring Journo and occasional writer) and hope I'll do the story justice. I think you can message me via this forum. Thanks.
PS - Oh, Happy Christmas! I ought to log off and buy some prezzies...