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Yes, Rover built a small four seat saloon car powered by a gas-turbine, and even produced a sales brochure for it, but obviously never sold any, because the problems of noise and heavy fuel consumption were never solved. You could hear the car returning to the factory at night when it was about...

These two pictures show ARP men practicing wearing their gas masks, and the Home Guard marching out of the Drews Lane gate. PA739

I am looking for a picture of this Victorian building, numbered 120/122/124 Alcester Road, Moseley. It was next door to the Prince of Wales pub, and was a motor car dealers premises which traded under the name of Henry Garner for about 50 years. Unfortunately, the original building was...

Last Thursday I travelled from Birmingham city centre to Great Barr on a National Express number 51 bus, which was powered by Hydrogen/fuel cells. These buses were supposed to be in service for the Commonwealth Games! But, at last we got there!! PA739

I spent about two years in the SU experimental department, (Wood Lane) mainly making up sets of the so-called SU Twin Choke carbs and doing the test bed development of an Austin Healey 3000 rally engine which I fitted with triple SU twin chokes, in effect six HS6 carbs. Succeeded in getting the...

2024 is the Centenary year of the founding of the company Morris Commercial Cars Ltd, when it opened its first factory in Foundry Lane, Soho, and became one of the biggest producers of commercial vehicles in Europe. PA739

The site where the new BCFC is to be built originally had several brick works there, plus of course part of the Morris Commercial works, and Milliner's coachbuilders who did a lot of military vehicles during the war was close by, plus of course the main railway line between Birmingham and...

George H Hughes was founded in 1878, but the illustrations and information here are from a 1914 catalogue. Famously the makers of perambulator wheels, the company made a wide range of rubber tyred steel wheels from 5 inches diameter furniture casters at 7 shillings each, up to 48 inches diameter...

The Stellite Works was acquired by Vickers and renamed The Electric & Ordnance Accessories Co. Ltd., to make munitions and electrical products. The company moved to Drews Lane at the end of 1914. PA739

Pre BMC Nuffield companies in Birmingham were, Morris Commercial at Adderley Park, Nuffield Metal Products at Common Lane, Wolseley at Drews Lane, and SU Carburettors at Wood Lane, Erdington. PA739

For anyone interested. The Wolseley Register on-line shop is now selling a book called "Alldays & Onions Pneumatic Engineering Co. Ltd",, which is a complete history of the company and includes over 80 pages of car production data. This could be a short run book, as the Register says it only has...

Are you thinking of Harry Hawkins newsagents shop at 63 Glovers Road? Harry ran the shop with his sister, but they lived in Shirley, and came down to the shop in their little blue Skoda car which he parked on the pavement in front of the shop. This is where I had my regular magazines from...

Amidst the horrors of World War 2, Wolseley workers at the Drews Lane factory bought presents for children who were in hospital at Christmas. PA739

Forgot to mention. There is a connection here with Morris Commercial, because that is where the pre-production prototypes were built, and plans to put it into production at Adderley Park were already advanced. PA739

I spent about 30 years working for BMC / British Leyland, but the build quality of cars built at Cowley was far better than those built at Longbridge. When Leyland merged with BMC the new ADO 19 "Ant" 4x4, was scrapped because Land Rover objected to it, even though the pre-production prototypes...

Unfortunately, Longbridge turned out absolute rubbish in the late 1960's and 1970's. The only thing important in British Leyland days, was meeting production schedules, even if cars were not selling, and ended up rotting away on fields. "Quality" was not in their dictionary! PA739

For anybody wanting to take a much closer look, and learn a bit of history, about some of the old buildings still standing in the city centre, try the pocket guide book "FACES of OLD BIRMINGHAM", I think it is only available from Symphony Hall Gift Shop. (130 pages in full colour) PA739

I think the D9 buses were far better than some of our rear engine buses; quiet, powerful and a better ride with their independent front suspension, and of course, were the first double deckers fitted with front disc brakes, although they had problems, apparently, finding a high melting point...

Looks as if Ex. Army Transport Ltd., was a national company, but sub-contracted work out to existing haulage companies. See attached picture. PA739

Attached - Wolseley and Morris Commercial women workers preparing to march in Drews Lane, WW2. PA739