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BSA Factory In Blitz

  • Thread starter Thread starter historymaker
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As for picture 4 have seen this loads of times and cannot place it anywhere in the factory. Lived down Armoury Rd and went all over the factory during demolition ( and before but that’s another story lol )
 
This is a very interesting document Captblack! Thanks for sharing! I can indeed imagine that the places where the bombs fell are more accurate in this document than on the bomb census map. Added benefit: the exact dates when the bombs fell. Will have to check and compare a few things now! :)

As for the picture in #4: I am more and more convinced that this picture must have been taken elsewhere...

Cheers,
Jan
 
OK, so this were the bombs that fell on the BSA factory according to the "official" bomb census map:

dots 3.png

But according to Captblack's excellent document, it looks more like this:
(I'm just a bit unsure about which bombs were HE and which were incendiary bombs)

dates.png
Schermafbeelding 2017-11-06 om 18.37.55.png

Interesting to see that the "new factory building" was bombed in the opposite corner of what everybody was thinking! And indeed, the factory was hit during three raids within three months: August 26th 1940, November 19th 1940 and November 22nd 1940.

Jan
 
I've also checked the ledgers with the BSAM20 production again, and have come to this conclusion:

After the August 26th raid the production of the M20 wasn't interrupted or delayed.

This is the daily production before and after the November air raids:
1/11: 82
2/11: 49
3/11: none (Sunday)
4/11: 65
5/11: 85
6/11: 81
7/11: 82
8/11: 89
9/11: 39
10/11: none (Sunday)
11/11: 59
12/11: 59
13/11: 92
14/11: 87
15/11: 80
16/11: 50
17/11: none (Sunday)
18/11: 57
19/11: 67
20/11: 33 (this is just after the air raid of 19/11)
21/11: none
22/11: 20

From November 23rd 1940 onwards (this is just after the air raid of 22/11) the production was delayed until December 22nd 1940:

22/12: 6
23/12: none
24/12: 24
25/12: none (Christmas)
26/12: 49
27/12: 23
28/12: 53
29/12: none (Sunday)
30/12: 46
31/12: 58
1/1/1941: 24 (New Year)
2/1: 50
3/1: 46
4/1: 36
5/1: none (Sunday)
6/1: 50
7/1: 47
8/1: 52
9/1: 50
10/1: 57
etc...

The November air raids clearly had an effect on the production: not only had the production been delayed by a month, but the average production of 70 motorcycles per day had dropped to an average of only 35 bikes per day when the production resumed in late December 1940 - early January 1941. Also interesting to see that production continued on New Year's day!

Jan
 
what a mystery this is turning out to be:rolleyes: wherever that photo was taken it caused considerable damage...

lyn
 
You can clearly see where they rebuilt the factory in the 50’s , strange that they never rebuilt the centre section but just put a corrugated roof over it,
 

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Interesting photographs. The roofing and the bricks of the rebuilt part of the building clearly have a different colour!

Jan
 
My great grandad Harry Walter Tibbatts was the schoolkeeper at Oldknow Road School and helped with the rescue and recovery. I'm told he was given a hessian sack to collect up some body parts. As I was told it, some bodies were never recovered. I can't find out any more information though, it wasn't spoken of much and those who knew him are deceased now.
 
As a child I lived in Hall Green,71 Doveridge Road and our neighbour next door but one had four boys so with four of us we were always playing together.
My Mum and Aunty Dot as we called their mother were very close friends and her husband Steve, as he preferred to be called was Alf Stevens the electrician at BSA who was awarded the George Medal for working alongside Albert Bailey to form a human bridge to enable some of the luckier survivors to escape.
As a child I remember this and despite some contact with the Stevens family in the late 1990s I eventually lost contact.
Here we all are probably around 1960 Roy and Andrew two of the Stevens lads I recognise.
I am in the centre, my twin Andy his hands to his head behind.
We all look very happy!
 

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loveday said:
As a child I lived in Hall Green,71 Doveridge Road and our neighbour next door but one had four boys so with four of us we were always playing together.
My Mum and Aunty Dot as we called their mother were very close friends and her husband Steve, as he preferred to be called was Alf Stevens the electrician at BSA who was awarded the George Medal for working alongside Albert Bailey to form a human bridge to enable some of the luckier survivors to escape.
As a child I remember this and despite some contact with the Stevens family in the late 1990s I eventually lost contact.
Here we all are probably around 1960 Roy and Andrew two of the Stevens lads I recognise.
I am in the centre, my twin Andy his hands to his head behind.
We all look very happy!
Click to expand...
how wonderful....be pushed to find a happier photo..thanks for sharing

lyn
 
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