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Kynochs

P

Ponz

Brummie babby
Looking for information on me Grandad who was killed at Kynochs by a live stray bullet in1943 I believe,a William Bishop, his name was on the war memorial outside the factory.
 
pjmburns said:
Do you know what his death cert gives as cause of death?
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Been speaking to my mom,she was about 6 when he died,he worked on the melting pots accidental I believe on death certificate.live bullet shot out ,she said easter time 1943,March or April,had a couple of brothers working there Harry and Albert,me mom said he saved a bloke who was falling into the melting pot once,he got burnt his self,got a letter from the company thanking him,also had a fight or two my mom said,someone put a dead mouse as a prank in his sandwich once lol,was a bit of a case by all accounts my mom got more info of her sister who was 6 years older then her
 
Ponz said:
Been speaking to my mom,she was about 6 when he died,he worked on the melting pots accidental I believe on death certificate.live bullet shot out ,she said easter time 1943,March or April,had a couple of brothers working there Harry and Albert,me mom said he saved a bloke who was falling into the melting pot once,he got burnt his self,got a letter from the company thanking him,also had a fight or two my mom said,someone put a dead mouse as a prank in his sandwich once lol,was a bit of a case by all accounts my mom got more info of her sister who was 6 years older then her
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Used to work there myself, there was two places this could have happened from what i know. The main foundry was attached to the Strip Mill, they was casting a wide range of non-ferrous metals. The other area was at the Rod Mill but i think they only processed copper. The bullet casing being made of brass would have gone, once used, back to the main foundry for reprocessing in very large scrap containers, almost impossible to spot a live one as it was emptied into the large crucible (melting pot}.
 
When a round cooks off in a fire the bullet itsself becomes the back stop
as the casing explodes sometimes the head will pop off with the afect of a spent bullet or the same after a though and though
Yes as kids we were always putting 303s
Into a fire as we found many when the tame was at low ebb
 
Hi

My first job when I left school in 1958 was in the Offices in the Rod Mill copper was smelted from scrap copper and some was turned into brass by adding I think it was zink and silicon. It then went into the mill itself where it was extruded into brazing rods, wind screen surrounds and curtain rails.I was the office boy ? filing clerk which I hated. I wasn't impressed with the office manager on Charley Craven with his big handlebar mustache, I was forever in trouble with him because i hated the bikes we w2ere given and so I tended to use my own which which according to him I was seen riding furiously on a number of ocasions.

A lasting memory I had from the place was Zink Monday. It is where when you are away from the furnaces where zink is melted you have a runny nose and cold like symptoms. I suffered with it for years after leaving. I supose now it would be classed ans an industrial injury.

The doctor told me it wont kill me I'm just going to have to get used to it.

Brian
 
Hi

Reading back through the thread reminded me I very occasionally had to go to "Burning Out". A section away from the main works close to the canal, where the ammunition was tested, there were two Bren Guns mounted on stands on concrete blocks, I would stand and watch for some time with the tracer rounds going down the range. We could hear them from the playground at the Great Barr Comp. There were also a couple of bonfires where a lot of the old ammunition was thrown on for destruction that I remembered was accompanied by the occasional bang.

It wasn't unheard of for suitably minded office boys to go home with a number of 22 rounds in their turn ups, remember those, once home the bullet heads would be pulled out the ends squeezed with pliers and then given a sharp smack with a hammer, I still have little fragments of brass
in my legs, and is it any wonder I have tinnitus. I bet they've tightened the security up now.

Brian
 
Brian s said:
Hi

Reading back through the thread reminded me I very occasionally had to go to "Burning Out". A section away from the main works close to the canal, where the ammunition was tested, there were two Bren Guns mounted on stands on concrete blocks, I would stand and watch for some time with the tracer rounds going down the range. We could hear them from the playground at the Great Barr Comp. There were also a couple of bonfires where a lot of the old ammunition was thrown on for destruction that I remembered was accompanied by the occasional bang.

It wasn't unheard of for suitably minded office boys to go home with a number of 22 rounds in their turn ups, remember those, once home the bullet heads would be pulled out the ends squeezed with pliers and then given a sharp smack with a hammer, I still have little fragments of brass
in my legs, and is it any wonder I have tinnitus. I bet they've tightened the security up now.

Brian
Click to expand...
Kynoch's at Witton is now completely demolished. Only the restored gatehouses remain. I think the company name still exists and ammunition produced at other sites?

Thanks for your interesting post, Brian. Lads in Smethwick at school were stupid enough to do this in the 1970s!
Derek
 
Stokkie said:
Kynoch's at Witton is now completely demolished. Only the restored gatehouses remain. I think the company name still exists and ammunition produced at other sites?

Thanks for your interesting post, Brian. Lads in Smethwick at school were stupid enough to do this in the 1970s!
Derek
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What was it that made Witton unsuitable for production or maybe why were the other sites better assuming they were in the UK?
 
Richard Dye said:
What was it that made Witton unsuitable for production or maybe why were the other sites better assuming they were in the UK?
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I'm certainly not an expert here Richard, but the nature of IMI's business changed. You can read an unofficial history of Kynoch here:
https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/KOtherInformationKynochV2B.htm

IMI plc still exists but moved its headquarters in 2003 to near Birmingham Airport. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMI_plc
IMI's website: https://www.imiplc.com

The ownership of European armaments companies is complex. IMI used to manage the Rocket Motors site at Summerfield near Kidderminster. The site is still a rocket factory and tests in the Wyre forest at a secure site. 'Roxel is a Franco-British Group founded in February 2003 through the merger of the French company Celerg (a JV combining the operations of SNPE and Aérospatiale in 1992), and the UK-based Royal Ordnance Rocket Motors (a division of BAE Systems). The goal of this merger was to consolidate French and British expertise in the design and manufacturing of propulsion systems for rockets and missiles.' https://www.roxelgroup.com/en/corporate/

I hope that's interesting.
 
Stokkie said:
I'm certainly not an expert here Richard, but the nature of IMI's business changed. You can read an unofficial history of Kynoch here:
https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/KOtherInformationKynochV2B.htm

IMI plc still exists but moved its headquarters in 2003 to near Birmingham Airport. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMI_plc
IMI's website: https://www.imiplc.com

The ownership of European armaments companies is complex. IMI used to manage the Rocket Motors site at Summerfield near Kidderminster. The site is still a rocket factory and tests in the Wyre forest at a secure site. 'Roxel is a Franco-British Group founded in February 2003 through the merger of the French company Celerg (a JV combining the operations of SNPE and Aérospatiale in 1992), and the UK-based Royal Ordnance Rocket Motors (a division of BAE Systems). The goal of this merger was to consolidate French and British expertise in the design and manufacturing of propulsion systems for rockets and missiles.' https://www.roxelgroup.com/en/corporate/

I hope that's interesting.
Click to expand...
Thank you! That is very helpful and informative! I’m just curious as to what happened and will follow up on what you have provided. Thank you again!
 
https://www.business-live.co.uk/economic-development/pre-christmas-exit-imi-winds-down-8299744
Business Live Dec 2014 suggests the Fukushima nuclear disaster and German nuclear policy change meant there was no longer demand for components.

The manufacture of ammunition on the site had ceased much earlier. In 1996, David Little working under the company name Kynamco Ltd (Kynoch Ammunition Company) took over the Kynoch brand. Initially production commenced in Royston, Hertfordshire and in 2000, moved to a purpose built facility in Mildenhall, Suffolk. [Wikipedia]
 
Yes, Richard, as Stokkie says, the business has been transformed over the last few decades with all the original activities such as ammunition and, a bit or a lot later, non-ferrous semi manufacture (sheet, rod, wire etc.), titanium and other new metals, zip fasteners, Amal carburettors and many, many more now gone, sometimes to new owners or completely disappeared. It has been that regular re-invention which has facilitated the Company's survival in its second century of existence whereas its other major Birmingham industrial counterparts, Lucas, BSA, Dunlop, GEC, Austin and others are now just names in the memory. Even Kynoch's one time owner from the mid-1920s, ICI, has long since gone (but its successor continues to meet the pension obligations, thank goodness!) There remains some IMI manufacturing in the UK (possibly a bit on part of the old, main site - I'm not sure whether that's still the case) but changing markets, technology, products have led to the vast majority of it occurring in overseas IMI factories in several parts of the world. And the disappearance of the old, vast Witton manufacturing site where much of it used to happen. Total transformation, unrecognisable to those with longer memories - and still here!

Stokkie has pointed you to the online potted history, a bit of my own work of many years ago (and in need of the more recent years being added, when I get around to it) and that shows how things evolved in the critical 1980s, 90s and early 2000s. And the whole remarkable history from 1862 shows a constant evolution of the business and a fight for survival, although nothing as drastic as the changes over the last three decades.

Chris
 
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