British Manufacturing History – How manufacturing shaped Britain. Why manufacturing spread across the country, how it grew, why it declined and what was left.

New Book – How Manufacturing Shaped Britain

September 2, 2026 — 3 Comments

Whatever Happened to British Manufacturing

Winners and losers since 1951 – Rolls-Royce and Bentley

September 27, 2026 — 0 Comments

National Manufacturing Day

September 24, 2026 — 0 Comments

Leaders in manufacturing

Sir Arnold Hall – Hawker Siddeley

September 21, 2026 — 0 Comments

Snippets of interest

Financiers, some who sailed near and over the line

September 14, 2026 — 0 Comments

Manufacturing places

London as a manufacturing place

September 8, 2026 — 1 Comment

Manufacturing places

The Thames shipbuilders

September 8, 2026 — 2 Comments

Leaders in manufacturing

Oliver Lucas and Peter Bennett – Lucas

September 7, 2026 — 0 Comments

Leaders in manufacturing

Allen, John and Michael Clark – Plessey

August 31, 2026 — 1 Comment

Whatever Happened to British Manufacturing

Keys to British manufacturing success at SPARK Lincoln

August 27, 2026 — 0 Comments

How Manufacturing Shaped Britain

My explorations are moving toward the built environment. This book sets out to discover how manufacturing shaped this island. Why manufacturing spread across the country, how it grew, why it declined and what was left. It is looking at manufacturing through the lens of geography. Manufacturing transformed the places where it took place. Villages became […]

The American relationship

America has been there in the background all my life. My father was a fan; I had an American godmother. Both these stemmed from the Second World War and my father’s role in army supply, where American industry played such a large part. I went on from there to explore army supply in the First […]

Youth Unemployment

Alan Milburn has published the first part of his report on Youth Unemployment The Guardian ends its leader on target when it says say ‘there needs to be work’. What is the point in training for jobs that don’t exist? I have spent the last five years exploring the story of British manufacturing witnessing from […]

The State we were in?

I read Will Hutton’s The State We’re In when it was first published thirty years ago. I had left my job in the accounting profession for a new career in the not for profit sector. In many ways I was filled with hope. In his Observer piece this Sunday Hutton writes: ‘Yet in 2026 we […]

From gypsum to granite

My journey began near to where Gypsum is mined in Leicestershire by British Gypsum now owned by the French St Gobain. My destination was Penmaenmawr overlooking Anglesey where some of the finest granite was quarried. En route I passed some icons of British Manufacturing. First came Rolls-Royce in Derby with the history of the WW2 […]