British Manufacturing History – My exploration of the story of British Manfacturing

Leaders in manufacturing

Ronald Weeks – Vickers, Pilkington and two World Wars

June 22, 2026 — 0 Comments

Leaders in manufacturing

Edward, Tom and Albert, and Douglas Vickers – three generations of steel makers

June 15, 2026 — 0 Comments

Leaders in manufacturing

William Armstrong – hydraulics engineer and armament manufacturer

June 8, 2026 — 0 Comments

Leaders in manufacturing

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

June 1, 2026 — 0 Comments

Leaders in manufacturing

Joseph Whitworth – the world’s best mechanician

May 25, 2026 — 2 Comments

Leaders in manufacturing

History of Education for manufacturing

May 13, 2026 — 0 Comments

Leaders in manufacturing

Sir Alexander (Mac) and Lady Rachel MacRobert

May 13, 2026 — 1 Comment

Leaders in manufacturing

William Fairbairn – the doyen of Manchester engineers

May 11, 2026 — 0 Comments

Leaders in manufacturing

James Watt and Matthew Boulton

May 4, 2026 — 0 Comments

Leaders in manufacturing

Thomas Telford and John Smeaton – fathers of civil engineering, and John and George Rennie – civil and mechanical engineers

April 27, 2026 — 0 Comments

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 […]

A sixteenth century mechanised mint in Segovia

Coins were traditionally minted by a stamp and hammer, and indeed had been in Segovia since Roman times. The invading Spanish discovered vast quantities of silver at Potosi in Peru in the late sixteenth century and mined it using first local slave labour and then, when mining killed them, slaves from Africa. The bullion was […]