Philip Hamlyn Williams

Author: Philip Hamlyn Williams

229 Posts

Whatever Happened to British Manufacturing

Winners and losers since 1951 – Rolls-Royce and Bentley

August 4, 2023 — 0 Comments

Snippets of interest

Government intervention for manufacturing

July 1, 2023 — 0 Comments

Snippets of interest

Speaking at SPARK Lincoln

June 13, 2023 — 0 Comments

Snippets of interest

Aluminium and hydroelectric power

May 26, 2023

Snippets of interest

Spark Festival Lincoln

May 24, 2023 — 0 Comments

Snippets of interest

The Festival of Britain 1951 – as a pivotal event

May 11, 2023 — 1 Comment

Snippets of interest

Do company directors always act in the best interests of their companies?

April 26, 2023 — 0 Comments

Snippets of interest

Lucas – King of the Air

April 11, 2023 — 1 Comment

Snippets of interest

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 […]

Where has all the money gone?

Gaby Hinsliff writing in the Guardian observed with sadness that those little treats enjoyed by middle earners are becoming less affordable. I pondered why this might be. My mind turned to the larger stage of public expenditure and I see much the same picture as I have observed before. Schools are squeezed so PTAs have […]

The genius of Roman hydraulic engineering

In the First Century CE, the Romans brought fresh water to the city of Segovia over a distance of fifteen km from the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range. The first thirteen km are underground in a stone and concrete duct, but then it enters the city in this channel in what is first a low […]

British Manufacturing History

My exploration of the story of British Manfacturing

Author: Philip Hamlyn Williams

Winners and losers since 1951 – Rolls-Royce and Bentley

Government intervention for manufacturing

Speaking at SPARK Lincoln

Aluminium and hydroelectric power

Spark Festival Lincoln

The Festival of Britain 1951 – as a pivotal event

The Great Exhibition of 1851

Do company directors always act in the best interests of their companies?

Lucas – King of the Air

Textiles in Lancashire