The central strip of southern England running south from Milton Keynes to the Isle of Wight has a surprisingly ancient manufacturing history as well as being home to much contemporary hi-tech innovation.
Milton Keynes
A new town designated in 1967 hosts the Red Bull motor sport team. You can read more about the Milton Keynes story by following this link.
Towcester
Plessey opened their R&D facility at Caswell House. Silverstone circuit with Aston Martin F1 and a host of small supporting hi-tech business are nearby. Silverstone is very much the heart of ‘Motorsport Valley’, stretching from south of Birmingham through Oxfordshire and which contains most of the British motorsport industry.
Banbury
Home to Haas F1 motor sport team. Follow this link to read more of what came before.
Bedford
At nearby Old Warden is Shuttleworth Hall which exhibits old aircraft and other production of the Lincoln firm of Clayton & Shuttleworth
Brackley
Historically a staple and then coaching down. Now home to Mercedes motor sport and supporting engineering business. Also food companies including Avara Foods formed in 2018 from a merger between Cargill Uk and Faccenda.
Kidlington
YASA, a subsidiary of Mercedes is developing electric motors for EVs.
Oxford
Just outside Oxford, at Cowley, William Morris set up Morris motors. It became a major car making centre, adding specialist Pressed Steel and a whole supply chain. The site is now occupied by BMW Mini. The University is a major collaborator with British industry. Read more in this link.
Harwell
Harwell is home to the Space Cluster a centre of research built on seventy-five years of research beginning with the Atomic Energy Research Establishment.
Didcot
Once home to a vast Ordnance Depot, It is also the caretaker of the Great Western Railway heritage.
Abingdon
The town was home to MG cars before manufacturing and ownership left for China. It is now home to Oxford Instruments who manufacture hi-tec research equipment.
Wantage
Birthplace of Alfred the Great. Now Williams motor sport F1 team is based at nearby Grove.
Leighton Buzzard
In the twenties the American foundation garment manufacturer, Gossard, set up in the town. It would later achieve independence as a British public company only to fall into the hands of Courtaulds some years later. In the late twentieth century Hone All Precision set up here to provide high specification parts for aerospace and related industries.
Aylesbury
Ecko relocated part of is manufacturing during the Second World War. Glaxo set up manufacturing here after the war.
Swindon
Famously a railway town. I tell much more in this link.
Reading
Home to Huntley and Palmers biscuit factory. I tell its story in this link.
Guildford
Home to Dennis Commercial vehicles. The successor company which manufactures electric buses has a new factory in Farnborough. Like Godalming and Kingston, it was a centre of tanning.
Godalming
In 1881, Siemens Brothers installed a small generating station at Godalming in Surrey powered by water from the river Wey.
Woking
In the nineteenth century a number of paper mills and print works were founded; one became part of the Staples Group. Ken Wood began his kitchen appliance business here before moving to Havant. The Maclaren Technology Centre is based here.
Weybridge
Home to Brooklands Race Track aircraft manufacture and testing. Read more in this link.
Kingston upon Thames
A Surrey town close to London. Historically home to tanners. In the twentieth century it was aircraft and support for the war effort that re-created the economy. Home to Hawker-Siddeley. Read more in this link.
Farnborough
Home to the British aircraft industry with the Royal Aircraft Factory and subsequently the Royal Aircraft Establishment. Vickers had their Balloon factory there for early airships. I write more in this link.
Farnham
In nearby Waverley Abbey Cistercian monks made their first settlement in the twelfth century. Their impact would be huge for they were skilled at agriculture particularly the breeding of sheep. Sheep had been brought from the Middle East at around 3,000 BC and were present in many parts of the country. As the Cistercians spread they cleared the land sometimes of whole villages to expand their flocks. They became the most significant woolgrowers in the land. In the fourteenth century there were estimated to be eight million sheep in England compared to five million people.
Bracknell
One of the new towns designated after the Second World War. ICI set up its agricultural research laboratory here, now owned by Syngenta. ICL had a presence in the town with a large office block, now the Fujitsu HQ. Now a technological hub and the home to Rowney Artist materials. Read more by following the link.
Basingstoke
Original home to Burberry raincoats. Thornycroft commercial vehicles were made here. Read more by following the link.
Winchester
The ancient capital of King Arthur and Alfred the Great was buried in the cathedral. Winchester, like many English towns, was a centre of the wool industry which drove the English economy in the Middle Ages. It was a staple town as indicated by the presence of wool weights dating from the 1350s. Nothing lasts and as elsewhere wool work moved from the city to the surrounding rural areas. In the fifteenth century there was a move away from narrow worsted cloth to much heavier woollen fulled broadcloth. This much larger cloth required more space and more people. It also attracted a higher price and was in demand in export markets as well as at home. This was good for the English economy but less so for the towns and cities which lost workers.
Salisbury
The city was a centre of the wool trade and at nearby Wilton carpets are still made.
Gosport
For centuries, home to support for the Royal Navy. The town’s shipbuilding skills were importantly directed also to the building of yachts. Related maritime electronics brought necessary skills to Ferguson television.
Havant
Kenwood kitchen appliances were made here, later bought by Thorn. They moved from Woking in 1962.
Fareham
A town supplying the shipyards of Portsmouth. Read more in this link.
Romsey
Plessey’s Roke Manor Research opened in 1956 with a focus on military communications.
Southampton
A major port not least for the age of the great transatlantic liners. Read more by following the link.
Eastleigh
Railway workshops were built here at the end of the nineteenth century and found increased activity in the interwar years with the southern region electrification.
Portsmouth
The Royal dockyards were by the mid eighteenth century the ‘greatest industrial power in the world’. Read more by following this link.
Chichester
Rolls-Royce Motors have a large manufacturing complex on the Goodwood Estate. Chichester itself was home to Shippams producer of meat and fish pastes.
Bournemouth and Christchurch
Plessey took over the site of the MOD Signals Research and Development Establishment.
Isle of Wight
Plessey Radar was manufactured here. Britten-Norman began manufacture of light aircraft in the sixties then moved overseas and have recently re-shored production. Saunders Roe manufactured seaplanes and hovercraft. Vestas manufacture wind turbine blades. Read more by following this link.
British Manufacturing History 