Consumer goods are traditionally the stuff of a manufacturing economy.
I start the chapter with a memory of my house as a child, what consumer products could be found and where they came from. Even then, the American influence was strong with Hoover and Frigidaire. In the UK such iconic brands as Kenwood survive today. Others are now merely brands attached to goods imported mainly from China.
Furniture making was focused on certain towns, for example High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire and that was where the Gomme family made G Plan furniture. I write of the many other companies, some still thriving such as Lebus in Scunthorpe.
As with textiles, higher end brands are still manufacturing in the UK and Ireland: Wedgewood, Waterford and Royal Doulton. These two countries also pair up in Glen-Dimplex with heaters and Roberts Radios.
The period witnessed the thriving of the British toy industry and then its decline.
What didnt decline was the move to ethically produced cosmetics championed by Anita Roddick.
The image is of a miniature Hoover Factory at Bekonscot Model Village
British Manufacturing History 