Warwickshire Industrial Archaeology Society

WIAS MEETING 8TH MAY 2025 - IN PERSON & ZOOM!

We are indeed fortunate to have Dr. Jonathan Aylen speaking at our next meeting on how German technology aided British victory in the Battle of Britain. Dr Aylen is travelling down from Manchester specifically for this event and I do hope we can give him maximum support both as a live audience and online. The actual title of his talk is 'RAF planes that won the Battle of Britain were built on German machinery: How Jewish refugee engineer, Ludwig Loewy, was crucial to the war effort.’ This is a fascinating story, with much original research by Dr. Aylen, and I feel sure will be a meeting not to be missed. Please spread the word about this meeting to other potentially interested parties. It would be good to have a large audience.

The meeting takes place at 7.30pm on Thursday May 8th which by coincidence is VE Day so events of the Second World War should be very much in our minds.

FULL DETAILS TO FOLLOW

On a related theme, Paul Waller draws our attention to an event on Saturday 26th. April at the Jet Age Museum, Meteor Business Park, Cheltenham Road East,
GLOUCESTER GL2 9QL. This is a little distance away but it is a small museum of considerable interest, the film is well worth seeing, and Ian Whittle is an interesting and entertaining speaker.

TO MARK THE 84TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF THE JET AGE

Background:
Every year Jet Age Museum commemorates the anniversary of the birth of the Jet Age celebrating the genius of Sir Frank Whittle whose pioneering work on the jet engine led to the first flight of the Gloster E28/39 aircraft which left the ground at Brockworth, near Gloucester, during taxi trials in April 1941 - and the world of air travel we know today.

This year all are welcome to visit the Museum to see the film: Whittle - The Jet Pioneer and to meet our Patron, Ian Whittle, a retired RAF and commercial airline pilot and son of Sir Frank.

No booking is necessary.

Programme:
1000 - Museum opens.

AM
10.30 - First showing of the film Whittle - The Jet Pioneer (1 hour 10 mins)

11.45 - An Audience with Ian Whittle - Short Talk/Q&A for around 30 minutes.

PM
2.00 - An Audience with Ian Whittle - Short Talk/Q&A for around 30 minutes.

2.40 - Second showing of the film Whittle - The Jet Pioneer (1 hour 10 mins).

4.00 - Event ends/Museum closes.

Martin Green
Chairman, WIAS

WIAS resumes its 'Hybrid' Meetings - March 2025.

13th March 2025 - ‘The Industrial Heritage of Earlsdon’ by John Purcell.

Warwick Prep School Hall, Banbury Rd, Warwick, CV34 6PL at 7.30pm.
Doors open at 7.00pm for refreshments.
(You can join via Zoom if not able to attend in person!).

All In Person & Zoom meetings are free to members. Visitors are very welcome at all meetings. If you would like to join a Zoom meeting please complete our simple form available at https://warwickshireias.org/wias-zoom-visitor/. We suggest a voluntary donation of £3 for non-members to assist with running costs.

Below - Weavers' Cottages, Berkley Road South, Earlsdon, Coventry

NEXT MEETING - Just a brief note to remind you of the Zoom meeting tomorrow (Thursday) evening when experienced speaker David Skillen will be telling the story of 'Gretna Girls and the Devil's Porridge'. This is a fascinating story of the role played by women in the munitions industries, with so many aspects to it, including the fireless steam locomotive! (photo attached). 'Doors open' at 7pm, with the talk starting at 7.30pm. The talk will last about an hour followed by time for questions.

The administrative details are:
Topic: WIAS February 2025 meeting
Date/ Time: Thursday: Feb 13, 2025 07:00 pm
The meeting starts at 7.30pm.

All Zoom meetings are free to members. Visitors are very welcome at Zoom meetings. If you would like to join a Zoom meeting please complete our simple form available at https://warwickshireias.org/wias-zoom-visitor/. We suggest a voluntary donation of £3 for non-members to assist with running costs.

Next Meeting of WIAS Thursday 11th. April at 7.30pm when Mark Davies will speak on 'The Work of The Chance Heritage Trust'. The meeting is both in person and available online. Details are on the website www.warwickshireias.org

The name of Chance is forever associated with the production of high quality glass, particularly the lenses for use in lighthouses, and the firm gained a worldwide reputation for the quality of its products. The company occupied a nine acre site in Smethwick, with the works closing in the 1980s. The Chance Heritage Trust was established to seek to preserve the legacy of the firm whilst at the same time converting the site into a combination of heritage centre, archives facilities and educational space, combined with residential units, workspaces and cafe - a real focus for the local community..

This was - and continues to be - a mammoth task, and co-founder and Chairman of the Chance Heritage Trust Mark Davies will give a presentation which will include a short history of the Chance Glassworks, but concentrates on the challenges posed by such a large-scale and highly significant project. Three photos from 2018 indicate the size of the task! Do come along to see what progress has been made.

SIR WILLIAM LYONS and JAGUAR CARS
The next meeting of the Warwickshire Industrial Archaeology Society will be on Thursday 14th. March at 7.30pm when Tony Merrygold will speak on 'Sir William Lyons - The Opportunist'. Tony - a Volunteer with the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust - is an acknowledged expert on the man who was instrumental in the development of one of the most iconic names in the British motor industry. The meeting will be held at the Warwick Preparatory School Hall CV34 6PL with a simultaneous delivery via Zoom. Full details on how to reach the venue, or how to join the meeting online are contained on the website of the Society www.warwickshireias.org Everyone very welcome!

NCJOSEPH Ltd., SonA, and Stratford Produce Canners

The Warwickshire Industrial Archaeology Society is holding a meeting on Thursday June 8th. at 7.30pm in the Halse Pavilion, Warwick School CV34 6PP with a presentation entitled ' NCJoseph, SONA and Stratford Produce Canners'. It is to be given by the Chairman, Martin Green, who, with the help of the Joseph family, has pieced together some of the story of these significant Stratford businesses. It is designed as an introduction with the possibility of further research in the future, hopefully with information and memories supplied by those who worked at the factories.

There must be many of you out there who have memories of these businesses and they are very welcome to attend. Details of directions to Warwick School and the Halse Pavilion are included on the Society's website. The meeting is also being simultaneously delivered online via Zoom, and details of how to access the presentation are also given on the society's website.

https://www.warwickshireias.org/

Visitors (both in-person and online) are invited to make a suggested donation of £3. Details of how to do this can be found on the WIAS website

https://www.warwickshireias.org/wias-zoom-visitor

WIAS Zoom Visitor | WIAS WIAS 'ZOOM' Visitor WIAS welcomes visitors to live meetings and Zoom meetings alike and suggests a voluntary donation of £3 to assist the society cover its costs.

TALK ON GLOVERS OF WARWICK and THE EARLY YEARS OF EAGLE ENGINEERING. On Thursday March 10th. 2022 at 7.30pm in the Halse Pavilion, Warwick School CV34 6PP, Martin Green will be giving a talk entitled "The changing industrial landscape of Warwick 1880-1920: Glover, Eagle, Boon - and Glover again." Visitors are welcome, and the talk will be simultaneously broadcast on Zoom. Details of how to access the Zoom link can be found on the Society's website www.warwickshireias.org Perhaps you know something to add to the story ...

Stoneleigh Abbey pump house Renovated Victorian pump house at stoneleigh abbeyAn historic pump house and water wheel at Stoneleigh Abbey has been restored to its former glory as part of...

Happy New Year to all those supporting the recording and preservation of our industrial heritage, particularly those with an interest in steam trains, for the 2022 WIAS season begins with a talk by Anthony Coulls entitled 'Brass, Steel and Fire: 100 years of Model Engineering'. This will be a ZOOM lecture on Thursday 13th. January 2022 at 7.30pm.

'Brass, Steel and Fire' was an exhibition at the National Railway Museum between 2019 and 2021 celebrating the first century of model steam locomotives. Anthony Coulls' talk looks at the stories behind the exhibition - the people who made these engines, the places they were made and the engines themselves. He also gives an insight into some of the places around the world that he went to in search of these treasures and a few of the models that got away.. This is far cry from the concept of the casual model-maker but rather a detailed look at some of the sophisticated modelling that was developed in the hundred years after 1810.

There will be much to interest both the dedicated model enthusiast as well as those learning of the skill and expertise of the model maker for the first time.

For those wanting a taster, there is a 5 minute film by Anthony about his talk/exhibition on the WIAS website
https://www.warwickshireias.org/members-films
(simply scroll down the list of members' films)

and also available on You Tube at this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z1ge-2BvPE&t=20s

Should anyone wish to join the meeting, simply go to the WIAS website www.warwickshireias.org and click on the link at the bottom of the main page or go to CONTACT dropdown menu and click on WIAS ZOOM VISITOR

Forging ahead
There is much debate about whether buildings essentially from a pre-industrial era can be treated as industrial archaeology. I have always adopted a fairly liberal interpretation to this and the village forge, for example, is a category worth exploring. There are many remaining examples in Warwickshire, converted to other uses, although some do retain a (rather tenuous) link to former glories (e.g. those at Stoneleigh and Claverdon functioning as outlets for wood-burning stoves). A small collection is shown in the photographs - Stoneleigh, Claverdon (with Forge House over the road), Walton, Ladbroke, Warwick, thatched versions at Dunchurch and Thurlaston, and Cotswold stone at Halford. Do you know of any Warwickshire examples that deserve inclusion in the list?

DAWN AND DEMOLITION
The move of the production of taxis from central Coventry to Ansty marks a new dawn for motor manufacturing in the city of Coventry but leaves in its wake the intended demolition of the old Carbodies/London Taxi Company site on the Holyhead Road. Text about the company can be found on the WIAS website, but the simple details are that Carbodies, a coach builder, moved from West Orchards in the centre of Coventry to the Holyhead Road site in 1928 to increase productive capacity. The company built car bodies for a range of manufacturers including Alvis, Austin, MG, Rover and Rootes Group before WW2, shifted to military production during the war, and then returned to body shell production afterwards, including those for Austin, Daimler, Ford, Hillman and the Austin FX taxi plant. In 1958, final assembly, finishing and delivery was started for the FX taxi and then full production of the taxi was shifted in 1971 to the Holyhead Road site. Ownership of the company changed a number of times, and eventually entered a new partnership with Chinese company Geely, culminating in the transfer of production to Ansty for their ground-breaking electric taxi.

I visited the Holyhead Road site on a quiet Sunday, and was faced with the usual barbed wire, budleias and graffiti which characterise closed industrial site. Most of the company signage had gone, although at the back of the building - access from Coundon Road - a faded CARBODIES sign can be seen, together with a couple of reminders of the company name. This is adjacent to the Coventry-Nuneaton railway line, with the level crossing, access tunnel and former station master's house nearby (again on the WIAS database). Investigating Coundon Road a little further, it was, of course, home to Coventry Rugby Club, arch rivals in my rugby-playing days, now commemorated by the names of 'Duckham Court' and 'Cole Court' in recognition of the roles played by David Duckham and George Cole in the history of the Club. Talking of George Cole, a legendary goal-kicking scrum half, I was walking the Oxford canal to Hawkesbury in 1976 and passed a fisherman concentrating hard on the canal's murky waters. This turned out to be George Cole. We were both rather surprised by each other's leisure interest!