Castle Bromwich Assembly
Encyclopedia
Castle Vale
Castle Vale is a housing estate located near Erdington currently Castle Vale votes with Tyburn Ward which is part of Erdington constituency, northeast of Birmingham city centre in England...
, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
The facility currently handles body stamping operations, body assembly, paint and trim, and final assembly for the Jaguar XF
Jaguar XF
The Jaguar XF The Jaguar XF The Jaguar XF (type (X250) is a mid-size luxury car / sports saloon produced by British car manufacturer Jaguar. The car, which replaced the Jaguar S-Type, was launched at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show following the public showing of the C-XF concept in January 2007 at...
, Jaguar XJ
Jaguar XJ (X351)
The Jaguar XJ is the latest Jaguar XJ luxury saloon from Jaguar Cars. Completely new styling combines with underpinnings based on the previous X350 version.-Launch:...
and Jaguar XK. Over 2000 workers currently work at the site producing thousands of cars for the UK and export markets.
Nuffield:1936-1940
In 1936, the British government had formalised a plan under the Air MinistryAir Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the British Government with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964...
called the Shadow factory plan, to increase capacity within Britain's aircraft industry. Headed up by Herbert Austin
Herbert Austin
Herbert 'Pa' Austin, 1st Baron Austin KBE was an English automobile designer and builder who founded the Austin Motor Company.-Background and early life:...
, the plan was to create nine new factories, and add additional capacity and facilities to Britain's existing car manufacturing plants to enable them to quickly turn to aircraft production, should the political situation in Europe change towards war.
In 1936 the Air Ministry purchased a parcel of land opposite Castle Bromwich Aerodrome
Castle Bromwich Aerodrome
Castle Bromwich Aerodrome was an early airfield, situated to the north of Castle Bromwich in the West Midlands of England. The site now falls within the City of Birmingham.-History:...
, which encompassed an old sewage works. Developed and managed by the Nuffield Organisation
Nuffield Organisation
The Nuffield Organisation was a vehicle manufacturing company in the United Kingdom. Named after its founder, William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, it was formed in 1938 as the merger of Nuffield's Morris Motor Company , another of Nuffield's companies the MG Car Company and Riley.Morris Motors...
, owners of the Morris Motor Company
Morris Motor Company
The Morris Motor Company was a British car manufacturing company. After the incorporation of the company into larger corporations, the Morris name remained in use as a marque until 1984 when British Leyland's Austin Rover Group decided to concentrate on the more popular Austin marque...
, they were briefed to manufacture Spitfire
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
s, and later Lancaster bomber
Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...
aircraft. The theory was that the local Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
skills-base and production techniques used in the manufacture of motor vehicles could be transferred to aircraft production.
CBAF ordered the most modern machine tool
Machine tool
A machine tool is a machine, typically powered other than by human muscle , used to make manufactured parts in various ways that include cutting or certain other kinds of deformation...
s then available, which were being installed two months after work started on the site. Although Morris Motors under Lord Nuffield (an expert in mass motor-vehicle construction) managed and equipped the factory, it was funded by government money. When the project was first mooted it was estimated that the factory would be built for £2,000,000, however, by the beginning of 1939 this cost had doubled to over £4,000,000. The Spitfire's stressed-skin construction required precision engineering skills and techniques outside the experience of the local labour force, which took some time to train. Aircraft and sub-assemblies were taken across the Chester Road to Castle Bromwich Aerodrome, though early plans included an aerial bridge from E block to the airfield. Very large hangar-like buildings were erected on the east side of the airfield which were originally referred to as 'Erecting Sheds', where aircraft were prepared for flight testing. They were for the most part referred to by personnel as the 'Flight Sheds'.
CBAF's chief test pilot
Test pilot
A test pilot is an aviator who flies new and modified aircraft in specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques or FTTs, allowing the results to be measured and the design to be evaluated....
was Alex Henshaw
Alex Henshaw
Alexander Adolphus Dumfries Henshaw MBE was a British air racer in the 1930s and a test pilot for Vickers Armstrong in the Second World War.-Early life:...
MBE
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
, who managed a team of pilots who had the job of flight-testing the aircraft. The Air Transport Auxiliary
Air Transport Auxiliary
The Air Transport Auxiliary was a British World War II civilian organisation that ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between UK factories, assembly plants, transatlantic delivery points, Maintenance Units , scrap yards, and active service squadrons and airfields—but not to...
were responsible for dispersing tested machines to the M.U.'s (Maintenance Units) around the country for the fitting of radio-telephones and other equipment. As any build-up of machines on the airfield would be vulnerable to aerial attack, testing was carried out during daylight in almost any weather.
Rolls-Royce Merlin
The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled, V-12, piston aero engine, of 27-litre capacity. Rolls-Royce Limited designed and built the engine which was initially known as the PV-12: the PV-12 became known as the Merlin following the company convention of naming its piston aero engines after...
XII engine, providing 1150 hp, an increase of 120 hp over the Mk1, and could be used with either the de Havilland
De Havilland
The de Havilland Aircraft Company was a British aviation manufacturer founded in 1920 when Airco, of which Geoffrey de Havilland had been chief designer, was sold to BSA by the owner George Holt Thomas. De Havilland then set up a company under his name in September of that year at Stag Lane...
or Rotol propellers. The first Mk II flew on 24 September 1939.
However, even as the first Spitfires were being built in June 1940 the factory was still incomplete, and there were numerous problems with the factory management, which ignored tooling and drawings provided by Supermarine in favour of tools and drawings of its own designs. Meanwhile the workforce, while not completely stopping production, continually threatened strikes
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
or "slow downs" until their demands for higher than average pay rates were met. By May 1940, Castle Bromwich had not yet built its first Spitfire, in spite of promises that the factory would be producing 60 per week starting in April.
It is worth noting however, that key players, such as Alex Henshaw, viewed the problems as primarily those of poor management during the initial phase. Workers worked twelve-hour on, and twelve-hours off until bombings forced a switch to a three-shift, eight hour system. Henshaw attended the diamond jubilee in 1996 of the founding of the CBAF, hosted by Jaguar Cars Limited in the old factory and remained fulsome in his praise for the workforce until his death.
Vickers-Armstrong:1940-1945
After the fall of the government of Neville ChamberlainNeville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
, the new Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
appointed press tycoon Lord Beaverbrook
Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook
William Maxwell "Max" Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Bt, PC, was a Canadian-British business tycoon, politician, and writer.-Early career in Canada:...
as the Minister of Aircraft Production. On 17 May, Beaverbrook telephoned Nuffield and maneuvered him into handing over control of the Castle Bromwich plant to Beaverbook's Ministry. Nuffield was furious and reported the incident to Churchill, but Beaverbrook countered by sending in aircraft expert Sir Richard Fairey
Charles Richard Fairey
Sir Charles Richard Fairey MBE, FRAeS was a British aircraft manufacturer.-Early life:Charles Fairey was born was born on 5 May 1887 in Hendon, Middlesex and educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood and later as an apprentice at the Finsbury Technical College where he studied City &...
who wrote a secret report which detailed how expensive machinery had been unused, the assembly line in chaos, and the employees not doing their work:
Beaverbrook, who had disturbed the Air Ministry by agreeing with the vision of AVM Hugh Dowding that Britain at that time needed defensive fighters over attacking bombers, immediately cancelled all Castle Bromwich contracted bombers, which at that point included the Handley-Page Halifax and the Vickers Wellington
Vickers Wellington
The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R. K. Pierson. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a...
. He then sent in experienced management staff and workers from Supermarine, and gave over control of the factory to Vickers-Armstrong. Although it would take some time to resolve the problems, CBAF achieved full production in June 1940, when 10 Mk IIs
Supermarine Spitfire variants
The British Supermarine Spitfire was facing several challenges by mid-1942. The debut of the formidable Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in late 1941 had caused problems for RAF fighter squadrons flying the latest Spitfire Mk Vb...
were built; 23 in July; 37 in August; and 56 in September. No. 611 squadron at RAF Digby
RAF Digby
RAF Digby is a Royal Air Force station which, since March 2005, has been operated by the Ministry of Defence's Joint Service Signals Organisation, part of the Intelligence Collection Group. Formerly a training and fighter airfield, it is currently a tri-service military signals installation located...
the first squadron to receive the Mk II in August 1940; notably late in the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
.
The wisdom of the shadow factory scheme was demonstrated in September 1940, when the Supermarine factory in Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
was bombed, and production there temporarily stopped. CBAF went on to become the largest and most successful plant of its type during the 1939-45 conflict. As the largest Spitfire factory in the UK, by producing a maximum of 320 aircraft per month, it built over half of the approximately 20,000 aircraft of this type. By the time production ended at Castle Bromwich in June 1945, a total of 12,129 Spitfires (921 Mk IIs, 4,489 Mk Vs, 5,665 Mk IXs, and 1,054 Mk XVIs) had been built.
Subsequently receiving an order for 200 production aircraft, the first CBAF Lancaster was flown on 22 October 1943 by Alex Henshaw. Given the airframe number HK535 and fitted with Merlin 22 engines, it was issued to the Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...
, Squadron 463. It was lost on a raid over Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
during the night of 10/11 May 1944. Production of Lancasters reached a peak of 25 in December, 1944, a record for the quantity produced anywhere.
Some original war time features can still be seen such today, such as the faded remains of green camouflage paint. This can still be seen on the top of some older production buildings such as F Block that is now used as trim and final assembly for the Jaguar XJ. Close inspection will also reveal that all the cast-iron hoppers of the factory's rainware have a winged-roundel motif cast into them. At the Jubillee celebrations in 1997, a plaque was unveiled by Alex Henshaw just inside the old wartime main gates to the factory site. At the moment of the unveiling, ex-Red Arrows founder Ray Hanna made a single pass over the ceremony in Spitfire MkIX, MH434. This machine was not only built at the CBAF, but was test-flown by Henshaw himself. The a/c had been specially named for the occasion by Henshaw at Elmdon Airfield (Now known as Birmingham International.). After the unveiling, both Henshaw and Hanna attended a celebratory luncheon with many local dignitaries as well as many former CBAF employees. The whole event was supported and funded by Jaguar Cars Ltd.
1945-1977
The first post war owners were Fisher and LudlowFisher and Ludlow
Fisher and Ludlow was a British car body manufacturing company based in Castle Bromwich near Birmingham.-Operation:A high volume operation, Fisher and Ludlow built finished and trimmed car bodies which were then trucked to the "manufacturer"'s works to be fitted with all the...
, themselves having been bombed out of their inner city factory. Fisher & Ludlow (later Pressed Steel Fisher) were a car body pressings sub-contractor for most of the now-defunct BMC
British Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation, or commonly known as BMC was a vehicle manufacturer from United Kingdom, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
and British Leyland marques, the last being Jaguar, who took over outright control of the factory in 1977.
1977 to present
Taken over by Jaguar Cars, the facility transferred to Ford on their takeover, and then to TATATata Motors
Tata Motors Limited is an Indian multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Mumbai, India. Part of the Tata Group, it was formerly known as TELCO...
as part of Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover is a British automotive company owned by Tata Motors of India. It develops, manufactures and sells vehicles under the Jaguar and Land Rover marques.-History:...
.
Soon after takeover, TATA announced it would close either the Castle Bromwich Assembly plant or Land Rover
Land Rover
Land Rover is a British car manufacturer with its headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, United Kingdom which specialises in four-wheel-drive vehicles. It is owned by the Indian company Tata Motors, forming part of their Jaguar Land Rover group...
's Solihull based Lode Lane plant
Solihull plant
The Solihull plant is a car manufacturing factory in Lode Lane, Solihull, UK, now owned by Land Rover.The plant currently produces the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Land Rover Discovery and Land Rover Defender vehicles.-History:...
. In March 2010 it was reported that a re-think of plant closures was possible, however on the 19th of April 2010 TATA announced there was to be no policy change on the decision to close one factory. On the 15th of October 2010 it was announced that an agreement had been made between Jaguar Landrover management and union bosses to safeguard all three Jaguar Landrover production plants. Jaguar Landrover have agreed that all plants will remain open until at least 2020 in a deal with the Unite Union
Unite Union
The Unite Union is a trade union in New Zealand. It is the sponsor of the campaign directed towards improving working conditions for fast food workers in the country, in addition to representing other hospitality and retail workers...
who represent the majority of salaried production employees. Although the deal had yet to voted on by union members it is expected to be accepted.
It was announced on 15 October 2010, that a new sports car is to be built at the Castle Bromwich assembly plant. No details of the cars specification have been released however it has been rumoured by industry insiders that the sports car will be called the F type and will be positioned to compete with the Porsche 911
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is a luxury 2-door sports coupe made by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a distinctive design, rear-engined and with independent rear suspension, an evolution of the swing axle on the Porsche 356. The engine was also air-cooled until the introduction of the Type 996 in 1998...
and Audi R8.