RE: Spitfires To Jaguars At Castle Bromwich

RE: Spitfires To Jaguars At Castle Bromwich

Thursday 6th May 2010

Spitfires To Jaguars At Castle Bromwich

The factory building Jaguar's new XJ has an illustrious past




Since 2000, visitors to Jaguar's facility at Castle Bromwich have been confronted by a stunning reminder of the plant's WW11 history, when the Sentinel sculpture was installed on a roundabout near the factory gates.

When PH visited the new XJ production line we couldn't resist nicking a copy of a Jaguar Heritage publication entitled Spitfires to Jaguars which details this period in the plant's history. Authored by François Prins, and with terrific archive pics, we thought some of you might enjoy an edited version to gear you up for VE Day. Chocks away, chaps!

Spitfires To Jaguars:


In 1934 Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin announced measures to rearm and expand the Royal Air Force (RAF), and one of these was to increase military aircraft production.

It wasn't until 1938 that work started on the Morris Motors Spitfire factory at Castle Bromwich, when 1,000 Spitfires were ordered. By the time war was declared on September 3, 1939, the factory had 2,815 employees.

The Spitfire had by then been redesigned by Supermarine Chief Designer Joseph Smith to enable it to be put into mass production, and recruitment was increased. By the end of September the workforce numbered 6,235 men and women, however the factory was yet to produce its first complete Spitfire.

As a result Lord Beaverbrook, Minister of Aircraft Production, took over control from Morris Motors and appointed Vickers-Armstrong to take over the factory.


Vickers owned Supermarine and had some knowledge about aircraft production, so the first Castle Bromwich aircraft was handed over to the Air Ministry as a Spitfire Mk. IIA (P7280) for trials at Boscombe Down in June 1940.

The trials were a success and production was stepped up. By the end of September 1940, 125 Spitfires had been built, test flown and delivered.

Production continued with the Spitfire Mk. II until June 1941 when the Mk. V, powered by the more powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin 45 engine, replaced it on the line. A month later Castle Bromwich delivered their 1,000th Spitfire, fulfilling the original contract. Mk. V production continued throughout 1942 with the Merlin 65 engined Spitfire Mk. IX taking over in 1943.

Lancaster Production
Bomber production at Castle Bromwich was decided on in the early stages of construction and in September 1941 the Air Ministry placed an order for 200 Avro Lancaster Mk. I aircraft. Progress was slow, as the aircraft was far more labour-intensive than the Spitfire.


In October 22, 1943, HK535, the first Lancaster to be fully manufactured at Castle Bromwich, took off from the airfield. Production was slow to get going and only eight Lancasters were completed by the end of that year.

At the end of 1943 the workforce had risen to 15,854 people working non-stop on the production of Lancasters and Spitfire Mk. IXs, and later the Rolls-Royce-Packard-Merlin XVI engine. Production was running at over 300 Spitfires a month at this time.

Castle Bromwich was in full swing at the time of VE day, and production was slowed down. Many orders for aircraft were cancelled and the last Spitfire, a Mk 22 (PK614) was flown on November 30, 1945. The complex was closed officially on March 31, 1946.

After the war, the site was taken over by Fisher and Ludlow, a local manufacturer of sheet metal products. They were responsible for manufacturing many car body shells, largely for Standard-Triumph, and also for the new Morris Minor. Most of these were exported, as overseas sales were paramount to fill Britain's lean coffers following six years of war.

In 1953 Fisher and Ludlow became part of the British Motor Corporation (BMC), and two years later BMC disappeared into the British Leyland Group (BL) and Pressed Steel was merged with Fisher and Ludlow to become Pressed Steel Fisher, which assumed control of Castle Bromwich.


Jaguar Cars Ltd took over control of the site on 28th July 1980, and continued production of the XJS sports and XJ saloon models, which were assembled and painted, before being taken to the plant at Browns Lane for final assembly.

In the years under Jaguar, Castle Bromwich was fully operational and completely refurbished, and when Ford took over Jaguar further investment was made to modernise the plant. A completely new assembly line was put in and further updating of the plant was carried out for production of the S-Type, which was unveiled in 1998.


In the wings were plans for more automation and new build techniques using aerospace technology. These methods, which have totally changed the manner in which Jaguar cars are manufactured, represented a major investment in the plant. First used on the 2003 Jaguar XJ saloon, the technology has now been extended to include the current range of Jaguar models that are built at Castle Bromwich, the latest of which is the new XJ saloon.

Exact figures of aircraft manufactured at Castle Bromwich are not known, but it is estimated that 305 Lancasters and 11,780 Spitfires were built between 1940 and 1946.

Author
Discussion

Fidgits

Original Poster:

17,202 posts

228 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
quotequote all
thumbup

saaby93

32,038 posts

177 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
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Last but one para 'In the wings' Is that a pun confused
Nice bit of history yes

bencollins

3,486 posts

204 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
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blimey a sculpture that is actually impressive, instead of the usual total hideous crap.

dan tournay

431 posts

207 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
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bencollins said:
blimey a sculpture that is actually impressive, instead of the usual total hideous crap.
Yeah, and it was designed by Tim Tolkien who is the great nephew of JRR Tolkien.

FWDRacer

3,564 posts

223 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
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.... And still delivering stuff that is taking the fight directly to zee Germans.... hehe

NoNeed

15,137 posts

199 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
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There is alot of wartime history around the area, but it's good to see a thread that's local to me. I pass this site every day on my way to work, and grew up a short walk away. There are pictures of churchill visiting the spitfire factory and other factories in the area online.

FraserLFA

5,083 posts

173 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
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Awesome stuff. I want a spitfire frown

cs02rm0

13,812 posts

190 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
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World War Eleven? I must be getting really good at lunchtime siestas.

soad

32,829 posts

175 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
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Nice plane, cars not half bad either biggrin

aka_kerrly

12,416 posts

209 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
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Great write up, another excellent example of British industry and its involvement with planes and cars. Bizarely i was only reading a article last night about the Longbridge plant and its production of ammunition during the war effort when previously it had been a car plant and then returned to being a car production plant but with not quite the same success of Jaguar.

dave

torchy6

133 posts

171 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
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Thanks for a great article. Surely the Spitfire is one the best sculptures ever produced, I want one in my living room next to the 250GTO!

Sticklebrick

70 posts

169 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
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Great article - I visited the plant on their factory tour only last week. I also happened to pick up a Jaguar magazined titled 'Spitfires to Jaguars'. Yet to have a proper read through it but definitely some interesting history. Our guide round the factory was also very knowledgeable; he was saying about the old Spitfire building having a new line put in it and them discovering an old cellar with all the old wooden forms in it. Horrifically though no one wanted them when the tried to donate them numerous times and they end up in the skip many many years ago. I dare say they would have their arms snapped off now! Such a shame, real piece of history lost.

Incidentally we toured the XF not XJ line as the guy prefers it as you can see into the production line alot more readily. Very interesting little wander and well worth the visit.

R66STU

273 posts

175 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
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an XJ120 and a Spitfire are both very sexy vehicles from (roughly) the same era imo. time stands still for these iconic classics.

Edited by R66STU on Thursday 6th May 16:48

R66STU

273 posts

175 months

Thursday 6th May 2010
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Dr G

15,159 posts

241 months

Friday 7th May 2010
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Good read, will have to look up their factory tours...

2woody

919 posts

209 months

Friday 7th May 2010
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I remember a few years ago that when they demolished a block of flats on the ex-airfield, they found a cellar stuffed with engines and components from those days.

didn't manage to bag one, tho

havoc

29,928 posts

234 months

Friday 7th May 2010
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Nice article!

Visited CB a few times when working for J&LR...absolutely huge place, and the history there does make it rather special. Reminds me that I MUST go to the Warbirds show at Duxford this year...

xcat

271 posts

190 months

Friday 7th May 2010
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just a couple of thoughts.....

I used to visit the factory next door - they had a few of our machine tools that made the races for the balls in a drive shaft!

I now work for Rolls Royce on the Joint Strike Fighter project (Harrier replacement)

Did you know that the Spitfire engine came from a race program? Areo racing but racing non the less.

After 'qualifying' the plane was looked over. Someone decided to look into a cylinder. They saw metal particles.

The Rolls Royce people, who had gone down to watch the races, were 'dragged' out of various pubs and other drinking establishments to go have a look.

They rebuilt the engine and it went on to win the race. The Ministry, approved the funding of the engine and the rest, as they say, is history.

Nothing changes.... as I remind myself as the phone goes when there's a problem


TheEnd

15,370 posts

187 months

Friday 7th May 2010
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When the steelwork first went up, a lot of people weren't quite sure what it was, and it now has street signs on it saying "spitfire island"

The Castle Brom aerodrome across the road is now sainsburys and co, and the glorious Castle Vale estate, but there is still the old "drome cafe" opposite it from 1932!

havoc

29,928 posts

234 months

Friday 7th May 2010
quotequote all
xcat said:
Did you know that the Spitfire engine came from a race program? Areo racing but racing non the less.
I think you're thinking of the Schneider Trophy and the S.6B...also built by Supermarine and designed by a certain RJ Mitchell!

However you've got it backwards - the S.6B had an influence on the Spitfire design, but the S.6B engine was a larger R-series (which did provide lessons for the later Merlin, Griffon etc., admittedly).