Car Factory

We go shopping to Longbridge occasionally now as there is a very nice new store there selling clothes and food and such stuff.  SHH always gets rather nostalgic when we visit because the new development is built on the land where the old Longbridge British Leyland factory was and that was where he became an apprentice at the tender age of 16 and he worked there for many years before transferring to Land Rover in Solihull.  We went on a minor exploration today as I was searching for a Blip and we found that we could get fairly close to what remains of the old works.  He thinks that this entrance is part of the old tunnel system which went from the works on one side of the Bristol Road to the other.  The tunnels were used to transport car bodies from West Works to the Paint Shop and this would have been an entrance to one of the access tunnels.  What price progress?

Interestingly he remembers the Union Disputes led by Red Robbo which led to big problems for the company as the disputes severely limited Leyland's Productivity.  The whole story is so sad really.

This image links with Wendles56's blip from yesterday...