A 70-year history of the Castle Bromwich assembly plant

Sep 25 2009 by John Cranage, Birmingham Post

Industrial Editor John Cranage looks back at the proud history of the Castle Bromwich site

Spitfire and Jaguar – two of the most evocative names in British engineering history.

And the common factor is that the World War Two fighter and the current generation of Jaguar cars have been built on the same site at Castle Bromwich.

Sadly, though, some 70 years of manufacturing legend would end if Jaguar Land Rover – as now seems likely – ultimately decides to close its Castle Bromwich assembly plant,

The story began in 1938 when a site in east Birmingham was chosen for a factory to build the new Spitfire, one of the most advanced aircraft of its day, and take pressure off the smaller Supermarine works near Southampton.

The 345-acre factory complex was the biggest of its kind in Britain and Lord Nuffield, the founder of the Morris car company, was put in charge.

It was built on land bordered by Fort Dunlop and the old Castle Bromwich airfield on the opposite side of the Chester Road.

The factory ultimately turned out nearly 12,000 Spitfires – plus more than 300 Lancaster bombers. But things got off to a bad start.

Not only was the factory built behind schedule and over budget, Lord Nuffield quickly found that building Spitfires was a lot more complicated that knocking out motor cars. In its early days the factory became chaotic and suffered from poor industrial relations.

The delays and problems are now believed to have resulted in fewer front line fighter squadrons being equipped with Spitfires in time for the Battle of Britain than expected; which is why, some historians claim, the outcome was far less certain than it might otherwise have been. It took the arrival of the dynamic newspaper tycoon Lord Beaverbrook – who effectively sacked the ineffectual Nuffield – to get production up to required levels.