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There are factories new and old, in use and closed, large and small, all
around "the Ackers". Industry began hereabout in early Georgian times. At a
former confluence of the Cole and the Spark not far from the Coventry Road,
a mill was at work in the 16th century. This may have been the mill recorded
two hundred years earlier in Bordesley: it was associated with the sub-manor
of Heybarnes, which was then in separate ownership. In 1722, Beighton's map
showed it (incorrectly on the Yardley bank) as a 'boreing mill', presumably
engaged in the making of rifle barrels, and it was 'Medley's Mill' on
Tomlinson's map of 1750. Later maps do not show it.
Hay Mill was originally a corn-mill built by the Delahayes of Hay Hall. It
is known to have been engaged in blade-grinding by 1820. William Deakin
operated the mill for a decade from 1830: he was fulfilling contracts for
weapons from the East India Company. The medieval mill and miller's cottage
had been rebuilt in Stuart times: the replacements survived into this
century, although a later mill had been built 130m downstream between 1750
and 1817, below a triangular pool. It is not known whether both mills
remained in use: if they did, the name 'Hay Mills' is correct, not due
solely to the local habit of pluralising.
In 1847, James Horsfall moved from Digbeth to Hay Mill, where he produced
excellent high-tensile steel wire. The firm of Webster and,Horsfall (1861)
became famous for all kinds of wire, supplying it for the first telegraph
cable across the Mediterranean, and made sheathing wire for the second
(successful) Atlantic cable. The company still flourishes in premises built
after the abandonment of waterpower for steam in 1865. The lower pool was
drained by 1887 and nearly all of its bed has been overbuilt: but the
earlier pool not only survives but has been improved, an unexpected amenity
within the Waste Disposal Unit's precincts. Excess water still flows from a
rebuilt sluice beside the ancient mill site, alongside the factory beneath
St Cyprian's Church, and so into the Cole 150m from the Coventry Road.
When the newly-formed Birmingham Small Arms Company, an 1861 amalgamation of
small firms in the town, sought a site for a purpose-built factory, it was
found on the Golden Hillock: 10ha of farmland between the canal and the
railway had a frontage of 550m on either side for wharfs and sidings. The
original buildings, opened in 1863, were at the end of the site nearest to
Ackers Hill, just north of Hales Industrial Services. The firm's fortunes
fluctuated with the demand for firearms, and the Works were actually closed
for a year (1878-9). Bicycle production began in 1880. This was successful,
new buildings were erected in 1895, and Boer War contracts required more for
armaments manufacture in 1900. One four-storey block is all that remains of
huge extensions, the New Buildings erected in 1915 to make motor- cycles,
aero engines and folding bicycles in addition to rifles and Lewis guns. The
factory then extended to Golden Hillock Road, across meadows where formerly
sheep had grazed.
Between the wars, bicycles, motorcycles and sporting guns kept the B.S.A.
prosperous. Five bridges of steel spanned the canal from works to sports
field and motorcycle test track. From 1935 - the year when the Graf Zeppelin
flew low over the site and photographed it very thoroughly - the B.S.A. was
again making armaments. Mass production of Browning, Boys and Bren guns was
seriously disrupted by air raid destruction in 1940, when 53 workpeople were
killed and 89 injured. Canal water was invaluable for fire-fighting when
mains had been breached: pumping and losses due to bank damage lowered the
level drastically for some time. Air-raid shelters for the workforce had
been constructed within what is now the National Motorcycle Circuit. Other
damage was caused at Waverley Works across the railway. (To ease traffic
between the two sites, the G.W.R. had leased a footwalk across the multiple
lines at a cost of 30 shillings - £1.50 - a year!) Fronting the Coventry
Road the large factory block was the Singer Company's World War One
extension for military vehicle production. Since World War Two it has been
owned by Rootes Parts, Chrysler, Peugeot-Talbot and is now for sale again.
There was steady development of industry on the Hay Hall estate,
conveniently near the canal and the railway and (later) tram routes, from
the 1890s when Tyseley Foundry and nearby firms started up. By the outbreak
of World War Two, the whole district between the railway, Stockfield Road
and Tanyard Lane (Amington/Speedwell Roads) was wholly industrialised. The
Rover Car Works stretched from Tyseley Station to Hay Mill race: large
enterprises like Bakelite were interspersed with small engineering premises.
More light industry came to Hay Mills, and factories spread across the
fields of Greet, Manor and Tyseley farms. Smaller claypits closed, but two
huge excavations, the Waterloo on Red Hill and the Burbury at Greet,
continued to grow until the 1950s. Tyseley Destructor Works was built
overlooking the site of Hay Mill Cottage, and a wide concrete span replaced
the humped brick right-of-way bridge over the canal. The canyons in which
the streams flow were created during the 1930s by the deposition of clinker,
transported by light railway, and canal-borne industrial refuse. Legislation
has required the recent costly erection of the ultra-efficient Waste
Disposal Unit on a raised site which had been a football pitch, and
demolition of the Destructor.
Local industry became much less varied after World War Two. The great
expansion of such firms as Lucas, Serck, Wilmot Breeden, and Harmo,
testified to increasing dependence on motor vehicle and parts production.
The B.S.A. closed in 1976, one of many firms unable to meet foreign
competition.
Introduction
What can be seen from Ackers Hill
The natural landscape
Watercourses
Early settlement and boundaries
The Manors
The Warwick canal
Railways
Industry
Urbanisation
Parks and open spaces
Churches and schools
The Ackers leisure park
Itinerary
Maps |
