Where is this factory? Pictures
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Many thanks to John Galloway for this picture. It includes his great grandfather standing second from the right (rear) when he worked in a motor cycle factory in his early days. They obviously produced/assembled car bodies too. Can anyone out there advise on where this was taken? John would really appreciate any help with this. If you can help drop me an email and I’ll pass the information on.
Feedback from David Withers: Sorry, I can’t help in identifying the picture but I’d suggest that the vehicles we can see at the back are not being built but are in for accident or breakdown repair. If they were being built as new, there would be some similarity even in the days before mass production, however every one of them is different. And note that the one with the flat roof and distinct vee windscreen has no bonnet or mudguards but is glazed, which I think unlikely on a new build. I think we are seeing diversification from vehicle repairing to bike building, or vice versa.
Feedback from Mike Davis: Hi, I think they may be Humbers? Looking at the car bodies of the day, they look very much like a Humber. This is very much a guess, but it might shed some further thought.
Feedback from Bob: I’ve looked at the factory photo and can’t place the make. I’d say from the style of the bike and that they all appear to be fitted with the CS Sturmey Archer gearbox that it is immediately post WWI. From the size of the flywheel I’d guess it is a Blackburne engine and the front forks are Brampton Bi-Flex. In other words a bike assembled from bought in components as was common in those days but who knows what name it was sold under. I suppose I could plow through my copy of “The Motor Cycle Index 1913-1924″ and hazard a guess but I’d prefer someone who knows to tell us.
09/11/06 – I’ve added some more pictures from John. The first shows a car in the same works. Does this provide any clues? The following pictures show John’s great-grandfather again. Is this bike the same make as the ones shown in the works? They were taken late 1920′s early 1930′s. What do you think.
Feedback from Rick: I cannot explain all the cars but the bikes look like 4hp Blackburnes. If so the picture will date from 1918 or ’19 at which time the factory was located at Tongham near Aldershot. TP 3356 looks like a 1925 BSA Model S, 500, and the otehr picture is of a later Drum braked model which would date it as 1927 I think. Blackburne moved to Bookham in Surrey from Tongham in 1921 and OEC took over manufacture of complete machines although
it is believed that they were the builders all along. I am sure the picture is pre-1921 but if OEC were indeed assembling prior to that date, this could be their factory not Blackburne’s and OEC were at Gosport not far from Portsmouth.
John Galloway , Congqratulations, Lourival, Mairiporã, São, Paulo, Brazil