Watch and Clock Industry in Coventry

Can you tell me what this is and where it is today, also can you connect this to what always puts Coventry on the map throughout recent history and makes Coventry successful? Some years ago I put the answer to a lady that worked at Coventry's car museum and she agreed and said she had never thought of the link which always is a success in Coventry manufacturing.

I would guess that its the old Cash's factory in the background which was famous for being one of the leading silk weaving businesses in the country so maybe the ironwork is something to do with the old weaving machines from the factory? The factory has been turned into flats / houses and last time I heard it was owned by Touchstone housing, I used to service a lot of the gas appliances in the building back in 2000 when I worked for a company that did all the gas/heating maintenance for Touchstone.

Hi Jetblue, yes it is old Cash's factory, this was what drove the main machinery, the old factory you are correct are flats and houses, but Touchstone does no longer own them, it's Midland Heart now owns it. The connection of this to all other things which has put Coventry on the map is WHEELS, everything you might say is lucky for Coventry has been run by wheels, the watch industry have wheels inside, car, bikes, sewing machines etc.

Hi morgana Those look like the bevel gears that linked the steam engine at the end of the row of top shops to the overhead shaft that drove the Jacquard looms in the top shops. I reckon they ought to put the looms back and start weaving again!!! Coventry could do with some of its former industries back, couldn't it? I have an early 1930s Alfred Herbert catalogue, and it is truly amazing what Herberts' made and sold, worldwide. In one way, it's hard to understand why such a large and famous firm has withered and died. I went there for a job interview in the 70s, and it was obvious then that it was doomed; too little investment, too late - the typical tale of British industry. The watch industry was another prime example. In 1868, delegates from Britain and Switzerland went to a US trade fair to try to understand how they could make watches so cheaply. The Swiss went back, and said "We must unite into large factories and mass produce, or we go under." The British came back, and formed the BHI, with the avowed aim of "keeping out these cheap and nasty foreign imports at all costs - they'll spoil our trade. But the British public will always want our high quality products." They missed the fact that American watches may have been cheap, but they were excellent quality. Four watch firms went for mass production: Ehrhardt's of Birmingham; The Lancashire Watch Co; Rotherham's, and the Coventry Movement Co. The latter was set up to make 10,000 movements a week. The largest order they ever received is said to have been 1000 in total. Rotherham's survived the longest, but only by buying a factory in Switzerland, and fitting an increasing number of Swiss parts in their Coventry-made watches. So much of our industry has gone the same way, especially in Coventry. And the sad thing is, it won't ever come back.

Yes that is what they are and agree it would be great if we could regain this industry and others you have mentioned which I have sent you a private message on that. As for Rotherham they changed their name I'm sure as I used to work for Steve Fish at the Bablake Old Boys Cricket Club, his father started the watchmaker company as I read in the paper, which was a surprise to me as I didn't know this, at the time I was their tea lady, Rotherham's is an engineering factory which was based in Longford and changed the name to Aeromec not sure on the spelling of that, but now they have moved somewhere else.

Hi morgana Wow, we're busy today!! Rotherham's was not only one of the older watch and clock makers in the country, but was the longest continuously in business. It started in 1747 as Samuel Vale and Co; Vale, Howlett and Carr in 1754, and Richard Kevitt Rotherham joined about 1760. It became Vale and Kenyon for a while, then with John Rotherham, in 1787, Vale and Rotherham. Ultimately it became John Rotherham and Sons, which I believe was changed in the 20th century to Rotherham and Sons Ltd. (Acknowledgements to Baillie) They became a part of Matrix Churchill, I believe in the 1980s? And in more recent times, I think there was a management buy-out of the Rotherham's part of Matrix when it went under? I had been in their social club several times in the early 60s, and around 1980, when I was a pistol shooter in the Midland Arquebusiers (Part of the Coventry and District Small-bore Rifle Association) the range was moved into Rotherham's old factory.

Ahrr that would explain when I read on here about the watchmakers of Coventry being different name to Steve Fish. So perhaps that as you explain is why they went into engineering, which I was offered a job there too, lol, by his head foreman who name was also Steve no butter on his bread at the cricket as I worked so quick and precise.

Lexor factory, Duke Street This black & white picture doesn't anywhere near do justice to the glorious floral display which framed the factory in the 1960s and 1970s. Despite a legal conservation order almost everything in this picture is now gone except for the former watchmaker's house fronting onto Allesley Old Road (extreme right) which is now just a burnt out shell! There was a plan at one time to build a block of three storey houses similar in outline to the former workshops but planning permission expired before the plot could be sold. In my opinion they were impractical in any case. For one thing the master bedroom would have been on the top floor whilst the only bathroom was on the ground floor!

I've been thinking for years that house is going to be restored but still to no avail Dutchman. What did Lexor make?

Lexor made mainly delay lines - electronic circuits that were used in radar, sonar, colour TV studios (for equalising camera cable lengths), etc., etc. I worked for Lexor from 1970-73, in the back bedroom of the house at no 4 Allesley Old Rd. I went into the Duke St offices many times, and at that time, the offices were quite smart, as dutchman says. I don't think the greenhouse was there then - indeed, I don't ever remember it being there, so I guess that's quite an old photo. Lexor had three premises on Allesley Old Rd, and the production was sited in the factory at 69 Hearsall Lane, which previously had been Bramcotes Mechanical Handling Ltd. Lexor was started in 1959 by three ex GEC Telephone Works people; Jim Pledger, ex-Aerials Group; Jay Lucas, ex- Sales; and Ralph Treadwell, an accountant. Initially, production was in the long top floor of the back workshop at No 4. (Downstairs was a dental mechanic) Jim Pledger always parked hi car close by in Allesley Old Road; he first had a Mk III Zodiac Estate (which had so many driving lights fitted, my brother christened it "The Light Car"!) and later a Mk IV Zodiac Executive Estate. Jim was into gadgets - couldn't resist any gadget - and had modified both cars so much no-one else would drive them if at all possible - especially the Mk IV would always overheat when anyone else drove it - the thermostatic controlled (home-made) electric radiator blind always stuck! Indeed, when Jim got the Mk IV, someone else bought the Mk III. It had an electric fault develop, and he took it to Rugby Autocar. It was so far out of standard, Rugby Autocar rang and said they couldn't fix it, and could they fit a complete new harness!! Jim was also a mad practical joker, and I had three very, er, "interesting" years there. He lived at Cubbington in one of the only two houses for miles around, and he had the "neighbour from Hell". If anyone is interested, I'll recount the story.

It's 'Stanley Terrace' all over again. Wait until the building (and its neighbour) become a health hazard and then demolish them on public safety grounds. Keith can tell you more accurately than me but as far as I remember it was domestic electrical fittings. There was second factory in Hearsall Lane and the only communication between the two was a long walk uphill and down dale via a footpath which runs alongside the Hearsall Inn.

Hi dutchman We normally walked down to the corner of Hearsall Lane, and then up the hill. Great when it was raining. Lexor never made anything for the domestic market (that was another outfit up the road). For a time they got into other things, like Audio-visual training systems, but it wasn't at all successful.

Don't know if you remember it Keith but what is now a hole in the ground between Lord Street and Mount Street was once also a row of imposing watchmakers houses. One of them, near the corner of Lord Street not far from Lexor, was used as an electrical and radio shop by a middle-aged Polish gentleman. The entire row was demolished in the early 1970s and replaced by a filling station / convenience store which my dad (believe it or not) thought was an improvement! That in turn is now gone and the whole site left derelict for some years now.

Yes, I remember it well - I think it was later than that, because it was still intact when I finished at Lexor in 73. My God, you're trying to drive me to drink! Seems to me that if the authorities in Coventry care so little for its history, they might as well bulldoze the lot and cover it in even more 'plastic' boxes.

Something you don't get from photographs or indeed from driving past is a sense of just how imposing these watchmakers houses were from street level. There were steps up to the front door and the ceilings inside were also very high, at least in the front rooms. The back rooms were sometimes a bit cramped to allow a third storey to be added within the same overall height. Sadly most of those which survive are now care homes with ramps in place of steps or else converted to bedsits. The basic idea in both cases is to cram as many occupants as possible into the available space to maximise profits.