Triumph, Torrington Avenue, photo mystery

I am so sorry to learn that Brian Brooker died. I knew him very well but lost touch with him years ago . We went fishing together frequently, always good company. RIP Brian. Norman

Just had another look at photograph, I knew them all. To the left is Jimmy Reynolds who was foreman engineer at Draftex. The man at the back lived in Leamington Spa, his first name was Peter but have forgotten his other name. He was production shift manager. Norman

Back to the factory. Before it became Draftex it was Bright Engineering, they also had another factory in Paynes Lane. Bright sold the factory to Cammell Laird the shipbuilders. Like many other large businesses they had fingers in many pies. They went into production of door, boot and window rubber seals I believe in the early 50s. They were the main suppliers to British Leyland. Of course when BL closed so did Draftex. Norman

I worked at Draftex for about 12 months. The factory is just not big enough for car production. There is just not enough room for mass production of vehicles. It never belonged Standard although Draftex produced seals for that company. It never belonged to Leyland although Draftex supplied seals. I worked there and my brother in law James Johnson was managing director from when Cammell Laird bought the company. There was never a production track ,the building is just to small for car production. Norman

Pixrobin. Draftex parent company was Cammell Laird. They first opened Draftex in Torrington Ave quickly followed by a factory in Paynes Lane. Then a factory was opened in Germany but that was only in production for a few years because of a fire and explosion. With production drastically reduced, Du Pont who already had a factory producing seals in a small way took all of Draftex Germany business so Draftex Germany closed down. Draftex then opened a plant in Telford but British car industry was in decline so that factory was a bit of a white elephant. As for machinery Draftex had four German extrusion machines called Kleinewefers and three extruders built in Leyland near Preston. The Kleinewefers were for plastic extrusion and the Leyland for rubber. Germany and Torrington Ave both used molten salt, very very hot for curing the rubber, and it doesn't like water. The German factory had a fire, fire brigade turned up and started pouring water on the fire. Fire got into the liquid salt and BOOM, the roof was off. We also had a fire at Torrington Ave and the brigade took a lot of convincing not to spray water around the salt baths. Norman.

Verdon. The name rings a bell, is the Ver part of the Milver Metals company, because I can remember an old guy there and I am nearly sure he told me he used to be a chauffeur. I am not a bus person but I think the bus pictured is a BMMO S6.

Getting back on topic Does anyone know why the word TRIUMPH appears over this door????

I have no idea. I worked at Draftex but never noticed the Triumph sign. The only clue as far as I am aware is that in what we called The Loft was a box of maybe twenty Amal carburettors and as far as I know were only fitted to motor cycles. Norman

Yes the Triumphs sign was there, saw it often as a lad when cycling past on way to school. The Amal carburettors are not such a mystery either. Triumph were owned by Raleigh so perhaps some of the Raleigh mopeds were assembled there. But I guess all this was happening while I was touring the world in the army.

Could be that Raleigh who acquired Triumph Cycles in 1954 made this there in 1956.

It looks to me that this photograph is of the Associated Cycle Manufacturers of Coventry factory. Seemingly opened in the immediate post-WW2 period it produced Triumph bicycles. Having looked at the very bewildering series of takeovers it looks as if by then Triumph Cycles had nothing to do with Triumph cars or motorcycles, having been sold by them in the 1930's. It seems that it had already been sold again to BSA before it was finally acquired by Raleigh in the 1950's, with Triumph cycles continuing to be made, many for export to the US.