This page covers the two related plants at Washwood Heath in Birmingham: Ward End Works in Drews Lane, dating back to 1914; and the Common Lane plant which was built on the same site in 1939. This sprawling 85-acre site is now home to LDV Ltd.
Location
Drews Lane and Common Lane, Washwood Heath, Birmingham.
A potted history
aking its name from the parish in which it is located, Ward End Works at Washwood Heath was built just before the outbreak of the First World War by the Electric & Ordnance Accessories Company Ltd, a subsidiary of the Vickers engineering company (who also owned Wolseley Motors Ltd). Wedged between Common Lane and Drews Lane, the whole site covered an impressive 65 acres at the time, although its most remarkable feature was the Bromford House administrative block, with its distinctive 400ft frontage facing onto Drews Lane.
The 65-acre Ward End site, as viewed from the air shortly before it was transferred to Wolseley in 1919. The Bromford House frontage can be seen at the bottom-centre, with Drews Lane running past in the foreground, while Common Lane can be seen just beyond the rooftops on the left of the picture. Today, the site is in the hands of LDV, and has grown over the years to occupy some 85 acres.
The factory was designed for the assembly of a light car called the "Stellite" – using bodywork and chassis manufactured at Wolseley's main Adderley Park plant – along with the production of various components for use by other parts of the Vickers concern. However, as with many other British factories, Ward End Works also did its bit for the war effort for the next four years, producing munitions fuses and shell cases for the War Office. After the war, Vickers transferred ownership of the factory to Wolseley Motors Ltd by way of a £400,000 share issue agreed on the 30th September 1919. Wolseley built large assembly workshops to replace many of the smaller sheds, and from then onwards built their range of commercial vehicles there, as well as continuing with the production of components.
The new body shop at Ward End, photographed in the 1920s.
The next big change for Ward End Works came in the late 1920s, after William Morris had purchased the troubled Wolseley company. One of his first decisions had been to make Adderley Park the home of Morris Commercials, so Ward End became Wolseley's main base, with car production being moved there by the end of the decade, following the completion of a comprehensive retooling programme.
During the early 1930s, Morris (now Lord Nuffield) used spare capacity at Ward End to build the engines for his new Morris Minor, alongside production of Wolseley's own models. In July 1935, Wolseley was transferred from Lord Nuffield's private ownership to become a subsidiary of Morris Motors. This also proved to be catalyst for a period of rationalisation for the company; apart from the "platform-sharing" that would lead to new Wolseleys increasingly being based on Morris designs, it was also deemed prudent for engine production – which was then split between Cowley and Ward End – to be consolidated in one location, at the Morris Engines plant in Coventry.
By the close of the Thrities, Britain was at war once more, and Ward End was again given over to the war effort, this time building tanks and other military vehicles as well as mines and, from 1941, the Horsa glider. The plant was also targetted by the Luftwaffe, with the assembly shop sustaining extensive damage in April 1941. Less serious bomb damage was suffered in the summer of 1942, and by the end of the war the total cost of the damage to the plant was put at almost £500,000.
Meanwhile, in 1939, a factory for the newly-formed Morris Motors Pressing Branch had been established on land on the Common Lane side of the Ward End site. Renamed Nuffield Metal Products (NMP) in 1945, this factory produced turned out bodyshells for the Morris Eight Series E and its MG/Wolseley derivatives, and from 1948 produced monocoques for the Morris Minor saloon.
Production of Wolseley cars resumed at Ward End on 4 September 1945, with a fleet of Wolseley 18/85s being built to complete a goverment contract for the War Office. Once that order had been fulfilled, the rest of the pre-war range was brought back into production at Ward End: first the 14/60 and 12/48, and finally that year, the 10. 1946 saw the introduction of the "new" Wolseley 8, which had originally be planned for a 1940 launch; although it would last for just two years – for reasons which will become apparent – this remodelled version of the lowly Morris Eight Series E was much-loved by Lord Nuffield, who used one as his personal transport for the next 15 years or so.
However, the days of Wolseley production at Ward End were numbered. In 1948, swingeing rationisation of Wolseley's range would see all the aforementioned models axed in favour of two new cars, the 4/50 and 6/80; these were effectively badge-engineered Morrises, so logistically it made sense for them to be built alongside their counterparts at Cowley. Moreover, the last new "Wosleley" model to be introduced at Ward End, in February 1947, wasn't really a Wolseley at all: the Oxford taxi-cab was essentially a reworked Morris-Commercial design which had been running in prototype form since 1940; it was later joined by a private hire car and even a six-light limousine based on the same design, and remained in production until 1955, although the arrival of Austin's far more modern FX3 in 1948 meant that the Oxford never had a chance in the market.
With Wolseley production now concentrated at Cowley, the 1950s saw Ward End given over to production of parts for various Nuffield Group products, from MGs and Morris Minors to Nuffield tractors. Following the formation of BMC in 1952, parts were also made there for Austin-Healey Sprite, and the Wolseley 1500/Riley 1.5 twins.
The J4 van in production.
Following the formation of BLMC in 1968, Ward End was redesignated as the Austin Morris division's Transmission Plant, employing 4400 workers making front suspension assemblied and rear axle units, while the former NMP factory at Common Lane had by then become a satellite factory for the Medium Vans Operation based at Adderley Park. 1972 saw the return of full commercial vehicle production to Washwood Heath, when the closure of Adderley Park led to the relocation of the J4 and 250JU van production lines to Common Lane. In 1974, the these models gave way to the long-running Sherpa range, which was effectively an amalgamation of its joint predecessors.
By the early 1980s the Sherpa had overcome its shaky start in life to become the plant's staple product, and was being built under the Freight-Rover brand. The Washwood Heath site also played host to BL's Unipart operation for a while, and it seems that there was a fire at the factory sometime around late 1983/early 1984, resulting in the loss of numerous completed vehicles. When the Freight-Rover operation was privatised in 1987, the Drews Lane and Common Lane plants finally left the BMC>Rover fold. In 1989, Freight-Rover became Leyland-Daf Vans, which in turn became LDV Ltd in 1993; they are still based at Ward End to this day, and certain elements of the 1960 J4 can still be discerned in their current Pilot model, although the plant has since been considerably modernised.
The imposing 400ft frontage of Bromford House, the administrative block fronting onto Drews Lane. This photo was taken in the late 1980s, when it was home to the newly-independent Freight-Rover company, and is now the headquarters of LDV Ltd.
If you can provide further information about the more recent history of this plant, particularly regarding activities from the 1960s up to the privatisation of Freight-Rover in 1987, please get in touch. Due credit will be given for any information used.