From cough drops to missiles: 12 lost factories that employed generations of Mancunians
Right at the heart of the industrial revolution, Manchester has been home to thriving factories that have employed generations of Mancunians.
So while workers no longer clock on at these factories, we can still look back at when they employed so many in Greater Manchester. Here, we take a look back at 12 well-known factories that we've loved and lost. Hawker Siddeley The Chadderton factory was opened in 1939 by aircraft manufacturers A V Roe Ltd. The company went on to build half of the 7,000 Lancaster Bombers manufactured during the Second World War.
Now in the 21st century, the fate of the famous Manchester site was sealed when the iconic Boddies chimney tumbled down when the brewery was demolished in 2007. The site was later used for parking, but since 2022, it has been home to state-of-the-art educational facility City Campus Manchester. Great Universal Stores It wouldn't be outlandish to describe Great Universal Stores, or GUS, as being something akin to the Amazon of its day. Founded in 1900 as a mail order business in Manchester as Universal Stores, in 1930 it changed its name to Great Universal Stores and was the leading mail order business in Europe through its catalogue, Great Universal.
The site was considered ideal thanks to its close proximity to the rail network. Raw materials could be delivered directly to the works via the railway sidings at the rear of the factory. A FTSE 100 firm at its peak, the firm's downfall came in the late '80s when it bought an American defence contractor whose revenues were linked to illegal arms sales. The legal and financial fallout crippled the firm, who filed for bankruptcy in 1993.
GEC - AEI The General Electric Company, GEC, and Associated Electrical Industries, AEI, factory in Trafford Park made electrical traction equipment for railway rolling stock. The site was previously occupied by Metropolitan-Vickers, one of the most important heavy engineering firms in the world in the first half of the 20th century. The factory closed in 1998, when production moved to France.
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