The Black Country was once a hotbed of vehicle manufacture in the West Midlands. I well remember being brought up in Brierley Hill, in the immediate area. Every late evening for literally miles around, the sky would be lit up as the huge blast furnaces at Round Oak were opened up and the molten steel was run off, as it had been since the 1870s. (Round Oak Steelworks was demolished in the 1980s and is now the site of the huge Merryhill Shopping Centre). Chain links were still being hand-crafted by both men and women in tiny forges behind neighbouring terraced houses, and the whole area was a veritable cauldron of heavy industry.
As for vehicle manufacturers, let's just remind ourselves of the great number of companies that were in business in the Black Country, all of which are now lost forever. By 1919 Star in Wolverhampton were the sixth largest motor manufacturer in the UK, while Dudley-based Bean were another major independent car marque. They outsold both Morris and Austin in the early 1920s, ultimately becoming the main castings suppliers to – and eventually part of – Standard-Triumph. The Wolverhampton manufacturer Guy continued building commercial vehicles in volume until 1959. Yet another Wolverhampton concern, Sunbeam not only built road cars, buses, trolleybuses, aero engines, aircraft and commercials, but indeed World Land Speed Record Breakers and Grand Prix cars too. Eventually they were absorbed by Rootes.
The Jensen brothers built
