It turns out that in our previous post on the subject, I had missed a couple of buildings that remain of the Royal Enfield factory in Redditch. They even say "Royal Enfield" on the roof today! (Click on the picture to enlarge). Whomever owns it hasn't painted the roof in 43 years! This building is significant, because it was to the left of the central factory building, flanking the main entrance. Many VIP's had their photographs taken on motorcycles there and the building with "Royal Enfield" on the roof invariably appeared in the background. For instance here is Major Mountford with K. R. Sundaram, director of Enfield India in 1963 (photo from "Made in Redditch" by Gordon May).
Magnificent find, Jorge! I can't BELIEVE it is still there! Your series of aerial explorations of Redditch has been excellent.
ReplyDeleteWow! In comparing your two photos, it looks like the part directly adjacent to that section was removed.
ReplyDeletehttp://i39.tinypic.com/96jfx0.jpg
Thanks David! More on Redditch in a few weeks!
ReplyDeleteChris:
ReplyDeleteThat's right. If you look at the picture in
http://myroyalenfields.blogspot.com/2009/03/where-in-redditch-part-ii.html
you will see that the part that was removed was actually the main building of the factory. That building had become structurally unsound and was demolished immediately when the Redditch Development Corporation took ownership of the factory, at least according to testimony of workers of the factory in Anne Bradford's book.
Superb, great to see that Jorge! Ive been past the factory quite a few times, but never in the air!
ReplyDeleteMalc.
Thanks, Malc!
ReplyDelete