The Soho Manufactory () was an early
factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...
which pioneered
mass production
Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and ba ...
on the
assembly line principle, in
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was deve ...
,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
, at the beginning of the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
. It operated from 1766–1848 and was demolished in 1853.
Beginnings
In 1756, Edward Ruston leased land on
Handsworth Heath from the Lord of the Manor. He deepened
Hockley Brook, and built a rolling mill powered by it.
In 1761 (or 1764
) the
"toy" manufacturer Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engin ...
and his business partner
John Fothergill leased the site including a cottage and the mill. The mill was replaced by a new factory, designed and built by the Wyatt family of
Lichfield
Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...
, and completed in 1766. The cottage was later demolished and Boulton's home (
Soho House) was built on the site, also by the Wyatts.
Production
The Manufactory produced a wide range of goods from
buttons,
buckles and boxes to
japanned ware (collectively called "toys"), and later luxury products such as
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
ware and
ormolu
Ormolu (; from French ''or moulu'', "ground/pounded gold") is the gilding technique of applying finely ground, high-carat gold– mercury amalgam to an object of bronze, and for objects finished in this way. The mercury is driven off in a kiln le ...
(a type of gilded
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...
).
Steam engines
In 1782, it became the first site with a
Watt steam engine
The Watt steam engine design became synonymous with steam engines, and it was many years before significantly new designs began to replace the basic Watt design.
The first steam engines, introduced by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, were of the "a ...
with the
sun and planet gear
The sun and planet gear is a method of converting reciprocating motion to rotary motion and was used in the first rotative beam engines.
It was invented by the Scottish engineer William Murdoch, an employee of Boulton and Watt, but was patent ...
. It was also home to the first
steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...
-powered
mint
MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAE ...
, whose presses were subsequently used at the first
Birmingham Mint.
Later
In later years, the Manufactory was served by canal at
Soho Wharf
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
, at the end of the short
Soho Branch
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
of the
Birmingham Canal Navigations
Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) is a network of canals connecting Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and the eastern part of the Black Country. The BCN is connected to the rest of the English canal system at several junctions. It was owned and opera ...
'
Soho Loop
The Soho Loop is a section of the eighteenth-century Old BCN Main Line canal in Birmingham, England, about west of the city centre, which opened to traffic on 6 November 1769, and was bypassed in September 1827 by a straight section of the N ...
.
The manufactory was demolished in 1853 and the site subsequently used for housing.
Cultural references
In the 1990s the television
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsc ...
programme ''
Time Team
''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...
'' excavated the foundations, in some of the local back gardens. (Series 4, Ep. 3, 1997)
The Manufactory is featured on the
Bank of England £50 note
The Bank of England £50 note is a sterling banknote. It is the highest denomination of banknote currently issued for public circulation by the Bank of England. The current note, the first of this denomination to be printed in polymer, entered ...
along with Matthew Boulton,
James Watt
James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was ...
, and the
Whitbread Engine
The Whitbread Engine preserved in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia, built in 1785, is one of the first rotative steam engines ever built, and is the oldest surviving. A rotative engine is a type of beam engine where the reciprocating mo ...
.
See also
*
Soho Foundry
Soho Foundry is a factory created in 1775 by Matthew Boulton and James Watt and their sons Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt Jr. at Smethwick, West Midlands, England (), for the manufacture of steam engines. Now owned by Avery Weigh-Tr ...
*
Soho Mint
Soho Mint was created by Matthew Boulton in 1788 in his Soho Manufactory () in Handsworth, West Midlands, England. A mint was erected at the manufactory containing eight machines, to his own patent design, driven by steam engine, each capable of ...
*
''Old Bess''
References
*''A History of Birmingham'', Chris Upton, 1993,
External links
*Early photograph
Search for "Soho Manufactory early photograph"fro
Birmingham Images*Other engravings
Search for "Engraving soho staffordshire"a
Birmingham Images*Elevated view
Search for "Button and Silver Plate Works"a
Birmingham Images
{{Steam engine configurations, state=collapsed
1761 establishments in England
1853 disestablishments in England
Manufacturing plants in England
History of Birmingham, West Midlands
British companies established in 1761
Manufacturing companies established in 1761
Demolished buildings and structures in the West Midlands (county)
Buildings and structures demolished in 1853