GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Handsworth & Smethwick: gwrhs1985

View of Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Works next to Handsworth and Smethwick station in 1920. 'Brasspot' observed the following factories and streets in the photograph, 'In this photo the works of JA Phillips who built the 'Rolfe' cyclecar, Crescent Motors, who built the 'Crescent' cyclecar and EG Wrigley who built the 'Wrigley' cyclecar all appear. Boulton and Watt's Soho Foundry occupied at the time of this photo by W & T Avery, the weighing machine manufacturers. They are still based there. The Foundry Lane works of EG Wrigley and Co. a major supplier of components to the motor industry in the early years of the 20th century. In 1913 the company briefly produced a cyclecar but they were taken over by Morris who built Morris Commercial cars on this site from 1924. The Rolfe Street works of the Crescent Motors Ltd where they produced their 'Crescent' car from 1911 to 1915. The Credenda Works of JA Phillips and Company who were, for a time, the biggest cycle manufacturers in the country. Briefly, in 1913, they produced the Rolfe cyclecar at these works.

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