What was here?
Before the trading estate and housing off Armoury Road, this was the Birmingham Small Arms works: a 25-acre factory that made rifles by machinery from 1863, and later bicycles, motorcycles and engines that carried the BSA name around the world.
History
In 1862 the Birmingham Small Arms Company chose a 25-acre site beside Golden Hillock Lane in Small Heath. The road was later renamed Armoury Road, and it still carries the name.
Guns by machine
The factory opened in 1863 to make small arms by machinery. That was the point of it: rifles made in quantity, with machines doing much of the work. No architect is recorded.
From the 1870s BSA made the Martini-Henry rifle. In the First World War the company turned out about 1.5 million rifles, according to Grace’s Guide and BSA sources. The works grew to match. Its “New Building”, put up in 1914–16, was a notable early reinforced-concrete frame by the Trussed Concrete Steel Company, with an extension of 1915–16.
Bicycles and motorcycles
The company did not stop at rifles. BSA turned to bicycles, and from 1909 to motorcycles and engines. For the next sixty years BSA motorcycles were made at Small Heath.
19 November 1940
In the Second World War the works were again making arms. On the night of 19 November 1940 bombs hit the factory and brought down part of the New Building. According to the BSA Owners’ Club account and other local histories, 53 employees were killed and 89 injured. It was the darkest night in the factory’s history.
There is a grim symmetry in which building fell. The New Building had gone up in 1914–16, in the middle of one world war. In 1940 it was brought down in the next.
Decline
The end came in peacetime, and slowly. From 1970 motorcycle assembly was concentrated at Meriden, and Small Heath made engines and components. BSA’s motorcycle business collapsed in the early 1970s and in 1973 passed into Norton Villiers Triumph. The last motorcycle made at Small Heath was completed on Christmas Eve 1975, according to the BSA records catalogue at Solihull Archives.
The buildings followed the business. The New Building “was demolished in the 1970s”, according to Looking at Buildings, the Pevsner Books Trust guide. Several accounts put the demolition of the Small Heath factory in 1977.
What is left
Industrial units now line Armoury Road, with later housing nearby. Looking at Buildings records that the 1915–16 extension of the New Building, “on the opposite side of the road”, was still standing and used by a vehicle repairer; whether it survives today has not been checked.
The street name is the clearest survival. Armoury Road tells anyone who stops to wonder that this was once where Birmingham armed the country. From Martini-Henry rifles to motorcycles, the works carried Birmingham’s name around the world.
What happened here?
The Birmingham Small Arms Company made rifles here by machinery from 1863, including about 1.5 million in the First World War (Grace’s Guide), then bicycles, and from 1909 motorcycles and engines. On 19 November 1940 a bombing raid brought down part of the New Building, killing 53 employees.
Why it mattered
BSA’s Small Heath works made small arms by machinery on a factory scale, supplied rifles in both world wars and built BSA motorcycles. The bombing of 19 November 1940 killed 53 of its workers. The works’ disappearance in the 1970s followed the collapse of BSA’s motorcycle business.
Why it disappeared
Wartime destruction · Industrial decline
Part of the New Building was destroyed by bombing on 19 November 1940. After BSA’s motorcycle business collapsed in the early 1970s and passed into Norton Villiers Triumph in 1973, the New Building was demolished in the 1970s (Looking at Buildings); the factory’s demolition is often dated to 1977.
What’s there now
What replaced it
Industrial units on Armoury Road (a trading estate) and later housing. Exact current uses have not been verified.
What survives
The street name, Armoury Road. Looking at Buildings records that the 1915–16 extension to the New Building, on the opposite side of the road, was still standing (undated; current state unchecked).
Today
Armoury Road, Small Heath, is lined with industrial units and nearby housing. Nothing on the street marks the scale of what stood here.
Key dates
- 1861 — BSA incorporatedLarger Birmingham gunmakers incorporate the Birmingham Small Arms Company to mass-produce guns by machine, in answer to the government factory at Enfield. Its Small Heath works open in 1863.
- 1863 — BSA factory opens at Small HeathThe Birmingham Small Arms works opens on a 25-acre site on Golden Hillock Lane (later Armoury Road) to make small arms by machinery.
- 2 July 1880 — BSA contracts to make Otto dicyclesBSA agrees to supply 210 Otto “dicycles” at £8 15s each, its first step into cycle making. The first machine is delivered on 20 September 1880.
- 1909 — BSA starts making motorcyclesThe Birmingham Small Arms Company begins making motorcycles at Small Heath. A year later it buys the Daimler Motor Company of Coventry.
- 19 November 1940 — Bombing at the BSA worksBombs bring down part of the BSA New Building at Small Heath. According to the BSA Owners’ Club and local histories, 53 employees are killed and 89 injured.
- 1973 — BSA’s motorcycle business collapsesAfter BSA’s shares collapse, its motorcycle business is sold to Norton-Villiers-Triumph. The Small Heath works are demolished later in the 1970s.
- 24 December 1975 — Last motorcycle made at Small HeathAfter BSA’s absorption into Norton Villiers Triumph, a plan to concentrate production at Small Heath fails. Solihull Archives records that the last motorcycle was made there on Christmas Eve 1975.
- c. late 1970s to early 1980s — BSA Small Heath works demolishedThe main BSA works at Small Heath were demolished after motorcycle production ended on Christmas Eve 1975; sources give dates from 1977 to the early 1980s. The 1915–16 extension survives.
Sources and further reading
The death toll of 53 employees killed and 89 injured on 19 November 1940 comes from the BSA Owners’ Club of New Zealand and local history sources and is widely repeated; it has not yet been checked against an authoritative record such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s civilian war dead.
The demolition date of 1977 comes from enthusiast sources and Wikipedia and needs confirmation from a newspaper or planning record. The present land uses on the site and the survival of the 1915–16 extension have not been checked.
A memorial plaque to the 53 workers is reported at St John’s Church, Sparkhill, by forum sources only; it is not mentioned in the text until it is confirmed (for example through the IWM War Memorials Register).
The only open photograph of the works found so far (Phyllis Nicklin, 1968) is licensed for non-commercial use only and is not used.
Birmingham City Council’s Jewellery Quarter conservation area appraisal (2002) dates the Small Heath factory to 1861; most sources, followed here, say the site was chosen in 1862 and the works opened in 1863.
- BSA — Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History
- BSA (Birmingham factories) — Looking at Buildings (Pevsner Books Trust)
- B.S.A.’s worst day ever: Tuesday 19th November 1940 — BSA Owners’ Club of New Zealand
- Birmingham Small Arms Co. Ltd (BSA), records — catalogue and administrative history — Solihull Heritage & Local Studies Service. Ref. GB 0437 BSA. administrative history: last Small Heath motorcycle, 24 December 1975; the 1915–16 extension survives
Archive references: Solihull Archives BSA records (GB 0437)
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