©  Anthony Green  2011

Home. Town Growth. Pre-Redditch. General History. Industry. Transport. Non-Web. Support. Home. Town Growth. Pre-Redditch. General History. Industry. Transport. Non-Web. Support. Motor Cycle Manufacture

The Royal Enfield had its origins in the Townsend bicycle manufactured in Hunt End. This became the Edie Manufacturing Company and were based in premises in Lodge Road which later became the Alcad batteries site. They were renamed the Enfield Cycle Company and moved to their 30 acre site in Hewell Road in 1906.

Although most well known for their motor cycles, they also manufactured bicycles, generator sets and lawn mowers. The building that was the works canteen (right) and which now houses industrial units, illustrates the size of the site. 



LINKS

Comments

http://www.royalenfield.com/

There is a very good history on the Royal Enfield India site. Go to company and then history.

http://www.royalenfield.org.uk/

The Royal Enfield Owners Club has a good history section and plenty of information and photographs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Enfield 

The on-line encyclopaedia - Wikipedia - has a good entry for Royal Enfield Motorcycles.

http://www.classicglory.com/sunbeam.htm

The Sunbeam S7 series of motorbikes and some BSA engines were designed and built at BSA Redditch.

http://myroyalenfields.blogspot.com/

A blog by an American academic Mr Jorge Pullin, has links to historical articles and other web sites.

The big breakthrough for Royal Enfield was the development of the famous ‘Bullet’ range in the mid 1930's and in the 1950's the Indian government signed a contract to produce the model under licence for the Indian Army. The company suffered in the general collapse of the British motorcycle market in the 1960's and ceased trading in 1967. The site is now the Enfield Industrial Estate.

The Royal Enfield motorcycle continues to be made in India and has a successful world-wide niche market.





Short History - Motor Cycle Manufacture (Adobe Flash Presentation)

In addition to the Royal Enfield, Redditch also played a part in the manufacture of the BSA motorcycles at the Studley Road site. At different periods complete bikes and engines for motorbikes were made. 


Here are some links to sites which have some good information on the history of the Royal Enfield and one concerning the BSA in Redditch.