Longbridge Demolition
28th October 2008
Demolition of the New West
Works (Metro Body Shop) is now complete.
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The above pictures show North Works, the
marked out area above is where the culvert under the factory takes
the River Rea from the Bristol Road to Longbridge Lane.
The foundations are then
broken up and carried over the railway by the Signal Box to be
deposited in South Works
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Update
24th May 2008
Work has already started on
the demolition of the New West Works which was built for assembling
Metro bodies in 1980.
Also work is now starting
on the demolition of the General Office Block (GOB) which is on the
Lickey Road. It was built in 1931 as a Service Department and
Spares Centre. When this was transferred to the Flight Shed in the
1950s, the building became the main location for the general office
related jobs. At the Lowhill Lane end on the top floor was the
Telephone Exchange.
Above is the Methods Build
on Lowhill Lane. The last major pre-production build was the BMW
Mini in 1999, which was to be built at Longbridge but was sent to
Cowley, when BMW sold the company in 2000.
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The demolition of the
Longbridge Site started in 2006 after Nangjing had bought the
company from the Administrator.It was nearly twelve months before
the first phase of the demolition started with the removal of the
conveyor bridge that took unpainted bodies from the West Works over
the A38 to the South side and up to the Car Assemble
Building.
The Old West Works was the next to be demolished.
New West Works built for
the Metro bodies although cleared of all the equipment it is still
standing. But if a tenant can not be found by the end of the year
then that build is likely to be demolished.
The next site to be demolished was the North Works. This site was
built in the first World War and consisted of a Foundry, Machine
Shops, Tool Room and later on produced the 'A' series engine.
East Works was the next and this was the biggest site to be
demolished. This site also included the Cofton Works which was
built to machine and assemble the 'E' series engine, and gearbox.
The first car that used this power unit was the Maxi.
The last site was part of South Works which is where the the
Company Started. This was the area that you could see as you drove
down the A38 from Rubery, which had in the foreground the island
that was always a theatre of colour.
2008 will see the following landmarks demolished. The General
Office Block on the Lickey Road. The railway Ticket Office on the
bridge, Also it looks that the New West Works (Metro Shop) will
also disappear in the first quarter of 2008