Introducing Wolverhampton

Before coronavirus at the forefront of the news was what needed to be done to stimulate the economy of the many towns and Cities in the U.K., that had not received the investment and opportunities that the South East of England has benefited from. This topic has not gone away it is very much in the present and the future.

I often think of Wolverhampton where I lived between the ages of 4 and 12 years of age. I am sure that many of you may know similar towns to Wolverhampton or have lived or still live in one of these important towns.

In 1963 in Wolverhampton if we travelled on a trolley bus from the suburbs to the centre of town it would be on a trolley bus. It is a marvel to think that the trolley bus in which we travelled was manufactured by two local Wolverhampton businesses (Guy and Sunbeam).

On the manufacturing and engineering front Wolverhampton was privileged to have a rich heritage of industrial leading businesses of the day such as  Viking bicycles, Goodyear tyres, Chubb locks, Guy Motors, Sunbeam motorcycles, cars and bicycles, Boulton Paul Aircraft, Courtaulds, Stafford Road (GWR) locomotive manufacturers and Armstrong brothers railway manufacturing. I could go on and on.

Incidentally businesses such as Sunbeam Built the first car (Sunbeam Slug) to achieve over 200 mph in 1927 at Daytona Beach in Florida.

Also to take one (of many) example of a son of Wolverhampton, not only had the City the capability to build the machinery but also to create the top flight sports people such as Richard Atwood who won the first Le Mans title for Porsche in the 917 (capable of 240 mph) in 1970.

So Wolverhampton is like perhaps a town that you may know with a rich industrial heritage that has a terrific base in which to build a magnificent future.

Thomas O’Brien and Martin Hall are going to collaborate along with myself on a little research on Wolverhampton and we will be asking you to provide your views, on what could be done to further regenerate Wolverhampton and other similar towns and Cities up and down the U.K.