Coventry, a fotostory

This is a Massey Feruson 35



These are the gates at the Massey Ferguson factory at Banner Lane, where it, and many thousands of other tractors passed, on their way to a farming life around the world. The life blood of the city, flooding through the gates in one direction, as raw materials poured through the same gates on their way to becoming another tractor.



This is a Massey Ferguson 65



Another huge seller, this tractor was shipped through the same gates by the lorryload. Massey Ferguson was the biggest tractor manufacturing company in the UK, and possibly Europe, and its headquarters were in Coventry, in this building.



But, just as in the picture, storm clouds were gathering. Let us pull back, and see the empty car park.



There are no cars at the factory today.

The gates are tied shut



They lead nowhere!



Where once these barriers admitted hundreds of workers, eager to start their shift



now they swing disconsolately, unguarded, unwanted, admitting nobody, to nowhere.


The gates to nowhere stand as a monument to a once great factory, a provider of work, of pride and of wealth.



They stand mute testimony to a lost life, a lost skill, a lost opportunity, whilst the office block looks down on a wasteland



Where once Perkins engines were being carefully fitted into Massey Ferguson tractors and excavators, now excavators from Japan tear down the last remnants of the plant



Instead, new homes are being built.



New homes where once was a great factory, a producer of tractors famous the world over. A factory that was the heart of Coventry. A hear now stilled.

And, because the factory that provided men with a wage, with pride and with passion is gone, there are no buyers for the houses, so they stand, new, identical, soul-less, and empty...

Very moving story.
Have they stopped making the tractors or just not at Coventry?

The company fell into the hands of Conrad Black. It is now owned by Agco, a foreign company, and there is no more production on the UK

Nice photostory Gaz.

Surprised those houses haven't been sold! Perhaps they are not complete yet..

It really makes me sick to think of famous names being lost to foreigners. I see that JCB are now cutting their workforce as well, instead of the government pumping money into fighting abroad it would be far better spent in supporting these companies and their workforce.

Sorry about politics comming into the thread its just I feel so strongly about oppertunities lost by those who could have done something about it.

Bazza

The company I work for own 50% of the houses there. So far we have actually sold 3% of them. The rest have been empty for over a year. The reason I was there, in fact, was to cut the grass and weed the gardens so they looked presentable.
Silly side story-it was quiet as a grave round there yesterday, as I was working in one of the rear gardns, and I could hear a *whoooooooo, WhoOOOooOOO* noise.
Investigation shopwed that it was an extractor fan that had been left on in the kitchen. I couldn't help thinking how apt it was that the noise of an extractor fan was the only sound to be heard in an ex-tractor factory

They must be over-priced then? I thought there was a shortage of houses nation-wide. Do you know how much they are?

Oh, there's no shortage of housing. A shortage of funding to buy them, maybe, which is why my brother has just been laid off on a building site for the first time in his life. The company he was working for has over 100 homes unsold, each with a market price of £400,000 and above. Which is a lot of money to have lying about unsold.

As for these, lease/buy shared ownership, 2 bedroom houses, 175 thou' each. And IMHO that is *far* above what the market will sustain.

Very moving story.

a very interesting story !