Birmingham’s Manufacturing History — And it’s Future
Birmingham is colloquially known as the UK’s ‘second city’, and it certainly remains a key economic driver on these shores. To this end, it contributed approximately £870 million to the UK economy in 2022, and remains a key player across a wide range of lucrative industries.
However, while Birmingham is now best known for its presence in service industries, retail and tourism, it also has a rich manufacturing history and played an integral role in Britain’s once lucrative metal sector.
I’ll take a closer look at this history below, while asking what the future holds for Birmingham from the perspective of manufacturing. Let’s get into it!
A Brief History of Manufacturing in Birmingham
From as early as the 16th century, Birmingham was the front and centre of Britain’s metal working industries, with a particularly large population of skilled and experienced iron mongers operating in the region.
Through the course of the English Civil War (which was waged between Royalists and Parliamentarians between 1642 and 1652), Birmingham’s principle tradespeople were blacksmiths, who were actually commissioned to produce more than 15,000 sword blades for republican forces.
As the city ramped up its manufacturing and metal works, it also became a popular hotbed for trade. This led to the construction of the ‘Birmingham Canal’, which was built between 1768 and 1772 and established the second city as the greatest industrial hub in the world!
Through the early 1800s, the city’s factories became heavily dependent on workshops and the deployment of steam power, but economic growth was also driven by a high volume of smaller workshops located throughout Birmingham. During this period, Birmingham’s manufacturing industries continued to evolve, producing everything from chinaware to the metal tongs used in making tea.
Throughout the ‘Great Industrial Revolution’, Birmingham shipped goods and metal items to Europe, Asia and even Africa, through both its canal routes and the ‘Grand Junction Railways’. To this day, Birmingham remains at the epicenter of the UK’s canal network, while the rail routes linking the city to London have been present for centuries now.
Modern-Day Birmingham — How has it Changed?
Throughout the 20th century and particularly since the 1970s, the importance of traditional and industrial manufacturing in Birmingham has declined.
This has coincided with the UK’s transition into a services economy, while manufacturing has largely been outsourced to countries across the globe.
However, the city remains a key player in modern manufacturing sectors, such as the burgeoning market for medical technology hardware. Overall, Birmingham and the West Midlands have the largest medical technology cluster in the whole of the UK, with around 1,000 businesses and an associated workforce of nearly 24,000.
There’s no doubt that this industry is built on Birmingham’s manufacturing routes, with the city boasting excellent R&D facilities, clinical trials expertise and advanced regulation and policy.
So, although Birmingham is now more reliant on service industries and tourism for its revenue, it remains closely affiliated with manufacturing and has the infrastructure to move into new production niches with relative ease.
