Titanic and Birmingham – Soho Foundry Exhibition
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.
Titanic was one of three ‘Olympic Class’ liners commissioned by the White Star Line to be built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Construction on Titanic began on 31 March 1909 and took three years to build, resulting in the largest and most luxurious vessel. Many of the components and products manufactured for the Titanic were produced by craftsmen from the West Midlands.
The components and products were wide ranging including: Titanic’s anchors built by Netherton’s Hingley & Sons, Birmingham based company ACME supplied Titanic with its pocket whistles for the crew, crews uniform buttons made by Firmin & Sons in Birmingham, cut glass tableware from Stourbridge and research by Andrew Lound curator at the Avery Historical Museum has found that 70% of the ships interior was made in the West Midlands including beds manufactured by Birmingham firm Hoskins & Sewell.
1912: A Titanic Odyssey – A Centenary Exhibition at the Avery Historical Museum, Soho Foundry, Foundry Lane, is open until April 29. The exhibition allows visitors to imagine what it was like to be a passenger on the largest liner of the world in 1912, trace the ship’s history and listen to audio recordings of survivors giving first-hand accounts of the tragedy. The exhibition also celebrates the regions connections with Titanic, for more information: http://www.averyweigh-tronix.com/titanic_exhibition/
1st FEBRUARY — 29thAPRIL 2012
Avery Historical Museum, Soho Foundry, Foundry Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands B66 2LP (Map)
Opening hours:
Entrance £4 and by advance booking only (except for open days).
A little bit further afield and in my home town of Bromsgrove, The Bromsgrove Guild (who were quite a famous metalworking business) made various trim parts for the Lusitania, a large Cunard liner that entered service in 1907, a few years before the Titanic. It’s great to know that the local area was so involved in the manufacturing of parts for these great ships that were the marvels of their age.
I believe that we miss the importance of this area’s input into our past; most people may have heard that Birmingham was a ‘city of a thousand trades’, however do we really understand what we actually achieved?
Great post by the way!!
Leigh