Pilgrimage to Filton

[Ashley James]

We manufacturer hi fi and sell it all over the world, it's
comparatively expensive, it has a devoted following and owners club
as does Bristol Cars, which means that we too, get lots of enquiries
from people wishing to visit, however we're very busy and it's not
always convenient to see people, so we have to turn most away.
Perhaps it's the same for BCL.

Ash

[browning l]

Originally Posted by Ashley James

We manufacturer hi fi and sell it all over the world, it's
comparatively expensive, it has a devoted following and owners club
as does Bristol Cars, which means that we too, get lots of enquiries
from people wishing to visit, however we're very busy and it's not
always convenient to see people, so we have to turn most away.
Perhaps it's the same for BCL.

Ash

Facilities visits are always time-consumming for staff, and consequently expensive.

Here in Kentucky, most of the area's horse farms where mares are bred and foaled, and stallions stand, thoroughbred horse farm tours are almost none-existent now, primarily for this reason. Visitors demand the tour be led by a knowledgable person; such persons usually have a heavy load of responsibilities to carry out.

In our manufacturing business, we had tours, but exclusively for customers, not for the general public.

Each business has to set its own standards.

We visited the RR-Bentley Crewe plant in the early 2000s. In essence, all we saw was some of the paint line and some assembly...no true manufacturing.

[Markus Berzborn]

Originally Posted by Ashley James

We manufacturer hi fi and sell it all over the world, it's comparatively expensive,

Good example.
Let's take Kondo or other small manufacturers of very expensive hifi equipment - the premises are nothing but workshops stuffed with measuring devices where a few people are busy soldering components.
And after all - why should it be anything more?

Regards,
Markus

[JLucy]

Sorry, didn't mean to start a controversy about whether the factory is open
to tours - I just read what it said on the BCL website and accepted that it
wasn't. As it says on the website, it sounds like it is something they want
to make possible one day.

I am more interested in whether any of the Bristol history at Filton is
visible. I'm guessing the original premises are somewhere on the BAC site,
to which I will not get access I'm sure.

It sounds like my visit to Filton will be brief. Many years ago I looked
around the manufacturing area for Concorde, another magnificent product of
Filton!

James

[Markus Berzborn]

A question to local residents: Does the current location of the factory belong to Filton at all or rather to Patchway? Or is Patchway a part of Filton?

Regards,
Markus

[browning l]

Originally Posted by Markus Berzborn

A question to local residents: Does the current location of the factory belong to Filton at all or rather to Patchway? Or is Patchway a part of Filton?

Regards,
Markus

It is actually located in Patchway, north of Filton, and just east of the A38.

Take a look at this.

Bristol Cars Filton UK - Google Search

[Richard]

Facilities visits are always time-consumming for staff, and consequently expensive.

On a totally different scale to BCL, at Airbus in Hamburg which is where I used to work (after my time in Filton), works tours have been outsourced to a local travel company. They run about 8 tours per day of 20 people each in either English or German. Guides are retired Airbus employees ( I am one) and in a 2.5hr tour by foot you are shown a short introductory film and then given a tour around the assembly line for Single aisle aircraft (A320 family) fuselages and the final assembly line. At present the A380 is not include in this but maybe at a later date will be.
We have many groups of aeronautical enthusiasts visiting from the UK and most are agreed that this is one of the best visits to a large aircraft assembly plant available.

Sorry that was rather off topic.
As far as visits to BCL are concerned I can fully understand that if the company is or was involved in contract work for the MOD then there will be requirements to provide a restricted area into which only authorised people are allowed. So the reluctance to show visitors around is fully understandable.
The other question was about the original location of BCL. This was on the opposite of the A38 road to Filton House, a site which is now occupied by shops etc. I believe that none of the original buildings still exist but am open to correction.

Regards
Richard

[Peter.Kent]

Having been there, I was dissapointed not to recognise it on Google. P

[JLucy]

Thanks to all those who replied.

As it turned out, I got there on Friday afternoon to find the factory closed
- they don't work on Friday afternoons apparently.

Not long after my visit a power steering hose burst on my Beaufighter - all
the full lock work in a multi-storey car park finished it off I think. This
made it rather a shame the factory wasn't open!

It's a pity that the original offices are no longer in existence. I would
have liked a photo of my car in the place so many publicity photos were
taken. I'd like to think it was progress, but replacement by a row of shops
doesn't sound like progress to me.

The best view of the factory that I could find is on Microsoft (aka Bing)
maps:

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.asp...8889~-2.589077
&style=h&lvl=17&tilt=-39.8228919304618&dir=88.6377400339028&alt=907.4128 9945
0399&cam=51.529181~-2.603212&scene=42837400&phx=-0.2384424188792&phy=-0.1185
95158678623&phscl=6.95703125&where1=BS34%205TB&enc Type=1

It takes a little while to load but is much better than Google Earth for
this area. The blue gates to the lower left of the picture form the main
entrance and have a small sign next to them saying 'Bristol Cars'.

James