Jensen Factory postcard

[felixkk]

Plans of the Offices at Carters Green. I've written the agent to ask if they would send us a set of plans in a better resolution.

Ground Floor

Jensen_Carters_Green_GR_FL.png (119.44 KiB) Viewed 5375 times

First Floor

Jensen_Carters_Green_1ST_FL.png (76.22 KiB) Viewed 5375 times

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-p ... 27945.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[VFK44]

I think that none of the buildings in the aerial view survive, as the big factory blocks are gone and the admin building at the front was replaced by the admin block shown in the estate agents advert in the recent posts. I would presume it was destroyed during the war?

[felixkk]

Richard writes in All the Models that the factory was damaged by bombs in November 1940, and that the new offices were built after that. The building at Kelvin Way bears some resemblance to the office at Carters Green, so I wonder if it was the same architect?

Does anybody know how the rooms were used, who occupied which rooms? The back section is labelled as accounting in the old site plan.

The current site plan:

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DC0645925-EXISTING_SITE_PLAN-203953_detail.jpg (102.16 KiB) Viewed 5296 times

Jensen_House_Shaftesbury_St_b.jpg (194.66 KiB) Viewed 5296 times

[Nick Maltby]

Congratulations Felix on the fantasic research work you have done on Jensen's Carters Green and Pensnett factories.

You ask if anyone knows who occupied which office in the Carters Green main office. I cannot help you with that, I only visited that block once in the time I worked at Carters Green and that was the day I started in 1959. I was met by a Mr. Rice* (not 100% sure of that name) who I believed looked after staff personnel and accounting. I would assume that he occupied one of the offices. The other definites would be Mr. Alan and Mr. Richard Jensen and Mr. J. B. Stevensen, Company Secretary. Possibles are, Mr. Clarke*, Works Manager (sorry no first name or initial) and Eric Neale.

* I would be pleased to know if anyone has any documents or anecdotes which refer to either or both of these two gentlemen.

The location of Eric's office was unknown to me both at Carters Green and Kelvin Way. He just seemed to appear and disapper in and out of the D.O. as far as I was concerned . His office was nowhere near the D.O. either at C.G. or K.W.
I am pretty sure that his office was located in the main administration block at K.W. whereas Kevin Beattie, Eric's so called deputy Chief Engineer had an office adjacent to the drawing office which was located in the block on the right of the entrance, looking from K.W.
Eric had a close relationship with the Jensen brothers so it is reasonable to assume that his office was also near to theirs in the Carters Green admin. block.

I was looking at the plan that you submitted on 22/09/15 and noted the parallel red lines going from south west to north east across the page. The space defined by the lines is labelled "proposed new road". I just observe that the new road did not follow anything like that route as can be seen on the later Google Maps view of the A41 Expressway. It seems, at this distance in time, that the compulsory purchase and demolition of the Carters Green factory was unnecessary.
It should be reasonably easy to find out the name of the architects for both the Carters Green and Kelvin Way office blocks, if only the time to do the research could be found. You have piqued my interest in posing this question because the nephew of a relative by marriage was a partner in a firm of architects who were very active in the West Bromwhich area at that time.

One last thing, thanks to Paul and Jens for drawing my attention to the Colin Reikie articles publish in a book by Brookland Books. I have ordered myself a copy.

Nick

[mikebyrne]

All very interesting postings !!
I remember going to the Jensen Parts & Service buildings in the 70's to a JOC open day.
We passed the old factory and I remember seeing the prototype car (or cars) that was to take the place of the Interceptor. I think I remember seeing two of them ,side by side, out in the front yard with no protection against the elements. A very angular car with fast back I think if memory serves me ok.
Was one of these cars (or both) finished at a later date and is it still around ?
Mike.

[VFK44]

Are these the ones? (Photo from Han Kamp)

[VFK44]

Link to thread on the discovery of the F-type:
http://www.joc.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... a&start=90

[felixkk]

Thank you for your recollections Nick! If you look at the overlay of the photo, I think you'll find that even though the Expressway was later built further to the north than indicated on the Jensen plan, it still necessitated the demolition of the factory.

And in case you haven't seen the Phil Grice interview, here's the link. http://www.joc.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24211" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

file-11.jpg (182 KiB) Viewed 5156 times

[Nick Maltby]

Yes, Felix, it was an exaggeration on my part and a misreading of the current Google map, to suggest that the compulsory purchase of Jensen's Carters Green factory was unecessary. At least 1/3rd of the north side of the factory ended up under the Expressway. I speculate that the company would have transferred all the work carried out at CG to KW eventually even if the Expressway had not been built. So, maybe the compulsory purchase was fortuitous.
Thanks for the link to the Phil Grice interview, I had missed it for some reason. Jensen history doesn't get presented any better than this. Very well done to all involved and thank you. I could relate to a lot of the people and locations mentioned by Phil, especially his esteemed boss, Stan Miller.
The interview looked as if it was conducted in a motor museum but I didn't recognise it.
Nick

[Keith]

The interview looked as if it was conducted in a motor museum but I didn't recognise it.
Nick

Hi Nick,

The interview was conducted in my place of work. A few old relics around (!) but it's not a motor museum, I'm afraid.

[Han Kamp]

Felix, my compliments for your research on the Jensen factory premises. Very interesting stuff indeed.
Now, I was reading an article in Automobile Quarterly, volume 32, no.2 of October 1993 and noted something unexpected.
I have always assumed that JML were the owners of the premises. But the article states:

quote:
By 1975, 1,000 unsold Jensens jammed Qvale's American facilities. Production was cut to 25 cars a week when the Church Commissioners, owners of the factory premises, decided - with a totally unworldly sense of timing - to triple the rent.
unquote.

So, who owned the factory premises? Church Commissioners or Jensen Motors Ltd.

[ajm541s]

I am pretty sure that his office was located in the main administration block at K.W. whereas Kevin Beattie, Eric's so called deputy Chief Engineer had an office adjacent to the drawing office which was located in the block on the right of the entrance, looking from K.W.

According to the Jensen Healey Stories, Kevin Beattie joined Jensen Motors as Chief Engineer in 1959, so was he ever Eric Neale's deputy?

[Keith]

According to the Jensen Healey Stories, Kevin Beattie joined Jensen Motors as Chief Engineer in 1959, so was he ever Eric Neale's deputy?

I cannot imagine that to be the case either Tony. Body design and engineering have always been separate disciplines.

[Nick Maltby]

I am as guilty as anyone in using the descriptions 'chief' and 'deputy' when describing Eric Neale's and Kevin Beattie's respective positions at Jensen.

I have carelessly taken these descriptions from this forum and the many articles written about Jensen Motors and its history on the internet.

The fact is, despite working under both of these gentlemen at Carters Green (Eric) and Kelvin Way (Kelvin), I don't know what their official titles were and what their formal relationship was one to another.

Amongst the plebs, if their respective positions were referred to at all it would have been, Eric Neale Chief (or senior) Body Engineer and Kevin Beattie Chief (or senior) chassis engineer. In a relatively small company like Jensen titles were of no great significance, particularly in pre Norcross days. The Jensen brothers would be the only chiefs that needed to be acknowledged as such. Everyone else, in true, John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbet, style "knew our places".

It is reasonable to assume that Eric would be seen as being senior to Kevin by the Jensen brothers because he had joined the company in 1946 and had made significant contributions towards the company's success with the design of the first Interceptor, the 541 and work on developing the (Austin) Healey 100 for series production. Kevin joined Jensen at Carters Green in 1959 to replace Colin Reikie who had left in 1957. Colin had also joined Jensen in 1946 and there is no reason to suppose that both he and Eric were anything other than equal in status.

Colin, of course, was largely responsible for designing the perimeter tube chassis used for the 541 series of cars. Even the centre tube chassis of the C-V8 owed much to Colin's original design and the FF, in order to accommodate the FF transfer box, reverted back to the perimeter tube chassis.

For the definitive answer as to the formal titles and related positions of Eric and Kevin, we need to see company documents/letters/memos etc. which refer to their respective titles. Then we will be able to put this matter to bed once and for all.

Even if Kevin was officially Eric's deputy, I am pretty sure that there were very few occasions when that fact would have been tangibly evident.

Nick

[Han Kamp]

Felix, my compliments for your research on the Jensen factory premises. Very interesting stuff indeed.
Now, I was reading an article in Automobile Quarterly, volume 32, no.2 of October 1993 and noted something unexpected.
I have always assumed that JML were the owners of the premises. But the article states:

quote:
By 1975, 1,000 unsold Jensens jammed Qvale's American facilities. Production was cut to 25 cars a week when the Church Commissioners, owners of the factory premises, decided - with a totally unworldly sense of timing - to triple the rent.
unquote.

So, who owned the factory premises? Church Commissioners or Jensen Motors Ltd.

Somehow my question has been overlooked? Does anyone know the answer?