DVD
It’s no surprise that many ex-employees of Nightingale Road, the main works of Rolls-Royce in Derby for more than 100 years, recall their time at the place with fond nostalgia.
The famous old site was home to so many great achievements: the development of the Silver Ghost, oft-touted as the best car in the world; the launch of the Merlin and the Griffon engines, the power for the Royal Air Force in World War II; and leadership in the worldwide advent of the jet engine era. No wonder those who can recall what went on back in the day do so with genuine emotion.
That’s one of the most poignant aspects of a wonderfully evocative DVD that chronicles the history of Nightingale Road, from its origins in 1907 through to its closure in 2008. Produced by the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust, the 50-minute film has access to key people who lucidly recall their memories of the site.
There are people like Ray Thompson, who worked at Nightingale Road from 1942 to 1975, rising to director. He talks about the high quality of apprenticeship there and about the pride workers had in representing the firm. And then there is Trevor Salt, who worked at Nightingale Road from 1942 to 1980, who recalls working his way up through the machine shop, learning cutting and grinding, before becoming director of manufacturing.
But it’s not all feelgood memories – Nightingale Road had more than its fair share of dark days. A Luftwaffe bombing raid scored a direct hit on one end of the site, killing several employees. In the 1970s, works convenor Charlie Hunt remembers Rolls-Royce running into severe cashflow difficulties and sliding into receivership. That period of uncertainty caused anguish among the employees who, to their credit, decided to carry on working to keep the company going.
Interspersed with personal recollections is archive footage of the factory in operation. It’s fascinating to see the place evolve from a labour-intensive plant through to the introduction of the first CNC machines in the 1960s and, a few years later, the automated guided vehicles used on the site.
The end of the 1970s saw the first batch of Rolls-Royce production engineers attend a series of modules at Warwick University to learn the dark arts of computer-aided design. That was a move that eventually transformed what went on within the business.
Anyone who ever worked at Nightingale Road, or any other Rolls-Royce facility, will surely treasure this DVD. But it will also have a wider appeal to those with a more general interest in Britain’s industrial heritage.
- In the Shadow of Ghosts – the story of the Rolls-Royce Nightingale Road works from 1907–2007 – costs £5. More details from the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust, 01332 240340.