Made in the Midlands — motorcycle industry

A rider could spend years admiring British motorcycles without ever noticing the name W.H. Tildesley. It was not normally painted on the petrol tank, displayed on a dealer’s sign or printed prominently across a racing programme. Yet inside motorcycles carrying some of Britain’s most famous badges were pieces of metal shaped by the company’s workers in Willenhall.

Royal Enfield presents one of the strangest and most revealing stories in British motorcycling. The Redditch factory closed, the British company disappeared and the site was sold—yet the motorcycle name not only survived but eventually became stronger than it had been for decades.