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Royal Enfield Factory at Chennai, India |
Well ! after the defunctioned Redditch factory in 1970 Royal Enfield is
eventually succeeded by Enfield of India which was already producing the ‘Bullet’
models since 1955 for Indian Police and Army at the Chennai factory. Enfield of India taken over by Eicher Motors in 1995 became Royal Enfield again, and recently with the development of new Unit Construction
Engine Royal Enfield expands its production in second plant at Oragadam near the old Channai factory.
Royal Enfield Blogs, like many of us, is passionately looking forward to explore a real time story for the reminiscent of Redditch factory, however we couldn't be there till yet so we curiously
asked some friends out there to help us complete the story and here is a short note of a generous LinkedIn friends Mr Phill Parker who wrote so well that catches the imagination:
“Whilst the Enfield factory has long ceased to be
operational, the original roadway (Enfield Road) in the Redditch district of
Hunt End is still a well used roadway with houses and a public house (pub) -
the original ground that the factory stood on is still visible. Many of Royal
Enfield's additional factory units in other parts of Redditch (namely the
district of Enfield) are still standing and are now utilised by other
manufacturing businesses. We also have a public house in the town called The
Royal Enfield which has pictures and memorobilia associated with RE. Just 10 miles
away at a place called Chadwick End, we have a specialist trader called
Hitchcocks who stock all spares for original UK built and Indian built Royal
Enfields. Within a 10 mile radius of the city of Birmingham we
originally had the motorcycle manufacturers BSA, Ariel, Norton, Velocette, New
Imperial, James and both Royal Enfield and Sunbeam (Sunbeam eventually belonged
to BSA) based at Redditch. There were many more manufacturers in the area,
including Triumph (originally in the city of Coventry) and then in the village
of Meriden (between Coventry and Birmingham). Both Ariel and Triumph also eventually belonged to BSA.
Triumph are now manufacturing motorcycles again at a factory in nearby Hinckley
(Leicestershire).