The Factory Next Door

When you need someone to escort the King’s crown to Parliament for the state opening, you call on his Majesty’s Gentleman at Arms – with their distinctive red and gold jackets.
And when you need someone to make a new uniform for this historic corps, you call Jules Walker and her team at Gieves and Hawkes.
Number 53 on our list of the greatest things we make here is The Ceremonial Uniform.
Jules is head of the tailor’s military team, and on today’s show she gives us a tour of her workshop in the basement of 1 Savile Row.
We learn what it takes to make uniforms for the King’s Guards, discover what an epaulette is, and consider the parallels between tailoring and plumbing.
Also on the show, we mull the need for a Ministry of Made in Britain and question why buyers from overseas appear to value our crafts more than we do.
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The epicentre of the global pen industry used to reside in Birmingham. Then the plastic biro arrived and everything changed.
But in the city’s jewellery quarter, a team of skilled silversmiths are ensuring the history of Birmingham’s pen industry continues to be written.
Number 52 on our list of the greatest things we make here is the propelling pencil by YARD-O-LED.
Owner Giles English shows us around the company’s historic workshop as we celebrate a 100-year-old design, admire irreplaceable machines, and learn the meaning behind the company’s distinctive name.
Also on the show, we explore the power of loss, Giles talks about the birth and sale of the Bremont Watch Company, and we discover the important distinction between chasing and engraving.
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Inspired by a poem about the horrors of war, the red poppy is worn by millions of people every year to commemorate those who have died in conflict.
And every November, on Remembrance Sunday, poppy wreaths of varying sizes are placed beside graves and war memorials. Each one is made by a small team in Richmond, Southwest London.
Number 51 on our list of the greatest things we make here is The Remembrance Wreath.
On this week’s The Factory Next Door, we head to The Poppy Factory to see how they are made.
Director of production Jeff Short shows us around as we learn how to manage people with PTSD, make a lapel poppy with one arm, and celebrate paper coffee cup off-cuts.
Plus, we learn about transferring skills from the boxing ring to the production line, give thanks for the SS America, and hang out with a biker gang.
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We’ve hit number 50 on our list of the greatest things we make here, so I thought it would be nice to share some of my favourite moments, as well as your most replayed clips.

Since we started The Factory Next Door, we’ve spent hours and hours hanging out with business owners, chatting to them on factory floors and in their offices.

They come from different walks of life, creating a wide range of beautiful products.

But there’s a unifying factor that comes up time and again in our chats. An element that is repeatedly identified as being crucial to success.

Family.

Mum, Dad, Brother, Sister, Children – they are often credited with direction and drive. Even when they are not employed by the company, we hear about their influence on business strategy.

We start in the city of Gloucester – and close to its beautiful cathedral sits the shirt-maker Emma Willis (Ep. 21). It’s a company that makes shirts for royalty, actors, musicians, as well as for injured service personnel through its Style for Soldiers charity.

In this clip, Emma reveals where her company’s strong sense of societal responsibility comes from.

For our second clip, we travel to Walthamstow, North London. Here, Han from Black Horse Lane Ateliers (Ep. 24) is explaining to us why he pivoted from making clothes for high street brands to launching his own label making the very finest jeans.

For the final clip, we go back to the beginning, to the custom motorbike (Ep. 4).

For this episode we went to hang out with husband-and-wife team Vic and Lin from Destiny Cycles – makers of the finest choppers this side of the Atlantic.

In this clip, Lin discusses her pride for Vic’s work.

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We’ve hit number 50 on our list of the greatest things we make here, so I thought it would be nice to share some of my favourite moments, as well as your most replayed clips.

Our manufacturers are undoubtedly facing strong headwinds. Many business owners tell me it’s tougher now than it’s been for decades.

Despite this, on our travels around the country, we’ve met a few extraordinary people who have decided to face the challenge head on and buy a factory.

In this compilation, we begin in Stoke-on-Trent, where we met the wonderful artist, Susan Rose (Ep. 41). Before asking her why she’d recently taken-over a pottery – I wanted to know from the previous-owner Tony, why he was exiting the family business.

In Ep. 30 we met Paul Jacobs. He lives in the Netherlands but spends a lot of time in Sheffield these days. Can you remember why he bought scissor-maker Ernest Wright?

For our third clip we stay in Sheffield, with Buffalo Systems – which makes outdoor clothing.

Having just bought the factory, Ben Fogle and James Sleater (Ep. 42) invited us along to have a look around, but before asking them why they’d bought the brand – we wanted a quick gossip with the team.

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