Did you know that the nation’s television sets were once manufactured almost entirely here in Britain? In fact, at one time the most modern and largest TV factory in all of Europe was located just 1.5 miles from the museum at 8 Lidget Green, Bradford.
It is a surreal feeling when I think about the fact that thousands of Baird-branded televisions were manufactured in these old buildings not far from the museum. Today there are no signs left that televisions were ever made there.
Part of the factory’s legacy is preserved by historic Bradford-made televisions which we have acquired. A small black and white set can be seen on tours of our collections and research centre. Several other larger sets are housed in in the Science Museum’s stores.
1930: Radio Rentals is formed
Radio Rentals was founded in 1930 by Percy Perring-Toms, a radio dealer in Brighton who was one of the first to foresee the potential market for rented radio sets. By 1936 Radio Rentals had become a public company with about 50,000 customers.
Initially, all of its radio sets had been supplied by EK Cole Ltd (Ekco). In 1945, to assure a supply of radio sets at a time when there were restrictions on output, Radio Rentals acquired Mains Radios and Gramophones Ltd, a manufacturing firm established in 1929, and located on Manchester Road in Bradford.
1948: Television Manufacture Begins
After the war, Radio Rentals increasingly concentrated on the rental of television sets. The Manchester Road factory was retooled, and Mains Radio and Gramophones began television manufacture in 1948; one of the first factories in the north to do so.
By 1952, Radio Rentals was well established as the largest company in the television rental business. By the firm’s Silver Jubilee in 1955, Radio Rentals also had over 280,000 radio customers.
In 1960–61, having acquired the Baird Company name from Hartley Baird Ltd., Radio Rentals changed the name of its manufacturing subsidiary in Bradford to Baird Television, to emphasise its position in the manufacturing of televisions.
The annual Baird’s dance was held at the Mecca Locarno at 110 Manningham Lane—a grand ballroom which had opened in 1961. Such was the prestige of the ballroom that within a month of its opening, BBC Television broadcast the first of many Come Dancing programmes from there. The building still exists, but is presently out of use and up for sale.
1964 was a big year for Radio Rentals. The millionth set rolled off the production line, and the company merged with its largest competitor, rental chain Rentaset Ltd.
In 1965, Radio Rentals completely ceased renting radios to concentrate on televisions. Growth in the number of rental subscribers continued after the Rentaset merger, and in 1966 the 3-year-old Vista Rentals Company was also acquired.
Retooling for Colour
In 1967, Radio Rentals was using about three quarters of the Baird factory’s output.
In 1968, Thorn Electrical Industries took over Radio Rentals. Baird was producing about 140,000 televisions per year, of which 10,000 were colour models. At this time, Baird employed about 2,400 people making black and white and colour television sets and components at its main factory.
The main Bradford factory, the Beckside Works (located at Lidget Green), was extended with the purchase of an adjoining factory. The No. 1 factory became known as the old Baird factory, and across the road was the modern No. 2 factory—then the most modern and the largest television factory in Europe.
Two other factories were acquired, one at Shipley and one at Batley, to make sub-assemblies and components. Baird manufactured a substantial and increasing proportion of its component requirements, and took some of its loudspeaker requirements from the associated Goodmans speaker division.
Ten years later, although parent company Thorn was still profitable, British demand for colour television sets had begun to drop. This trend was coupled with concern about increasing overseas competition. The controversial decision was made to close the Bradford factory in 1978 with the loss of 2,200 jobs.
I can remember looking eagerly in Radio rentals windows as child for the first glimpse of colour TV. I also remember being confused and surprised at the “Baird” name on TV sets, been at 10 I was well enough acquainted with TV history to know that these were not in any real sense made by the Baird company. Who now owns the name I wonder?
I worked for Radio Rentals since 1969 as a apprentice for about 30 years through all the changes from black and white to colour ,satellite good times until the accountants took over
The black and white TV in the shop window are made by GEC /sobel
Does anybody remember Baird Sports Cycling Club – late 1960s, with George Robinson as the driving force behind it? (I think George worked in Quality Control, but I knew him as a BCF coach.)
Was Stan Brady a member?
Sorry about the delay, Malcolm. Yes, I’m sure Stan’s surname was Brady. I remember him as a strong rider who seemed to go up hills at the same speed as on the flat! He was probably the fastest man in the club when it came to racing. I think he was also one of the few married men in the club, as a lot of the others were apprentices – or at least still very young.
The ‘father’ of the club, George Robinson (then aged about 40) later became national cycling coach of somewhere like Nigeria (after Bairds closed).
I remember it, as my brother Steve was in it, along with Stewart Porter and, I think, Neil Atkinson. I still have a Baird Sports jersey in my cupboard here in Japan. There’s a photo of me wearing it – I was about 6 years old – standing in front of the Team Van (looks like a Bedford).
Hi Peter, found your email whilst browsing thro’ Baird pages.
I was a devolopment engineer at Bairds from 1965 ’till it closed.
Both my father and I knew George before I joined Bairds and was a cyclist and competitive cyclist fron early age, I still ride but much more slowly now, (I’m 75 !)
I didn’t swop over to the Baird club but stayed with my old club.
The Baird club competed in an all over orange jersey, there were about 10 or 12 members.George died quite a few years ago and was at Bairds cheif Q.C. at the Shipley subsidiary factory, I was the dev. engineer for it, and saw george most days.
We travelled midweek to Nottingham track league, about 8 of us in a minibus driven by George, a mix of Bradford and Leeds cyclists includuding Beryl Burtons daughter Denise, and occasionally Beryl.
Happy days and memories, thank you fot awakening them.
Regards, Peter Tennant.
Peter Tennant .
I just came across your message on a Baird Tv blog
I don’t know if you remember me .I worked in the same department as you with Alan Yarker , John Saniforth etc.
I’ve often wondered how you we’re getting along , You rode your bike to work .
Hi Peter T – just spotted your email after more than a year! I well remember the orange racing jersey of Baird Sports CC. My late wife Margaret (nee Fieldhouse) had one. She was then 22, & taught in the training school at Bairds (soldering, safety, etc.) & started racing in 1968. My flat mate Colin Gordon & I didn’t work for Bairds but were in the club. I started dating Margaret (I was 32!!!) & we married in 1969, after which we moved to Leics. We carried on cycling as tourists right up until she died in 2003. I still miss her, 20 years on.
I worked for Radio Rentals from 1971 until 1982. during this time I witnessed the growth of the colour TV rental market and the rise and fall of the TV rental market. Towards the late 70s new products were being introduced ie. the video recorder and communication with computers in the form of Prestel where a home terminal communicated with a distant ‘main frame’ computer. By 1981 the industry was in decline and the business was loosing more customers than it gained. TV receivers were becoming more reliable which spurred customers into buying TV’s rather than renting.
In early 1982 I left the industry and went to work In telecommunications at BT and later the IBA a major UK broadcast transmission provider in the radio and TV broadcast industry. Here I helped to maintain the nations TV and radio broadcast infastructure working on analogue and digital (Freeview) TV transmitters. I also worked on AM/FM and DAB digital radio transmitters. So it could be said that in Just over 40 years, I went from the receiver end of the transmission chain to the transmitter.
That was a very interesting read Steve. Thanks.
Excellent! I am trying to find out who manufactured TVs in Windhill, Shipley, up to around 1973 at least I think. Don’t suppose you know sir? (thomasrochester@btinternet.com. Email, safest nowadays). Thanks & regards, Thomas Rochester.
Thanks Mr Perks
I remember working at Radio Rentals with great fondness. It was a very well ordered working environment with ‘old style’ managers who had long term careers with the company, starting as TV engineers or sales representatives and working their way up to being a branch or area manager. As a young nineteen year old, they engaged my services as a TV engineer In 1971. They certainly looked after their staff and rewarded us with what I considered to be good working conditions, with plenty of training courses as new products were introduced. The company began its life as the name suggests renting out radios, radiograms and even fridges to their customers. Indeed I remember visiting many long term Radio Rentals customers who still rented a radio from the company.
The monochrome TV’s themselves were a delight to work on and were designed in modular form so that the tuner assembly or the main chassis could be replaced, returned to a central repair depot or refurbished locally. The TVs themselves were very reliable and the performance good, especially the ones made in the Baird factory at Bradford before Thorn took over the company, and the Bradford factory sadly closed.
When colour TV appeared in the late 60s, Radio Rentals had developed their own 700 series Baird colour receivers at Bradford. They were state of the art and the performance very good. So good in fact that the BBC used them for display purposes and when set up correctly the picture quality was superb. I remember visiting the BBCs Sutton Coldfield transmitting station for an open day and seeing three 25″ screen Baird 702 full length console receivers displaying the new PAL system ‘I’ colour television transmissions on BBC2 only. The design of the Baird 700 series colour televisions was used as the basis for the design of the successful single standard Decca Bradford chassis used in their colour TV receivers. The monochrome receivers used and designed by Radio Rentals were good too, in particular the 620 and 660 series 405/625 dual standard receivers.
Into the seventies the Thorn series receivers were being introduced into the company and saw the introduction of receivers using the Thorn monochrome 1400 405/625 dual standard chassis and the 1500 625 single standard chassis.
Thorn had introduced their all transistor dual standard 405/625 2000 series colour television chassis which was unique in its time as the worlds first all transistor modular chassis colour TV. I believe one remains in the science museum to this day. Dual standard receivers, both colour and monochrome were necessary in the late 60s and early 70s since up until this time, only BBC2 transmitted on UHF 625 lines in colour. After 1969 the situation changed and ITV and BBC1 began colour transmissions on UHF. It was then that the rental market really began to ‘take off’and receivers employing the very successful Thorn modular solid state 3000 receiver chassis were being marketed. This chassis had a production run of well into the late seventies and many thousands of receivers using this chassis were manufactured.
Hello Steve Webb. Love your article on radio Rentals. I have a particular interest in your history of the Baird 700 series sets and in particular your reference to the first Thorn 2000 sets. Do you have any material that refers to this model which I believe was marketed as the Baird 720. The reason I ask is there are no known examples of this set remaining but in 1977 I bought two ex Radio Rental sets one being a 3000, the other a Thorn 2000 set. The Thorn 2000 set was a bit two old for me to re-sell so my Dad used it up until 1990. I fitted a re-gunned tube in it in 1980. and I still have it today. As was done then all the badges had been removed including the ones on the chassis. If you have any recollection of what this set looked like or any material or where some may be found I would be most interested to hear about. Also would you mind me using your recollection from your time at Radio Rentals and putting it on the radio-tv website where there is much information on the Baird 700 series televisions. Thanks again for your article and look forward to hearing from you.
Adrian
Thanks Steve, your comments took me back to the good old days. My dad formed Jack Reynolds & Co Ltd in the late 1940s on Lumby Street at the bottom of Manchester Rd and started with the production of radio cabinets for Mains radio.
The company grew quickly in the 50s through to the 60s making cabinets for various companies but the main one was Baird.
We had approximately 200 skilled workers producing cabinets and I recall many visits to Beckside Works, we had an R&D section producing samples to new designs which had to be approved at Bairds design dept.
Cabinets came off our production line straight into large furniture vans and half and hour later into Beckside, regards Keith
Doubtless you and your dad dealt with Eddie Shorrocks (who was Baird’s cabinet designer) and their chief draughtsman, Dennis Wallis. Did you also employ a prototype cabinet maker called Ivor Field, who lived at Queensbury. His son, Bert (also a cabinet maker), joined us at Decca Radio & Television labs in Clayton producing the prototype cabinets.
Hi Malcolm, yes I knew Eddie Shorrocks he made frequent visits to our works in Great Horton and I did take samples down to Bairds on behalf of dad. Ivor was a brilliant cabinet maker who worked for us for many years, as was Herbert who was also a very keen cyclist.
We also had another top tradesman working in R&D called Ken Brigg. They were busy interesting times, thank you for bring back the good memories, regards Keith
Hi there. I’m a bit confused with dates mentioned. I started work for Vista Rentals in August 1969. At that time there were no mention of a merger with Radio rentals, and yet 1966 was mentioned as the merger year? Also the other strange thing that puzzles me, the window of the Radio rentals shop, clearly shows GEC televisions. If I remember rightly at the time, Vista were the only company on the high Street to offer these new slim line TVs for rental? I worked for these companies from 1969 till 2007. I Started as a tea boy at Hackney Vista, and then in 1970 or 1971 we merged with radio rentals, which later combined with Multi broadcast and DER after many years we ended up as Box Clever. When I started, I began learning how to repair those GEC sets, and ended up running the Plasma repair centre for the South East. The first Plasma TV that I repaired was worth £14,000 retail. How time’s have changed. Great site by the way. I’ve enjoyed reading the comments. Best wishes too you all Barry Joseph
I use to work for bairds television in 1965 until emigrating to Australia in 1970 had great memories of the factory, we used to work on the tv live so had many shocks in those five years.
I worked at Thorn in the early ‘70s at both the old factory and the new factory over the road on Beckside Road as a ‘troubleshooter’ i.e repair and debugging of manufactured modules (panels) and final receiver assembly. The new factory was built on the site of a railway yard and the final assembly ‘tracks’ in the factory replicated this with the final test personnel standing below floor level as the TVs passed by right to left several feet above. In the early 70’s we had the nationwide unrest and power cuts, to keep production going huge power generators were hurriedly hired and deployed in the car park then the cabling lashed across to the factory, as I remember the phasing of the generators output caused problems with the TVs power supplies and picture ‘hum’ could be seen on the tv screens until it was finally sorted. At this time I think the work force had amassed to around 3,500. When the factory closed this caused a massive impact on the area. Thorn had a sister factory down in Gosport which continued production at a much reduced output. The UK was nearing saturation point with colour tv sales, the initial rush to buy/rent was tapering off as the consumer demand was fulfilled. Then came The Japanese invasion, the government at the time restricted these far eastern imports to a mamimum screen size of 18” to protect British production of larger screen sets. Once the restrictions were lifted the flood gates opened – what the Japanese and some European manufacturers were now offering was a more reliable and sophisticated product. You could buy a Sony Trinitron for a lot more money, but boy, what a picture and did they ever break down ? Never!
I left Thorn just as the 9000 ‘cyclops’ series chassis was being developed, the so called life saver ( it wasn’t). I then worked for various rental companies , British Relay, Visionhire,Granada working as a field service engineer. The service technicians role became redundant as we graduated to the throwaway age that exists now. Electronic and domestic appliances of today are just disposable cheap commodities, how times are changing.
Let it be known that it was discovered that the Japanese Government secretly gave their TV manufacturers equivalent to 9 USD subsidy to every TV that they exported to our and many other country’s. Hushed up/buried by dear old Lord Hestletine for his own obnoxious reasons This Money was not used to increase the Manufacturers profits but it enabled them to upgrade the components quality they used BUT having worked for a Japanese importer I strongly take issue about the reliability of their sets they still packed up with gusto especially when they were allowed to increase screen size.
My name is John Frederick Ashburne. Some people may remember my dad, Jack, and my brother, Steve.
I remember your father. He was appointed Managing Director on the death of Willie Warnes.
I have been asked to provide some memories of my childhood for my grandchildren and wondered what I would discover if I googled Mains Radio, Bradford and up came this page. I have just quickly looked through the comments and was interested to see your reference to Willie Warnes who was my father, who sadly died when I was only 17, although I’d actually never heard of him being referred to as “Willie” but “Bill”!! So interesting to learn that’s how he was referred to in a work context. As my entire childhood was somewhat dominated by the expansion of what was initially Mains Radio and Gramophones and then Baird, I have lots of memories of coming into the offices/factory first in Manchester Road and then at Beckside and wandering round looking at the production lines etc. and having many lunches in the canteen. I do also remember Jack Ashburne and Jack Kirkby who I thought was the one who took over from my father. I do have an album of photos of Mains Radio taken by a photographic company called CH Wood (Bradford) Ltd. and I think, if I remember him correctly Jack Ashburne is in one of the photos.
Thanks Malcom, yes, that was my Dad.
Hiya John. We seem to be meeting on lots of these forums.
I also remember Malcolm Webster but I seem to recall his departure to Decca whilst I was away at Huddersfield Uni.
Hi John
I remember you, your mum and dad. Your brother Steve was my best man at my wedding!
Hi… I left an office job to go work in a factory to make friends after returning from Australia…The factory was in making TV’s etc…I actually worked on a production line putting components on a motherboard…I became quite good at it actually… I made lots of friends then left and went back to office work…
For the life of me I can not remember what they called it… It was up Stanningley Rd and I seem to remember it being on the right on the way to Bramley… Does anyone have any idea what they called this place…I have been back in Oz for donkeys yrs but was over there in 2017 and actually caught a bus up to Bramley and could not see this factory anywhere.. Maybe knocked down.. Yes !!! It was a factory job but I did actually enjoy it, for a little while anyway..
Both my parents worked for Bairds/Thorn (Tony Moran and Yvonne Moran). I remember my dad having to go to Gosport which had a Thorn factory, and taking me with him (asleep in the back of the van) – such a long journey in the mid ’70s.
Funnily I now live within walking distance of the Gosport factory having settled there after 25 years military service – but still a Bradford lad at heart.
Fond memories….interested if anyone remembers Tony or Yvonne from Bairds/Thorn.
There was also a Henry Moran who was in charge of the Tool Room. Was he a relative also?
I worked at Bairds Beckside Road in 1972 and 1973 as an internal progress chaser.
A very friendly company to work for I found.
I only spoke to Mr Ashburne a couple of times which was when parts were really urgently required.
We were on a ‘bleep’ system, with pagers in our top pocket, which went off at inconvenient times.
A few names I remember.
Internal Progress:-
Jeff Lindstrom
Jim Jenkins
Tom Daley
Mick Doran
External Progress
Neil Cunliffe
Walter Clarke
Head of parts division
Gordon Wilson
Goods inwards
Jack Whitaker
In charge of Stores
Arthur Priestley
Factory no 2
George Knowles from Baird days
Factory no 1
Eddie Gledhill, who also ran a Judo club
Liason
Alan Yarker in charge
Peter Tennant
John Stanniforth
In charge of the whole factory
Mr C F R Dorrington, who had his own special toilet and washroom in the old building.
Happy days.
Don’t forget the contributions made by the Midlands factories.l spent five years at the Willenhall factory in Neachells lane. We produced Bradford ,80 and 100 series chassis,Gypsy portables, compact audio systems. We ran on the generator during the three day week,and sat on picket line during a wages dispute ( we weren’t paid over Christmas) Happy days. The factory at Bridgnorth ran on similar lines,with its own warehouse a local airfield Stanmore?
Peter Sutcliffe (the Yorkshire ripper) worked here in 1972.
I was a student in the TV Design department of Thorn Electrical in Bradford in 1975 and loved it – the world cutting edge of TV design: solid state, remote control, instant zoom, teletext. I’m pretty sure my team leader was David Hood, who co-founded Pace plc with Barry Rubery – the company which now makes a large slice of the satellite receivers used around the world, I later helped launch the Micronet 800 service on Prestel, and Pace supplied many of the modems.
Hi, I have a radio which was passed down from my 2nd cousin when he passed away in the early 80’s. He said it was his apprentice piece and the date of 1935 was mentioned. Sadly I will not be able to take this item with me when I emigrate to Australia and I was wondering if anyone could suggest a ‘home’ for it i.e. in a museum?
The radio still works and is in very good condition for its age. Its a work of art given the complexity of the wiring and valves etc.. I welcome any suggestions or advice.
Great read!
I have a bit of a mystery TV on my hands. There are no pictures of it online, the model number and make are not written anywhere that I can find, etc.
It’s a 14 inch solid state black and white TV, in a grey/black slanted plastic case with an Antenna.
The only markings on it are the words “Bradford” on the front top and model #1007D42 on the back along with “WTG51722”.
It has a cord with a regular plug on one side and a six pin female connector on the other, plugs right into the TV.
From what I can tell it was likely bought at a Zellers in Quebec Canada, though the brand has no history of being sold in Quebec or by Zellers(now defunct).
I’d like to know the year it was made, who made it, and anything else interesting about it. I’ve never seen a TV with a slanted case like this (4 inches wide front to back on top, x6 across the bottom. It also has a plastic cover over the screen which is built into the case.
Black front, 2 grey knobs, 4 levers along the bottom… Any ideas? If Baird made it at the Bradford plant and didn’t sell in Canada it’s travelled a long way. 120v 60Hz suggests they were sold here but… nothing online about it.
I worked for Bairds as troubleshooter for 7 years. Lost my job in 1978 factory closed down. Work with lot of great people cannot remember names. I moved to Australia in 1980 started working with Thorn Radio Rentals.Today still working with Radio Rentals been with them for 43 years. TVs 4K & 3500 were exported to Australis in 1977
Wadsworths cabinet makers in Brighouse made the cabinets for Baird. there were two types when I wotked there, the rectangular cabinets and the curved sided radius corner type, which were made by wrapping thin, glued sheets of veneer round a heated jig,
Hi Brian, I remember John Wadsworths really well I worked at my dads factory Jack Reynolds & Co Ltd in Bradford we made many of the polished cabinets for Baird. The wrap round cabinet you mentioned was also made as a portable model it was virtually the same except it was covered in plastic vinyl and had a carrying handle on top, I have a photo of this in our works and will try to attach it to this email.
They were great times so much work was available so I do remember virtually no competition between suppliers like us and John Wadsworths as there was so much work available regards Keith