Wolverhampton's skyline still shaped by echoes of Sunbeam

They are pictures separated by more than eight decades – yet remarkably nothing much has changed.

Many of the industrial buildings pictured around 1930 are still standing and, even more extraordinary, are still being used for manufacturing.

The black and white photograph shows part of the sprawling Sunbeam works in Wolverhampton around 1930, while the colour picture, taken in 2015, depicts a thriving hub of smaller, independent firms occupying the same buildings and plying their trade in the same spirit that made the city famous.

It was here that a succession of famous racing cars were produced, including the Sunbeam Slug which broke the land speed record of 200mph in 1927.

The older picture is held in a collection by the Sunbeam Talbot Darracq Register, a club for Wolverhampton Sunbeam owners which is planning a major exhibition and rally in 2019.

St Luke’s Church can be seen in the bottom right-hand corner while diagonally opposite is the back view of The Royal School and its playing fields.

In between are a mass of pitch-roofed buildings, which collectively became known as Sunbeamland.

The extensive allotments site on the right of the earlier picture is replaced in the later image by housing, built in the 1930s, and Waitrose supermarket, which opened in 2004.

Also replaced are the rows of terraced houses lining the roads to the south and west of the church, including Moor Street South, Park Street South and Cross Street South, demolished to make way for more industrial units.

The earlier scene reflects the practice of building homes beside workplaces at a time, before widespread car ownership, when most men walked or rode bikes to work.

The firm under its founder John Marston, originally set up home in 1898 in the former Blakenhall Tin and Japan works in Upper Villiers Street, converting the building to produce bicycle pedals to supply his large Sunbeam Cycle works in Paul Street.

The first Sunbeam car was built the following year adjacent to the site, which rapidly extended westwards over the next 10 years.

Production reached its height in the 1920s but financial difficulties set in and production at the Moorfield Works - one of the earliest purpose-built car factories in the country - ceased in 1936.

The view today is still remarkably green with, if anything, more trees today than 80 ago.

At the bottom can be seen St Luke’s Primary School, which was built on the former Sunbeam sports field and retained its facilities.

Other notable buildings are the Shree Krishan Mandir Temple on Penn Road, which can be identified by its white roof, and, opposite it, the Goldthorn Hotel.

Blakenhall Business Park and Bizspace Business Park can also be seen on either side of Moorfield Street on the left of the picture, as can Timken Aerospace and the Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji Gurdwara, both on Upper Villiers Street.