For many people across the Black Country and Staffordshire, the 1980s meant factories, workshops and industrial estates were a familiar part of everyday life. The sound of machinery, the smell of oil and metal, workers arriving for shifts and lorries coming and going were all part of the local landscape.
These photographs take us back to a decade when traditional skills were being joined by new technology. Engineers, machinists, printers, foundry workers and factory teams were keeping production moving, while local firms invested in new machinery, developed new products and won orders from around the world.
From Wolverhampton and Willenhall to Walsall, Dudley, Stafford and beyond, these pictures capture the people, workplaces and businesses that helped shape the region.
Do you remember any of these factories or firms? Perhaps you worked in one of them, or had a family member who did? Take a look through and see how many bring back memories - the pictures are in no particular order - and share yours in the comments.
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57. Wolverhampton machine speeds up cycle production
A new machine from Daniel Smith of Wolverhampton was helping to automate cycle production in September 1984. The specialist equipment could punch all the spoke holes in a cycle wheel rim from the outside, helping to speed up the automatic spoke tightening and wheel-truing process. Two export orders had already been secured for the machines, while the company was also investigating the use of robotics to load and unload the wheel rims. Do you remember Daniel Smith or its Wolverhampton works? Did you see automation and robotics beginning to change local factories during the 1980s? | Express & Star archive
58. Sewing garments at a Wolverhampton factory
Albert Gale is pictured operating an industrial sewing machine at the Mocatan clothing factory in Wolverhampton during the 1980s. Carefully feeding fabric through the machine, he was carrying out the skilled stitching work involved in assembling garments. The photograph offers a glimpse of the people and machinery behind Wolverhampton’s clothing industry, showing a very different side of manufacturing from the town’s better-known engineering and metalworking trades. Do you remember Mocatan or its Wolverhampton factory? Did you or someone in your family work in the local clothing industry during the 1980s? | Express & Star archive
59. Precision engineering at a Willenhall workshop
A machinist is pictured working on an engine crankshaft at Power Train Engineering in Stringes Close, Willenhall, in June 1980. He is using specialist balancing equipment to check and adjust the crankshaft, where precision was essential to ensure engines performed correctly. The photograph offers a glimpse inside a busy Black Country engineering workshop, where skilled manual work and specialist machinery came together to produce and recondition high-specification engine components. Do you remember Power Train Engineering or its Stringes Close works? Did you or someone in your family work in Willenhall’s engineering industry during the 1980s? | Express & Star archive