Banner Lane
Banner Lane was the site of a wartime shadow factory in Coventry, England run by Standard Motor Company and dedicated to making Bristol Hercules aero engines. The war-surplus plant was taken over by Standard in 1946 to make Ferguson tractors and it was made Standard's registered office. After the 1959 sale of Standard's part ownership of the tractor partnership to Massey Ferguson it became Massey Ferguson's base for tractor-building operations until production ceased in 2002 and the site was redeveloped for housing.
In May 1939 the Air Ministry sought a facility to manufacture Bristol Hercules aero engines and construction of a plant commenced later that year on an 80-acre (320,000 m2) green-field site just outside Coventry. With over 1 million square feet (93,000 m2) of floor space, the Banner Lane site was one of the largest shadow factories erected at Government expense, costing £1.7 million to build and set up for production. The new plant luckily missed the summer and autumn 1940 bombing raids of the Coventry Blitz and was fully functioning before the end of that year. Its curious similarity to other shadow factories was because the buildings were designed by the Government's own architects.
The business was run, for a £40,000 per annum management fee, by Standard Motor Company enabling products and plant to benefit from Standard's expertise in making similar, if much less complex, products. With some of the parts being produced at Rover's shadow factory at Acocks Green, the Hercules engines were complex machines of 38.7 litres (2,360 cu in) capacity having 14 cylinders in two radial rows using sleeve valves rather than poppet valves, and with an output of 1,290–1,735 horsepower (960–1,294 kW) depending on application.
...
Wikipedia