Report - GKN Underground tunnels, Smethwick, January 2012

TranKmasT · Jan 2, 2012

A large section of this site as been demolished since I last visited in June 2010. The proposed super hospital "The Midland Metropolitan Hospital" which has now got the go ahead is to be completed by 2016 on this old GKN site at a cost of Â£370 million.

The underground tunnels are roughly 2/3rds the size of a footbal pitch in my estimation with about 20 rows of arched corridors intersecting in places. It's quite damp in there with oil bleeding from the walls in certain sections. Visited with Donebythehands.

Guest Keen and Nettlefolds expanded through the acquirement of many companies, and the establishment of numerous subsidiaries, including Guest Keen and Nettlefolds (Midlands) Ltd which was established in 1948 and was made up of The Bolt & Nut Division in Darlaston, Staffordshire and the Screw Division in Smethwick, Birmingham. In the late 1960s the headquarters of Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds Ltd., by then an investment company, adjoined the Heath Street Works, Smethwick, a 50-acre complex run by G.K.N. Screws and Fasteners Ltd. and employing some 4,500 people. G.K.N. had several other subsidiaries in Smethwick: G.K.N. Distributors Ltd. had its headquarters at the London Works, while G.K.N. Group Services Ltd. was in Cranford Street, G.K.N. Reinforcements Ltd. in Alma Street, and G.K.N. Fasteners Corrosion Laboratory in Abberley Street. Smethwick Drop Forgings Ltd. of Rolfe Street, acquired by G.K.N. in 1963, was run as a subsidiary of G.K.N. Forgings Ltd.

Taken from http://blackcountryhistory.org/collections/getrecord/GB146_BS-GKN/