Royal Enfields, Made Like a Gun

A big cannon is solid, all-steel, mechanically complex, and makes a thump.

 Today's subject is not motorcycles, but artillery, as displayed on war memorials. 

These have always fascinated me, and not just because I ride a Royal Enfield motorcycle. 

"Made Like A Gun" is the time honored motto of Royal Enfield motorcycles, but the motorcycle-gun connection is tenuous. 

The motto stems from the brand's earliest days. Implying some relationship to the famed Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield, England, was considered just plain good marketing by a firm that made bicycles in the nearby town of Redditch. 

The company was proud that it had made some parts for the armory (although, apparently, never complete guns). The parts contract was considered adequate justification for calling its bicycles (and, later, motorcycles) "Royal Enfields."

Although the "Made Like A Gun" motto was occasionally illustrated with a drawing of a rifle, the "gun" was usually shown as what most people would call a cannon. (The British military preferred to call even such big weapons "guns" since, after all, "cannon is a French word.")

Ever since, owners of Royal Enfield motorcycles have loved posing their motorcycles in front of war memorials, especially memorials featuring cannon, although warplanes on pedestals attract Royal Enfields as well.

The present Tampa gun was modified to fire from a railroad car. Four big hydraulic canisters cushion the recoil.

And so, on a recent visit to Tampa, Florida, I was delighted to discover a whomping big artillery piece in a  park on the grounds of the University of Tampa. The monument it decorates is dedicated to veterans of the Spanish-American War of 1898.

The base of the monument describes the gun, but I wanted to know more, and boy, did I find it: an entire webpage devoted to this monument.

To my surprise, the description of the gun on the monument itself is wrong. In exacting detail, the website Tampapix explains that the monument base originally hosted a different big gun. That one was cut up and scrapped for its metal during World War II.

Base says gun was placed in 1927, but this gun is a 1946 replacement.

The base of the monument sat forlorn three years until 1946 when, with little fanfare, Tampa war veterans found another 8-inch cannon of the same era and the city and county paid to have it mounted. The lack of fanfare is odd, as the thing was said to weigh 15 tons, and it sits atop the memorial base on a different mounting. It is quite a big deal.

The original cannon would have been one of my favorite oddities: a "disappearing gun." This almost whimsical seacoast-defense gun would recoil back to hide below the open-topped walls of its emplacement, effectively disappearing from the view of enemy battleships after firing.

Fine, for 1898. Not so fine after the invention of the airplane, from which it was not invisible.

The replacement gun is certainly worthy of display. Whether disappearing or not, it, too, would have defended the coast, but it was rendered obsolete as battleships began to be equipped with bigger, longer ranged cannon.

It got a second life, modified as a railroad gun. Mounted on a special carriage it could approach enemy lines on the tracks. This particular gun may even have seen combat in World War I, Tampapix states (although, unusually for it, without documentation).

Big old gun was complex, but still aimed by hand.

Royal Enfield's motto, Built Like A Gun, very properly suggests the robust construction, precision (and complication!) of these enormous creations. Mounted as memorials to wars of 100 years ago or more, they might also be described as built to last.

The day Royal Enfield closed the canteen

 Built during World War II, the Royal Enfield "Canteen" (cafeteria) on Hewell Road near the Redditch, UK Royal Enfield factory, served the nutritional and social needs of workers. 

Here was a large, comfortable, clean building, away from the noise and bustle of the factory, where workers could socialize over a meal. Ceremonies honoring long time and retiring employees were held in the Canteen, and there was an annual Christmas extravaganza for children, complete with Santa Claus. 

There were dances inside the Canteen. Workers were invited to compete in Field Day competitions in the large field behind the building.  

Royal Enfield presents a gold watch during tea in the factory Canteen, April 4, 1958. (From Motor Cycle and Cycle Trader, April 26, 1958.)

Wartime demand for motorcycles and other Royal Enfield products was heavy. Royal Enfield workers had all they could do to meet that demand. 

Peacetime meant a slower pace for the factory. Cutbacks were inevitable and these would affect the Canteen.

In 1961, Royal Enfield director and secretary B.W. Smith announced that as of Monday, Aug. 14, cafeteria  service would be conducted by The Midland Counties Industrial Catering Co., Ltd., of Birmingham.

Royal Enfield was outsourcing meal service.

The next announcement was easy to foresee. Mr. Smith opened this second memo with the good news:

"The Management was pleased to hear at the last Works Committee that since the Canteen was taken over by Midland Catering there has been a general improvement in the standard of meals.

"Since the last increase in canteen prices there have been several increases in the cost of food and wages, and these together with the improved standard of meals make it necessary to revise charges. The new prices will be operative from 6th November, 1961, as follows:"

Prices followed for Main Course, Sweet, Sandwiches, Tea and Coffee.  Coffee with milk carried a slight added price. But "Persons under 18" (presumably apprentices) got a price break on the Main Course.

All well and good. But, of course, temporary. The axe would finally fall.

"The Management feel that it is necessary to make certain economies in expenses and to this end it has been decided to close down the present Canteen building," Mr. Smith announced on March 28, 1963.

"The Canteen will be closed this week and alternative facilities will be available in the old Fibre Glass Section with effect from Monday next, 1st April.

"Access to this Canteen will be through a door leading from the Weighbridge drive.

"It is proposed initially to run a Snack Bar service and a tariff of prices will be displayed at the counter.

"Provision has been made for separate rooms for the Senior Staff and Foreman."

In an earlier blog item I wrote that "Presumably, the Canteen remained in use until Road Enfield ceased operation in Redditch in 1970."

My presumption was wrong. It had closed in 1963.

Former Royal Enfield factory Canteen still stands in Redditch.

The Canteen building, converted to other uses, remains in Redditch, but the Royal Enfield factory it once served is gone. B.W. Smith's memos also remain, preserved in the archives of the Royal Enfield Owners Club (UK). They are part of the Reg Thomas Archive club members can access on line.

In other words, if you want to see them, you have to join the club.

Reg Thomas was Chief Designer for Royal Enfield before the company went out of business in Britain. Many of the papers he collected were engineering tables and drawings, beyond my understanding.

I find the more human matters more interesting. Real people built these motorcycles; and they needed to eat.