Back in 1985, Lord Weinstock who was then chairman of GE, made the following remark to a House of Lords select committee:

"… what will the service industries be servicing when there is no hardware, when no wealth is actually being produced. We will be servicing, presumably, the production of wealth by others. We will supply the Changing of the Guard, we will supply the Beefeaters around the Tower of London. We will become a curiosity. I do not think that is what Britain is about; I think that is rubbish." 

The point was followed up 12 years later  by Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson in a book called Fantasy Island and an article in the Guardian, originally entitled "Bullshit Britain" - "Only our gift of the gab is keeping Britain's economy ticking over. But how long can the hot air last?":

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/may/18/business.economics

Here are some UK-owned companies which actually do still make things in the UK. Most of them are family owned which may explain how they've resisted being absorbed by enormous multinationals. It must take some will power though... Some UK-made things you'd need to save up for a long time for, but it might be worth it for all sorts of reasons. If you've got any suggestions for additions to this list please add them as a comment or e-mail us through the contact page. This page is not intended to promote protectionism in any way, but wouldn't it be lovely if Britain started making stuff again?

Bicycles

Brompton:

http://www.brompton.co.uk/

Factory in West London.

Pashley Cycles:

http://www.pashley.co.uk/

Factory in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Clothes

Vander:

http://www.vander.co.uk/

Factory in Newton Abbott.

Old Town:

http://www.old-town.co.uk

Workshop in Holt, Norfolk.

Barbour:

http://www.barbour.com/

I wasn't sure about Barbour - partly flashbacks to university in the eighties, with Tory boys wandering around in traditional Barbour jackets and stripy shirts. I wonder if David Cameron used to wear one at Oxford - my guess would be yes. I also noticed from their website that they have a lot of shops in airport lounges, and that not all of their stuff is now made in the UK, which smacks more of the Burberry approach to milking Britishness as a brand whilst closing factories in Wales. However the fact remains that Barbour do still make all their waxed cotton garments in South Shields - and some of their designs are now very up to date and don't really have the eighties Tory boy feel to them at all ( - probably just updated for the modern Old Etonian... ed.) They certainly aren't cheap though, unless you pop in to the factory shop in South Shields where you might get a bargain. (Also, shame about the logos on the outside, ed.)

Factory in South Shields.

Computers

Novatech:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/

You could question what "made in Britain" means when it comes to computers, given that, almost certainly, none of the innards will have been made in the UK. But Novatech certainly select and assemble all the Chinese bits into boxes known as computers in the UK. And, as in the case of New Balance with sports shoes, they certainly prove that "made in the UK" doesn't have to mean expensive. They have desktop PCs from £170 and laptops from £210.

Factory in Portsmouth

Cutlery

Various Sheffield manufacturers:

http://www.sheffield-cutlery.com/

Food

Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association:

http://www.mmppa.co.uk/

Seven manufacturers with factories in Melton Mowbray.

Yeo Valley Cheese and Yoghurt:

http://www.yeovalleyorganic.co.uk/

Based in Blagden, Yeo Valley.

British Cheeses:

http://www.britishcheese.com/

The British Cheese Board.

Furniture

Ercol Furniture:

http://www.ercol.com/

Factory in Princes Risborough.

Hypnos Beds:

http://www.hypnos.ltd.uk/

Factory in Princes Risborough.

See the British Furniture Manufacturer's website:

http://www.bfm.org.uk/

Kitchen Equipment

Dualit:

http://www.dualit.com/

Factory in Crawley.

Lights

Anglepoise:

http://www.anglepoise.com/

Factory in Farlington, Hampshire.

Pencils

Derwent Pencils:

http://www.pencils.co.uk

Factory in Keswick.

Real Ale

Too many to mention. Have a look at the Campaign for Real Ale's website:

http://www.camra.org.uk/

Trainers

New Balance:

http://www.newbalance.co.uk/

Factory in Shap, Cumbria.

Somehow New Balance seem to manage to combine manufacturing in the UK and very reasonable pricing. I don't know how they do it, but perhaps they should set up a school to teach other industries how.

I only just found out from a BBC Breakfast News article, that New Balance is in fact American rather than British owned (which wasn't quite the point of this page) but nonetheless they still make 5,000 pairs of trainers a day in the UK and are planning to expand here, so good on them:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8482376.stm 

Vacuum Cleaners

Henry vacuum cleaners by Numatic:

http://www.numatic.co.uk/

Factory in Chard, Somerset.

According to the Revoo user review website, Numatic cleaners are now more popular than Dyson, which sadly moved its manufacturing to Malaysia:

http://www.your-story.org/british-vacuum-cleaner-manufacturer-numatic-leaves-dyson-for-dust-according-to-genuine-shopper-reviews-4944/

Whisky

Too many to mention, see:

http://www.scotchwhisky.net/

Wine

Amazingly, too many to mention, see:

http://www.englishwineproducers.com/

Wikipedia: Manufacturing Companies of the United Kingdom

Whilst looking for new companies to add to this list, I just discovered that as with most information under the sun, Wikipedia has got a section on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Manufacturing_companies_of_the_United_Kingdom

I'm not sure that the Wikipedia list includes all relevant, significant UK companies, or that all the companies it lists are really now primarily UK manufacturers. (I noticed Hornby for example which made a big song and dance not all that long ago about moving to China. I noticed Whittard in the drinks section, whereas if I remember rightly they recently belonged to some now bankrupt Icelandic yuppies - and I wasn't aware that we grow tea in the UK. That in itself demonstrates the main point about Wikipedia - it's a fantastic source of information, but best not to turn your brain off whilst reading it.)

The list of now defunct UK manufacturing companies is a sobering one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Defunct_manufacturing_companies_of_the_United_Kingdom

which makes you think that being thrifty shouldn't just be about buying cheap.

We bought a Dualit toaster fifteen years ago. It's a shame in some ways that Dualit toasters became such a yuppie kitchen symbol. The fact that it looks beautiful is only one reason why we bought it at the time. It really is an extraordinarily good toaster. When one of the elements went we got it replaced for next to nothing at our local electric shop. I don't know how many cheap toasters we'd have got through in those fifteen years. Quite a few I imagine, but probably not enough to justify the price of the Dualit. But at least there are now several less cheap toasters lying in a landfill site somewhere, and if we all had the opportunity to be involved in one way or another in making decent, durable stuff locally, we'd probably be a lot happier and perhaps better off too.

One day all toasters will be made this way

After all of fifteen years another element just went in the toaster. I thought I'd have a go at fixing it myself this time, so after hunting around for a short while on the internet, I found a company in Lincolnshire which supplies the elements on their eBay shop for £7.50 each including post and packing. The element arrived within a couple of days.

The bottom screwed off the toaster easily and suddenly it was like looking back into the nineteen thirties - in a good way. Almost everything inside was made of brass, steel or aluminium and held together really simply with screws or nuts and bolts. To remove the faulty element I just unscrewed bits until I could get to the element and take it out, then I popped the new one in and screwed everything back together again in reverse order. It couldn't have been simpler. It's a shame cars aren't still so simple to fix. I often get the impression that cars are designed to make it as difficult as possible to get at things like headlamp bulbs just to make it more likely that people will take them to a dealer for expensive replacements.

If you are going to replace a Dualit toaster element yourself you need to order the right one. They are supplied for two, three and four slot toasters and come in two different types "end element" and "centre element" which unsurprisingly go at either the end or in the middle of the toaster.