Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation
Thu, Sep 26th 2019 at 10:50 am - 5:00 pm
Our members made a tour and enjoyed a buffet lunch at the foundation in Paulersbury.
Part of the social life of Rotary Clubs is visiting places of interest. For our Club, these have included the British Airway's flight simulator where we tried our hand at landing a jumbo jet, car and motorcycle museums, and an underground tour of a mine in Derbyshire.
On the 26th September, 7 Rotarians visited the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation in Paulersbury for a Tour & Buffet Lunch.
Sir Frederick Henry Royce OBE was a modest genius .From 1884 and his earliest successes in the infant electrical industry ( he patented the bayonet cap light fitting ) to his death in 1933 he pursued his principle of establishing the best design using the finest material available, and working to the highest level of craftsmanship.
His policy as an engineer was to do better than anyone else, and he made a priceless contribution to Britain`s prestige and prosperity in the years of peace with a long succession of superb cars from 1904. In the time of war there were a great series of aero engines from the Eagle of 1915 to the legendary Merlin which powered the Mosquito, Spitfire, Wellington and other fighting planes of World War 11.
Our Tour guide was Michael Bailey & we started with look at Henry Royce`s original drawing board and some of his paintings, as he was an accomplished artist.
Moving on to the Peter Baines Wing, a vast photographic library containing every Rolls-Royce & Bentley book ever written. It also contains every bound set of the Autocar from 1904 plus handbooks in many languages. From here we moved to the large conference room passing a Merlin engine on the way.
Next were the Archives, this a unique and ever growing with technical details of virtually every Rolls Royce. Our guide then went on the describe how he is employed to Digitise all the records before some of them fade away with age, and sometimes he would have to wear a gas mask (which he showed us) to protect him from various processes.
To sum up a very informative visit giving us a broad brush idea of the work that goes on here to preserve the Rolls Royce marque.
Our group then enjoyed a buffet lunch.
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