page_title: Meriden, West Midlands
section_title: Triumph motorcycles
hierarchical_section_title: Meriden, West Midlands / Triumph motorcycles
caption_attribution_description: English: The demolition of the Triumph Motorcycles factory Photograph taken on a bright winter day in January, to record the demolition of the Triumph Motorcycles factory. It made way for a housing estate with roads named Bonneville Close and Daytona Drive.
context_page_description: Meriden is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England. Historically, it is part of Warwickshire and lies between the cities of Birmingham and Coventry. It is located in a green belt of the countryside known as the Meriden Gap and is in the ecclesiastical parish of the Diocese of Coventry. The village is 6.5 miles east-northeast of Solihull, 7 miles west-northwest of Coventry, and 5 miles east-southeast of Birmingham Airport. Birmingham city centre is 13.5 miles east-northeast of the village. Known as "Alspath" in the Domesday Book, it was historically thought to be the geographical centre of England until the early 2000s, after an analysis by the Ordnance Survey proved this to be incorrect.
  The village gives its name to the Meriden parliamentary constituency, which was created in 1955 and covers the Meriden Gap. In the 2011 Census, the population of the Meriden parish was 2,719. The population is estimated to have risen to 3,096 by 2017.
context_section_description: From 1941 until 1983, Meriden was associated with the large Triumph motorcycles production plant, although in fact the factory was situated just over the parish boundary and out of Meriden, and the boundary was not moved until ten years after the factory was demolished.
  Its original Priory Street factory in Coventry was destroyed by the Luftwaffe during World War II.
  As documented in the book Forty Summers Ago, the factory was visited by Steve McQueen and Bud Ekins with the rest of the 1964 U.S. International Six Day Trials team to collect their specially prepared Triumphs.
  In 1973, Triumph workers blockaded the factory from the new owners, Norton Villiers Triumph (NVT), to prevent closure. The government loaned the subsequent Meriden Workers Co-Operative money to buy the factory and later to market the Triumph motorcycles they produced. The sit-in and formation of the co-operative were the subject of much media interest including David Edgar's play, Events Following The Closure Of A Motorcycle Factory. Trading later as Triumph Motorcycles (Meriden) Ltd., the co-operative eventually closed in  August 1983, the factory being demolished the following year. A new company, Triumph Motorcycles Ltd was established in 1984, and moved to Hinckley, Leicestershire, in 1988.
  A housing estate has been built on the site of the Triumph motorcycle factory at Meriden—now known as Millisons Wood, up the hill out of the main village. Road names on the estate include Triumph motorcycle model names Bonneville Close and Daytona Drive. A plaque commemorating the site's former use stands outside Bonneville Close.
caption: Demolition of the Triumph Motorcycles factory, January 1984
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