The Factory Next Door
Episodes
Bonus Ep. Northampton. How to grow our shoe industry
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past 20 years, the amount we spend on shoes in the UK has tripled. It now stands at £14bn.During the same period, our domestic footwear indu...
48. The Wedding Tent
03 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Pitching a 24-metre-long tent is one thing. Manufacturing one requires a whole different set of skills, including cloth cutting, sewing, woodwork and ...
47. The Surgical Clamp
17 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When the world’s best surgeons spread a rib cage or clamp a blood vessel, they rely on instruments hammered and filed by skilled hands in a Sheffiel...
46. The Luxury Lingerie
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Smalls are a big market. Annual underwear sales in the UK top £400m. Much of it used to be made domestically (with a thriving cluster in south Wales)...
45. The Mechanical Watch
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What does it take to make a product so special customers will wait years to get their hands on one? In the world of horology, Rebecca and Craig S...
44. The Optical Glasses
06 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Every company has a lifespan. Some have two. Over the course of a century, glasses-maker Curry & Paxton went from pioneering new optical inst...
43. The Premium Preserve
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The market for jams and preserves might seem… well, jam-packed, but get your recipe right and you’ll find space to grow.Number 43 on our list of t...
42. The Mountain Shirt
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There are somethings you can’t know about a company until you’ve bought it and had a riffle through the filing cabinets. In the case of clothing m...
41. The China Mug
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There’s plenty of reasons to buy a British manufacturer right now. On this week’s episode, artist Susan Rose reveals why she’s just done that –...
40. The Bed Linen
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When the ultra-wealthy want a new set of bespoke bedding for their mansion or superyacht, they email a mill that sits just outside Blackburn, Lancashi...
39. The Musical Saw
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The global market for saw blades might be worth $16bn a year, but there’s only one saw factory left in the UK. In today’s show we visit Sheff...
38. The Rocket Engine
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year, Blue Ghost became the first commercial lunar lander to touch down on the moon. Crucial to that mission’s success was its eng...
37. The Oak-Framed Home
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We almost lost the art of building homes from oak in Britain. Thankfully, someone in Herefordshire wasn’t going to let that happen. In today’...
36. The Resoleable Sneakers
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The American sneaker market is worth $25bn. It is the biggest in the world – and growing. But it’s a crowded market. You need a stellar USP to sta...
35. The Dining Chair
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Design a timeless classic and the ripples from that one idea can be felt across industries for decades.Take Ercol’s Windsor Dining Chair, number 35 ...
34. The Glass Lampshade
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You must be delicate shaping it. You must be aggressive smoothing it. Glass might be full of contradictions, but it’s consistent in its beauty. ...
33. The Somerset Cider
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When you’re in the business of making cider, you need to be able to predict the future.Growing a single apple tree for cider-making takes years. Pla...
32. The Country Brogues
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
These are tough times for Britain’s celebrated shoemakers – sales to Europe have been squeezed since 2019, tax-free shopping for overseas tourists...
Bonus Ep. Dumfries House. Inside the King's House of Makers
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Thirty miles south of Glasgow, in the grounds of a country house, thousands of students visit every year to learn heritage skills such as stone masonr...
31. The Single Malt
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The world loves Scotch whisky. Forty-four bottles are exported every single second – that’s 1.4bn a year. On this week’s The Factory Next Door,...
30. The Kitchen Scissors
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sheffield is about to embark on a brand refresh which celebrates the city’s role in the history of cultural phenomena such as football, electronic m...
29. The Three-Piece Suit
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Being a tailor is a profession. It has been since 1563 when laws were passed that stated you could only trade as a tailor if you had served your term ...
28. The Prospector Pan
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Across Europe, we’ve been cooking with iron pans since the 1600s (the Chinese were using them 1,000 years before that), but they fell out of favour ...
27. The Doorman's Umbrella
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Around 1.5 million umbrellas are reportedly made in the UK every year. We need them. The UK gets around 171 days of rain every year (though that’s a...
26. The Sparkling Wine
24 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Making sparkling wine is an old craft that’s found a new home. The French (and other European nations) may have been producing it for 300 years, but...
25. The Coachbuilt Car
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cars are made by robots – often articulated robots that resemble giant human arms… except, there’s a tiny percentage of cars that are still made...
24. The Selvedge Jeans
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More than three billion pairs of denim jeans are made every year. But not all jeans are made the same. Just 10% are produced using selvedge denim - a ...
23. The Inflatable Lifeboat
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since 1824, if you’ve got into difficulties on the British coastline, volunteers from the RNLI will race to your aid. They’ll arrive in a distinct...
22. The Space Satellite
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In a leafy science park in Surrey, there’s a team of engineers making something that’s not intended for our world – it’s designed to live in s...
21. The Cotton Shirt
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A thread runs across the shoulders of King Charles, Stormzy, and David Gandy, and leads to the city of Gloucester. There, in a beautiful 18th century ...
Bonus Ep. Evan Davis
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For this special episode of the show, we sit down for a chat with journalist and broadcaster Evan Davis. Before becoming presenter of Radio 4’s PM ...
20. The Horse Saddle
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The world’s biggest exporter of horse saddles and harnesses? China. Today it accounts for almost half the entire global market. But British-made sad...
19. The Teddy Bear
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This year we’re on course to spend a billion-pounds on stuffed toys and dolls in the UK. The vast majority will arrive in shipping containers, but a...
18. The Linen Jacket
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In East London, at a former Burberry factory, jackets and shirts are being manufactured with a unique twist – every element of them, from the button...
17. The Albert Slipper
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are 181 companies making footwear in the UK. In this week’s show we visit one of the oldest, Norfolk’s Bowhill & Elliott, to celebrate i...
16. The Morris Bell
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As the summer sun finally arrives, it’s time to celebrate an item we commonly hear in our villages and towns during the warmer months – the morris...
15. The Additive Watch
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We celebrate a watch on today’s show – one made using 3D printing technologies (or additive manufacturing as the technique is referred to in the i...
14. The Derby Boots
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s time to add a piece of footwear to our list of great British-made products. This week we head to Northamptonshire, the traditional home of our ...
13. The Velvet Jacket
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For number 13 on our list we head to 13 Savile Row, W1. There we meet Ruby, founder and creative director of Banshee, to learn how she makes her exqui...
12. The Fire Irons
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fire irons. We’ve been forging them for centuries – literally. Blacksmiths have been making them since, well, the Iron Age. They sit at number 12 ...
11. The Carry-On Case
16 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Number 11 on our list of the greatest products we make in Britain is The Carry-On Case – and this piece will force you to rethink what you know abou...
10. The Model Spitfire
02 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve reached number 10 on our list of the greatest products we make in Britain. And it’s a true icon. The Spitfire. In this episode of The Facto...
9. The Botanical Illustration
19 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wondered why, in this digital age, scientific institutions still employ artists to paint flora and fauna? In this episode of The Factory Next Doo...
8. The Plaited Belt
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wondered what a bomb disposal expert does when it’s time to change career? Well, in the case of Alex Simpson, they return to the Midlands and o...
7. The Cornish Mug
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wondered what makes one stripy mug a design icon, and the other is, well just a stripy mug? In this episode, we travel to the home of Cornishware...
6. The Fisherman's Smock
06 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wondered what’s the perfect piece of utilitarian clothing? We think it might be the fisherman’s smock. Originally designed for seafarers, it ...
5. The Cask Ale
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ever thought about how you can get a lifetime of free beer? Actually, let’s rephrase that question. Ever thought about launching your own brewery sp...
4. The Custom Motorbike
05 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wondered who builds the best choppers this side of the Atlantic? Turns out they are lovingly crafted in an old tractor repair workshop in North Y...
3. The Princess's Bicycle
21 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wondered what it takes to make a bike that's loved by princesses, Mary Poppins, and Paddington Bear? We did, so we headed through the factory doo...
2. The Day Backpack
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wondered what it takes to make your own backpack from scratch? We did, so we tracked down one of Britain’s most progressive apparel companies f...
1. The Museum Gift
24 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wondered who designs the distinctive fabrics found on the London Underground? So did we, and it turns out the designers don’t just create iconi...
The Trailer
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What’s on your list of the greatest products made in Britain? Join journalist Steve Duke as he criss-crosses the island to meet our makers in their ...