We’ve hit number 50 on our list of the greatest things we make here, so I thought it would be nice to look back at some of my favourite moments from the show, as well as your most replayed clips.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll share a few compilations.

We’ll start with moments that hit me hard.

The Factory Next Door might be about manufacturing, but it’s also a love letter to people making things in our communities; people who have stories to share.

In this compilation, we begin on the Isle of Wight, at the RNLI’s factory making inflatable lifeboats (Ep. 23). Who would have thought the name of a boat would leave me choked up?

In Ep. 37 when I sat down with Merry from Border Oak to ask why she does what she does, her love for her dad caught me completely off-guard.

Finally, we have a clip from Ep. 46. If you want to manufacture things in Britain, your company must show extraordinary resilience – but when I started my chat with Naomi from lingerie company Edge o Beyond, I had no idea about the personal resilience she’d brought to her brand.

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When you’ve been learning your craft for almost two and a half centuries, you can confidently call yourself ‘the world’s finest’. John Smedley have been making their knitwear in Derbyshire since 1784.

Number 50 on our list of the greatest things we make here is The Knitted Polo Shirt.

On this week’s The Factory Next Door we head to Matlock to visit John Smedley’s historic Lea Mills.

Managing Director Jess McGuire Dudley gives us a tour as she reflects on her first year in charge. We hear why there’s a renewed interest in apprenticeships at the factory, consider the therapeutic qualities of linking, discover which job requires the steadiest hand, and chat about collaborating with actor Bill Nighy.

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The Factory Next Door is supported by AVEVA, a leader in industrial intelligence.

Sign up to their bi-weekly newsletter about manufacturing here:

www.aveva.com/factory

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Spend a day in any major city from Seoul to San Francisco and you’ll spot them weaving through the traffic – a bicycle with distinctive small wheels and arched top tube.

Brompton’s folding bike is an example of a great British design that’s loved around the world. More than 1.2m have now been sold.

Number 49 on our list of the greatest things we make here is The Folding Bicycle.

On this week’s The Factory Next Door we head to Greenford in West London to meet the team making these beautiful bikes.

CEO Will Butler-Adams OBE explains why they are an engineering company that makes bicycles, not the other way around. We go for a quick ride, see bikes being beaten up, and learn why manufacturing in London is integral to Brompton’s future.

Plus, we chat about what success looks like, learn where the name ‘Brompton’ came from, consider truck-driving in clogs, and explore how businesses can help drive positive change.

Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoor

The Factory Next Door is supported by AVEVA, a leader in industrial intelligence.

Sign up to their bi-weekly newsletter about manufacturing here:

www.aveva.com/factory

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.