In our modern post industrial society we eagerly embrace the new, and only too quickly discard the old. We are creatures of our past and our industrial heritage has made us what we are today. Industry is rapidly disappearing from the area at an alarming rate and soon all traces of it will be gone forever. Sadly old factories and machinery have little value and we have too few museums in which to display them.

Younger and future generations will have no concept of what factory life was really like unless we preserve what remains. In the past, artists did little to record the industrial scene but now thankfully that has changed. Arthur Lockwood, an accomplished artist, specialises in recording industrial scenes before they disappear. His paintings accurately portray the industrial landscape and capture the factory atmosphere. The paintings not only feature the buildings and machinery but also the people who worked there, although their way of life and industrial skills have disappeared. Arthur's paintings exactly recreate the disappearing industrial scene and will be a marvellous resource for anyone that's interested in our past.
Richard Jones rolled metal factory, Gray Street, Birmingham. Painted in 1988 it captures the rugged utilitarian character of the building with the smoke blackened stack rearing above the corrugated iron roof. The pall of fumes suggests the smell and noise of the hot metal processing within. The factory is gone and the site is now Bordesley Village Centre.
Arthur was born in Birmingham and was fascinated by the industrial landscape that was commonplace at the time. As a boy he used to go out painting with his father and they often visited factories and made drawings of them. This is probably where his fascination for industry began.
Coombs Wood Works from the Dudley Canal. At the time they were awaiting demolition.
A large press at Hill & Smith, Brierley Hill.
Arthur later studied book illustration at Birmingham College of Art, followed by graphic design at the Royal College of Art in London. He worked for 23 years as a freelance designer and has now returned to the Midlands to paint full time. He has recorded much of the changing urban landscape in Birmingham and his work was exhibited in Birmingham Art Gallery during the summer of 2004. Arthur has also painted the disappearing industrial scene in the Dudley area and his paintings were exhibited in Dudley Museum and Art Gallery in the autumn of 2004. Arthur is now turning his attention to the Black Country as a whole and hopes to paint much of what's left in the Wolverhampton area. During the autumn of 2004 and early 2005 he spent much time at the Crown Nail Company in Commercial Road, Wolverhampton where he painted nail and tack manufacturing before the factory closed.
View some of
Arthur's paintings of the Crown Nail Co. 
Sidney Smith Castings, Stourbridge. The company makes manhole covers and gratings and is on a site that has been used for metalworking since the 1820s.
The Core Shop, Sidney Smith Castings.
Moulding line, Sidney Smith Castings.
Sand bed casting, Sidney Smith Castings.
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