Business leaders who transformed 'Battle of Orgreave' site establish new venture

Professor Ridgway co-founded the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) on the site of the “Battle of Orgreave”, where pickets clashed with police in June 1984 during the miners’ strike.

Professor Ridgway, the director of Bridgway Global, who leads the business on manufacturing and industrial innovation said: “With the US, China and the European Union putting advanced manufacturing at the heart of their economic strategies it is vital that the UK, with its ambition to be a science superpower, does not get left behind.

“We must not repeat the mistakes of the 1980s and 1990s. An innovative and expanding manufacturing base is essential to building strong communities and a more sustainable economic future, driving big gains in productivity and turning the brilliant ideas born of fundamental science into home grown businesses, technologies and products.”

A spokesman said: “A new community of more than 2,000 homes is blossoming on the old Orgreave site alongside a world-class cluster of aerospace, green energy, defence, and automotive brands and their supply chains.”

Fellow Director and Bellona Advisors’ Managing Director Iain Thomson, who leads the business on land and property development matters and public-private partnerships, added: “The wealth of knowledge and experience in the team enables us to act as a vital bridge between advanced manufacturers, land and property interests, research institutions and both national and regional government in an era of growing devolution across the world.”

Bridgway’s initial service builds on this experience by providing strategic advice to major landowners and developers looking to promote new advanced manufacturing schemes and decarbonisation clusters. It will also connect advanced manufacturers to policy makers, research and development specialists and funders, to improve market conditions to grow their businesses, including the development of industrial and spatial policy at national and regional level and the creation of public-private financial instruments.

Bridgway Global Director John Yates, who was Head of External Affairs at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) when Boeing, McLaren and the UKAEA opened facilities on the campus, added: “As a small, agile business armed with a wealth of experience in all these fields, we can be the catalyst that cuts through obstacles and delay to make things happen and get stuff done.

"These are challenging and uncertain times for the UK economy, but if we can bridge the divide at Orgreave we believe we can be a bridge over troubled economic waters anywhere.”