Restored photos from the BTH works, taken in the 1920s to 1940s, go on show at Rugby Art Gallery on 7 October for a year. Plus a Paula Rego date clash.

Restored photographs from the British Thomson-Houston works, the factory that once employed 20,000 people in Rugby, are going on show in the town.

BTH in Pictures opens at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum on Wednesday 7 October. It runs in the museum’s local history gallery until October 2027.

Rugby Borough Council, which runs the museum, announced the exhibition on Wednesday 16 September.

What is in it

The photos were taken at the BTH works in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. The council says they show:

  • BTH staff at work
  • the site’s buildings
  • product shots of what the works made

Many are cyanotypes from the 1940s. That was when the works stepped up production during the Second World War, making radar and missiles.

How the photos survived

Most of the BTH collection of glass plates and cyanotypes is now archived at the Institution of Engineering and Technology in London. A smaller set was donated to Rugby Art Gallery and Museum in 2010.

The museum won funding from Arts Council England and started a restoration project in 2022. Museum volunteers worked on it alongside apprentices from GE Vernova, which now operates from the former BTH site. Together they cleaned, reboxed, catalogued and digitised the collection.

Why BTH matters to Rugby

Timeline: BTH set up in Rugby by General Electric in 1902; AEI buys it in 1928, keeping the BTH name to 1960; first prototype jet engine in 1937; wartime radar and missiles and the invention of holography in the 1940s; plates donated to the museum in 2010; restoration from 2022; BTH in Pictures opens 7 October 2026 and runs to October 2027

The council’s account of the company’s history:

  • 1902: the American firm General Electric set up BTH in Rugby, making generators and electric motors. It later added heavy industrial turbines, turbo alternators and light bulbs.
  • 1928: Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) bought the company. It kept trading as BTH until 1960.
  • 1937: the world’s first prototype jet engine was developed at the works by Sir Frank Whittle’s Power Jets company.
  • A decade later: the Hungarian scientist Dennis Gabor invented holography on the BTH site.

At its peak the company employed 20,000 people in the town.

Cllr Maggie O’Rourke, the council’s portfolio holder for partnerships, health and wellbeing, said BTH and the growth of the railways made Rugby “an industrial powerhouse” in the early 20th century.

“At one point, everyone who lived in Rugby knew someone who worked for BTH, or later AEI or the General Electric Company (GEC),” she said.

Cllr Neil Sandison, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the same portfolio, said that for many older engineers and their apprentices “this will be like time travelling into the past”.

The gallery has a second major exhibition opening first, and its two official sources disagree on when.

Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature is a Hayward Gallery Touring show of three series of prints, inspired by nursery rhymes, Peter Pan and Jane Eyre. It includes some of the artist’s personal items, among them her childhood copy of Peter Pan.

  • The council’s press release of 9 September says it opens on Saturday 19 September.
  • The gallery’s own exhibition page says it runs from 26 September, with a launch evening on Friday 25 September, 6pm to 8pm, open to all.

Both sources agree it closes on Saturday 21 November. If you plan to go in its first week, phone the gallery on 01788 533201 before you set out.

The gallery page lists two events alongside it:

Event Date Time Price
Paula Rego: Printmaker, a talk with Paul Coldwell Thursday 22 October 6.30pm to 8pm £5
Paula Rego: Secrets and Stories, film screening (18+) Thursday 12 November 6.30pm to 8pm Free, booking required

Coldwell worked with Rego on her etchings from 1987 to 2006. The film is directed by her son, Nick Willing.

The current local history exhibition, 100 Years of Rugby Radio, closes on Saturday 3 October, four days before BTH in Pictures opens.

What it means for you

  • When to go: the gallery is open Tuesday to Friday 10am to 5pm and Saturday 10am to 4pm. It is closed on Sundays and Mondays, according to its visitor page. The first chance to see the BTH photos is Wednesday 7 October.
  • No rush: BTH in Pictures runs for a year, until October 2027.
  • Where: Little Elborow Street, CV21 3BZ, in the same building as the library. The gallery has no car park of its own. It says the Asda car park next door is free for two hours, with a three-hour maximum. See our parking in Rugby page for the council car parks.
  • If your family worked at BTH, AEI or GEC: this is the exhibition to take them to. More of the collection is held by the Institution of Engineering and Technology in London.

For more to do in the town this autumn, see things to do in Rugby.