It is now common in the study of concentrations of industry to consider them as local orregional clusters of firms. This stems from a wave of empirical and theoretical researchinto concentrations of economic activity continuing the earlier work of Alfred Marshallwho observed that firms seemed to accrue benefits from concentrating in space andtime. By 1914 the city of Coventry was undergoing rapid expansion and embracing asecond wave of British industrialisation with its economy comprising a series ofclustered light-engineering firms at the heart of cycle, motorcycle and motor vehicleproduction. During the First World War, the city became transformed into an arsenal ofwar for four-and-a-half years and contributed greatly to British and Allied armamentsand munitions production. Crucially, the research conceptualizes this collection of firmsas an evolving armaments and munitions cluster, undergoing rapid expansion andadaptation to meet the demands of the war effort. The research identifies the principalcharacteristics of no less than 166 factories manufacturing armaments and munitionsand 13 support institutions and infrastructure and maps their changing distributionacross Coventry between 1914 and 1918. Secondly, the research identifies the type(s) ofcluster this wartime economy became and shows the cluster grew from a predominantlynucleated hub-and-spoke cluster to a state anchored/centred cluster and finally to acluster leading to innovation. Thirdly, the research reveals how under wartimeconditions a cluster was able to evolve rapidly from one type to another bydemonstrating it was through the Coventry Armaments Output Committee. Finally,these research findings are related to what impact, both positive and negative, asuccessful WWI armaments and munitions cluster had upon the city’s development,suggesting engineering science and inter-firm and inter-governmental co-operation,were two important legacies.
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