British American Tobacco came to Southampton before World War One and after occupying a number of factories in the town finally settled at a site in Regent's Park Road in 1925. Initially, production was carried out in a factory in Albert Road, but in the mid 1920s the company purchased the 18 acres of Blighmont Park, the grounds of Blighmont House (the house was not included in the sale), a site bounded by Regents Park Road and Waterhouse Lane. Cigarette production on the site began in 1926.
The factory closed in December 2006 as production was transferred to Europe. Around 700 staff members were retained to work in the research and development centre.
Further reading:
The Global Cigarette, by Howard Cox. (HS/ps)
Regents Park’, by D. A. Horsfall: in Essays on the History of Southampton, p171-172. (HS/h)
Millbrook: the Hidden Past, by Rosaleen Wilkinson, p51-53. (HS/h.MIL)
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