Behind the Scenes of Acme Whistles with Mr Simon Topman!

Simon Topman MBE: An extraordinarily entertaining man, Simon Topman is the world's greatest living authority on whistles. Author of the standard work, "Collecting Police Whistles and Similar Types". C.E.O. of the world famous Acme Whistle Company, founded in 1870 and manufacturer of 500 million whistles, sound effects, bird calls, animal sounds and harkers, to date (demonstrations of various whistles are of course part of any visit with him!).

Expect a host of stories, amusing and serious, from the world of whistles including the Lion Roarer for jungle warfare, the football referee's Thunderer, and how his factory made both the original whistles for the Titanic and also for the blockbuster movie. With humour and a great sense of storytelling he illustrates the business and social changes that have and are taking place over some 130 years of sound production.

Simon Topman was awarded an MBE in recognition of his involvement with a range of public and private sector organisations. He has been President of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce; Director of The Birmingham Repertory Theatre; Chairman of Aston Pride and many other prestigious appointments.

He is also a very sought after public speaker.

The venue: The terracotta front may look like a merchant bank, but enter its big blue front doors, walk up the Minton tiled stairway and you find 28,000 square feet of industry and making. Birmingham inventor, Joseph Hudson, is the founder of J Hudson & Co Whistles which have been proudly manufacturing whistles in the UK, since 1870!

In this Spice exclusive tour, you will experience a working factory with stories and examples from old to new. The old Victorian equipment that has been treasured and preserved, and the new soldering and moulding equipment, side by side. Every process in the manufacturing is shown.

The tour includes 150 years of whistle making, interesting stories about the building including Bomb damage from 1940, Victorian Machinery, Titanic whistles, Bird calls, the Lion Roar, Ancient & Modern Advertising and the Acme Meteor which is the worlds first flying Whistle. We can't guarantee that the factory ghost will appear, but you will most certainly hear about it!

Furthermore, in a recent exciting development, they have tracked down a very rare item of military history that they produced for US paratroopers to use during the D-Day Landings - the ACME clicker. This incredibly rare piece of military history is now on display at the factory and will be a showcase part of our tours.

Charity: The money Acme Whistles charge for the tour is donated to local charities.

This tour was really well received when we last managed to agree a date back in 2019.

We do need a minimum of 15 bookings for the factory to run this bespoke tour for us so if you're interested, please book as soon as possible to prevent cancellation.