An apparatus for manufacturing an assembly of an annular bead wire core and a surrounding ring of filler material attached thereto comprising at least one former, typically mounted on a turntable, and a number of stations. At a first station, rubber-coated bead wire is wound around the former to produce the annular bead wire core. At a second station, the ring of filler material is arranged over the previously wound rubber-coated wire core to form the bead core assembly and at a third station the bead core assembly is unloaded from the former. Conveniently the former(s) is(are) moved from station to station by indexing movement of the turntable.The invention also relates to a method of manufacturing a tire bead core assembly.