Rich motoring past & there’s more to come
NO other country has such a varied history of car making as Britain – from handbuilt Morgan cars to huge robotpopulated ultra-modern plants like Nissan in Sunderland.
And we have long attracted foreign car companies. Ford opened its first UK factory at Trafford Park in Manchester to build Model Ts in 1911.
Until then Herbert Austin’s Wolseley Motors had been our largest manufacturer. Humber had been making cars in Coventry since 1898, Sunbeam in Wolverhampton from 1901 and Rover arrived in Coventry in 1904.
During the inter-war years Oxfordbased Morris and Austin, from Birmingham, dominated the market, and from 1932 until 1955 the UK was Europe’s largest car maker.
With American competition from Ford and Vauxhall, a merger created the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1952 made up of Austin, Morris, MG, Riley and Wolseley, before further consolidation led to the creation of the
later infamous British Leyland in 1968.
The first British car to sell a million was the Morris Minor in 1961.
The Sixties saw the launch of many models which now inspire nostalgia the Ford Cortina, Hillman Imp and Hunter, the Rover P6, Jaguar E-Type, MG B and Triumph Spitfire.
Car factories frequently change hands, usually after the owners are taken over by another maker. Rootes Group had a large factory at Ryton near Coventry (built by Rootes as aeroengine plant at the start of the Second World War) but became part of Peugeot Talbot in 1978 and shut finally in 2006.
A vast number of great names have disappeared, but it’s not all been bad news. Nissan opened its huge factory in 1986 when the first Bluebird came off the line. Toyota followed in 1992 and Honda started building the Accord at Swindon, Wilts, in 1992.
Even today new factories are opening: Aston Martin will this year open a plant at St Athan near Cardiff where it will build its new DBX SUV and future electric models. Britain’s long history of car building will never come to an end. Not in our lifetimes.