Good Friday saw BMW's Plant Oxford officially celebrate its 100th birthday, but to millions of car owners around the world it will always be known as Cowley. Bicycle maker William Morris had long planned to make a lightweight car that was assembled from bought-in components and so, in March 1913, the first car left the “old tin shed”, in the form of a two-seater tourer with a 1017cc engine.
The price tag was £175 but, although the Morris's official name was Oxford, it would forever be known as the “Bullnose” thanks to the shape of its radiator grille.
By the end of the 1920s, the Cowley works covered some 17 hectares and was the largest car manufacturing plant in Europe. In 1939, the factory became the first in the UK to have produced a million vehicles and Morris was responsible for more than 30 percent of British exports - total exports, that is, not just cars.
A 1950 Pathé Newsreel celebrated the factory's 100 000th car built for the export market and the Macmillan-era economic boom saw some 26 000 people working on the site. Morris was made Baron Nuffield in 1934 and, when he died in 1963, Cowley was the centrepiece of one of the largest car makers in the world.
CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
Nuffield required considerable backing to open his factory on the site of the former Oxford Military Academy and so the 7th Earl of Macclesfield purchased some £4000 worth of preference shares.
A century later, his great-granddaughter Tanya Field was determined that the 100th birthday celebrations would not just celebrate the factory that pioneered mass car production in the UK, but also include “something for the people of Oxford who actually worked at the plant”.
Field is such a dyed-in-the-wool supporter of the Cowley plant that she owns seven Minis. Her fondness for British cars dates back many years: “When I was nine, I was so disappointed that the I-Spy Book of Cars did not feature the new Mini-Metro.”
She spent three months organising the Cavalcade of Motoring that took place on 29 March this year, requiring her to brush up on her knowledge of 1930s Morrises. But her determination that no “interloper from the Longbridge plant would take part” did sadly result in the absence of the Austin Metro from the line-up.
LONGWALL STREET
Thus, the Cavalcade set off from the site of the original factory. The old Morris Motors buildings were demolished 20 years ago and the BMW Mini plant is built on the site of the pressed steel body works, passing by Longwall Street, where the young William Morris had his first garage.
Each member of the Cavalcade represented a pivotal moment in the plant's history. The Morris Eight offered 1930s suburbanites the chance to own their first new car, the post-war Morris Minor was the first British car to sell a million (although Morris allegedly hated its appearance, calling it “a poached egg”) and a cherry-red Mini was a prime example of the car that first alerted British drivers to the virtues of front-wheel drive.
There was also a Triumph Acclaim, the first Anglo-Japanese car to be built in the UK and the Cavalcade member that provided Field with one of her greatest challenges in sourcing a rare survivor. Naturally some of the participants proudly bore the Oxford model name - the handsome 1955 example still lives on as the Hindustan Ambassador in India.
There was also a rare example of the Morris Marina TC, the car that was to enthusiastic driving what Confessions of a Window Cleaner was to the art of comedy.
LOST OPPORTUNITIES
Some of the cars gathered in Oxford were prime examples of a phrase all too often heard when discussing the British motor industry - “lost opportunities”. The 1966 Morris 1100 Traveller was a poignant reminder of how the 1100 range could have been the greatest cars of their type in the world, had marketing and quality control been properly considered.
The Austin Maxi's basic formula was ruined by shoddy execution and the Morris 1800 “Landcrab” remains the nearest British equivalent to the Citroën DS.
The sheer variety of badges seen in the Cavalcade reflected the often vexed history of Cowley's plant. In addition to Morris, the factory has produced cars bearing the name of Austin, Austin-Healey, Honda, MG, Mini, Princess, Riley, Sterling (the US market marque name for the Rover 800), Vanden Plas and Wolseley.
William Morris's expansion plans led him to take over Wolseley and Riley to form the Nuffield Group (which merged with Austin in 1952 to form the vast British Motor Corporation. Fifteen years later, a marriage with Leyland produced the company whose initial letters came to strike terror in all who cared about quality control, BL. The mass-vehicle division of British Leyland became known as Austin-Rover in 1981 and 13 years later Cowley was owned by BMW, who proved to be its saviour.
ROVER SD1
Despite the moderately horrid weather, the Cavalcade attracted a great deal of attention, with many smiles of recognition even from younger Oxford residents. A particular favourite was the 1984 London Met Rover 3500SD1, driven by a police officer in authentic 1980s uniform and looking as though it belonged in the first season of The Bill. There was also a surprisingly warm response to the Maestro and the Montego, the latter being one of the now almost forgotten products from Cowley that Field was “determined to include as it is a prime example of an everyday car that people can relate to. Besides, I am one of the world's greatest Montego fans!”
For the future, BMW plans to have invested £750 million (R10.5 billion) in its British plants by 2015 and the Cowley works is entirely associated with the Mini brand. Since 2001, the BMW Mini has been sold in more than 100 different countries. In the UK, they are the most recent legacy of an Oxford engineer's decision to move into car making. - The Independent