20 Years Ago… Longbridge, Birmingham.
On April 8th 2005 MG Rover went into administration and the cars on the production line that day entered a Will they? Won’t they ? half -world where their future in terms of ever becoming completed vehicles lay in the hands of the men in suits. Most of the workforce left on that Friday afternoon and although there was to be further car making at Longbridge , this was effectively the end of the factory set up by Herbert Austin almost 100 years earlier.
Of course no Austins had rolled off the Longbridge lines since 1987 when the once proud name disappeared but Longbridge had become home to both MG and Rover and it was incomplete models of both marques which were suspended on the silent production lines twenty years ago.
There are still reminders of the site’s proud past and heritage with the Exhibition Hall built in 1956 still standing at Q gate looking much as it did almost 70 years ago. The big Car Assembly Buildings have all gone where millions of Minis and other iconic Austins once poured off the line at a staggering rate.
So we quietly salute the genius of Sir Herbert Austin and Sir Alec Issigonis and also remember the skill and dedication of a workforce of hundreds of thousands who made this place a powerhouse of British car production.
