MINI will be celebrating a centenary of car production at its factory in Oxford. BMW may call the factory ‘Plant Oxford’, but most car enthusiasts still refer to it as Cowley – the site that the first ‘Bullnose’ Morris rolled off the line in 1913.
The main centenary date will be 28 March. This is exactly 100 years after the first Morris was built. Plant Oxford will host a commemorative exhibition, and MINI wants to hear from ex-employees and the families of ex-employees, who would like to share photos and memories from the plant over the last 100 years.
Since 1913 tens of thousands of people – 26,000 at the peak in the 1950s and 60s – have worked on the site building over 11,000,000 cars. Cars built at Cowley have been a diverse bunch – with marques including Austin-Healey, MG, Wolseley, Riley, Austin, Mini, Vanden Plas, Princess, Triumph, Rover, Honda, and Sterling. Morris is the most associated with Cowley, but more Minis (classic and post-BMW) have been built at the factory.
More:
http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/news...ary-of-cowley/



Start of Car Centenary Cavalcade at MINI Plant Oxford
40 Oxford built vehicles will assemble early morning of the 29th March at MINI Plant Oxford. The Bullnose and MINI will be waved off to go to Hollow Way where they will start an reenactment of when the first ever Bullnose left Hollow Way on 29th March 1913. However, instead of driving to London as in 1913, they will drive to Nuffield Place to join the Bullnose Morris Club's celebrations. The 40 vehicles will then leave MINI Plant Oxford to drive to the City Centre to form a static display for the day taking a route that will pass by as many significant places as possible, including the Nuffield Needle, old North and South Works, Hollow Way, the Nuffield Hospital and the Longwall garage.
http://www.visitoxfordandoxfordshire...=1&nd=All&z=10

 

A Bullnose Morris Oxford, the first car to be manufactured by William Morris on 28th March 1913 and a MINI Roadster, the most recent car to enter production in 2012 are displayed to celebrate 100 years of car manufacturing in Oxford on March 27th 2013

"One hundred years ago the first ‘Bullnose’ Morris Oxford was built by William Morris just a few hundred metres from where the modern MINI plant stands.
With a weekly production of just 20 vehicles in 1913, the business grew rapidly and over the century 11.65 million cars were produced, bearing 13 different British brands and one Japanese. Almost 500.000 people have worked at the plant in the past 100 years and in the early 1960s numbers peaked at 28,000. Today, Plant Oxford employs 3,700 associates who manufacture up to 900 MINIs every day.
Over the years an array of famous cars were produced including the Morris Minor, the Mini, the Morris Marina, the Princess, the Austin Maestro and today’s MINI. At various stages in its history, the plant also built Tiger Moth aircraft, ambulances, parachutes and iron lungs.
Today, Plant Oxford is the heart of MINI production with the manufacture of the MINI Hatch, Convertible, Clubman, Clubvan, Roadster and Coupé. The new bodyshop represents the lion’s share of BMW Group’s £750 million UK investment programme, preparing the company’s manufacturing facilities for the next generation Mk3 MINI 1,000 new robots are currently being installed in this facility.
Among the special guests attending the opening of the exhibition was former employee Eric Lord who celebrated his 93rd birthday today having worked at the plant from when he was 20 years old in 1940 to his retirement in 1979."
MINI Plant Oxford leads celebration of 100 years of car-making in... - Living Polo

A ride through Cowley history at car producer's centenary - Oxford Mail:
A ride through Cowley history at car producer's centenary (From Oxford Mail)

 

Taking my dad there next month when visiting England! Super excited!

 

You lucky dog! Your dad too!

 

Definitely glad the tour will fit into our schedule. Also spending some time in Munich to hit BMW!

 

The plant tour is definitely worth it.

Where I grew up Cowley was often on the local news, and not for the right reasons. It was pretty much a synonym for industrial unrest. "Red Robbo" was a household name, again not for the right reasons.

Later on I lived in Cowley, I cycled past the plant every day on the way to one job I had. There were Maestro's and Montego's around at that time. Some of the branded as MGs. The MG Maestro sounded like an interesting car to me then (when all I had was a pushbike).

 

A Roaring British Success
Unnoticed, the once strike ravaged UK car industry is triumphantly defying the recession.
"Donna Green grew up in the shadow of the giant Cowley car plant on the outskirts of Oxford. Her grandfather helped make Morris Minors, her father was an engineer with British Leyland, and evenings out as a child were spent with other workers’ families at the factory’s social club.
One of her earliest memories is waiting to cross the road as thousands of workers on bicycles pedalled past on their way to lunch.
Among them, in his oil-streaked overalls, would be her father, who joined the factory straight after World War II. ‘That smell of oil still reminds me of my dad to this day,’ she says.
But the plant seemed in terminal decline in those dark days of the Seventies. The management was mediocre, the design of cars dreary, and the 28,000 workforce led by feuding militants who thought they could spark revolution from the shop floor. With the nation on a slippery slope to self-destruction, nothing symbolised the strife wrecking the economy more than the British Leyland car plants. Union firebrands such as Derek Robinson — ‘Red Robbo’ — became infamous. Just two decades after being the world’s largest exporter of motor vehicles, the British car industry had broken down.
Fast forward to today, however, and things could not be more different. The workforce may be smaller, but as the factory churns out brightly-coloured Minis — that most British of vehicles —Cowley symbolises the rebirth of our automotive industry."
Read More:
http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/news...itish-success/