93-417: Nuffield Organization was the unincorporated umbrella-name or promotional name used for the charitable and commercial interests of owner and donor, William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield . The name was assumed following Nuffield's gift made to form his Nuffield Foundation in 1943, it linked his business interests to his existing very generous philanthropy. The same enterprises had previously been referred to as
186-538: A blue plaque . He died in August 1963, aged 85. The baronetcy and two peerages died with him as he was childless. He was cremated, and his ashes lie in Nuffield churchyard, beside his wife's. Historians have described William Morris as politically anti-union and anti-Semitic , often citing the fact that he was a key financer of Sir Oswald Mosley and British fascism. Between 1931 and 1932, Morris gave Mosley £35,000 to fund
279-514: A 40% share of the UK car market, with its history going back to 1895. Despite containing profitable marques such as Jaguar , Rover , and Land Rover , as well as the best-selling Mini , BLMC had a troubled history, leading to its eventual collapse in 1975 and subsequent part-nationalisation. After much restructuring and divestment of subsidiary companies, BL was renamed the Rover Group in 1986, becoming
372-482: A brand in consumers' minds in and outside the UK, print ads and spots were produced, causing confusion rather than attraction for buyers. BL marketing and management attempted to draw more obvious distinctions between the marques – most notable was the decision to pitch Morris as a maker of conventional mass-market cars to compete with Ford and Vauxhall and Austin to continue BMC's line of advanced family cars with front-wheel drive and fluid suspension. This resulted in
465-543: A disastrous couple of years in the marketplace, by the end of 1974 BLMC was on the brink of bankruptcy. Its financial backers – the City banks – had become very nervous about its future, and persuaded Lord Stokes to approach Tony Benn for financial assistance." Sir Don Ryder was asked to undertake an enquiry into the position of the company, and his report was presented to the government in April 1975. Following Ryder's recommendations,
558-686: A large part of his fortune to charitable causes. He founded Nuffield College, Oxford , in 1937, a post-graduate college and the University's first co-educational college. In 1937 he gave £50,000 to fund the expansion of the Sea Cadet Corps , donated £60,000 to the University of Birmingham for the Nuffield building, to house a cyclotron , In December 1938 he offered to give an iron lung (see Both respirator ) made in his factory to any hospital in Britain and
651-494: A local newspaper as The Oxford Motor Palace, changed his business's name from ‘The Oxford Garage’ to ‘The Morris Garage’ and still had to take more premises in Queen Street . The Longwall Street site was redeveloped in 1980, retaining the original frontage, and is now used as student accommodation by New College . In 1912 he designed a car, the "bullnose" Morris , and, using bought-in components (including engines and axles from
744-639: A merger. The two companies would retain their separate identities and would not produce the same models. Forty years later the merger was recognised to have been a political decision in the face of American competition and the absence of heirs for either Morris or Austin. Morris Motors Limited merged with The Austin Motor Company Limited in The British Motor Corporation Limited in 1952. The two groups were very evenly matched, not only in financial terms, each had produced and sold in
837-423: A product to sell. This meant that Austin and Morris still, to an extent, competed with each other and meant that each product was saddled with effectively twice the logistics, marketing and distribution costs that it would have if sold under a single name or if production of a single model platform was concentrated in one factory. Although BL did eventually end the wasteful double sourcing – for example production of
930-557: A public statement through The Jewish Chronicle repudiating fascism and antisemitism while also announcing a donation made to the Central British Fund for German Jewry in support of European Jewish refugees. Historian of British fascism Dave Renton describes William Morris as "the most important example" of a wealthy supporter of Sir Oswald Mosley's fascist movement. Renton also describes Morris as being "fiercely anti-Semitic" in his private life, citing that for many years he
1023-463: A recognised and respected marque across India, the wider subcontinent and parts of Africa in the form of Ashok Leyland , a company formed from the partnership of the Ashok group and British Leyland. However, now the company has been largely Indian in its ownership for over three decades. Now a part of the giant Hinduja Group , Ashok Leyland manufactures buses, trucks, defence vehicles and engines. The company
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#17328441435501116-601: A single all-new model, the Austin Montego. The Acclaim was replaced in that same year by another Honda-based product, the Rover 200 -series. The MG factory at Abingdon and Triumph factory at Canley were both closed in 1980. By the end of Michael Edwardes' tenure as chairman of BL plc in 1982, the company had been restructured into two distinct parts – the Cars Division (which consisted of Austin-Morris, Rover and Jaguar, and
1209-539: A small number of tractors with some modest success. The car marques inherited by the company are as follows. The dates given are those of the first car of each marque, but these are often debatable as each car may be several years in development. Several of these names (including Jaguar, Land Rover and Mini) are now in other hands. The history of the mergers and other key events is as follows. Pre-BL: As BL: As BL: Post-BL: As BL: Post BL: In some cases, British Leyland continued to produce competing models from
1302-659: A step closer to reconnecting with its British heritage, as Optare is a direct descendant of Leyland's UK bus-making division. During the time of British Leyland's transition into Austin Rover during the 1980s, a version of the Rover SD1 was licence built in India as the Standard 2000 from 1985 to 1988, briefly reviving the Standard brand which had been axed in 1968. British Leyland also provided
1395-634: A stop-gap until the Austin Maestro and Montego were ready for launch. This car would emerge as the Triumph Acclaim in 1981, and would be the first of a long line of collaborative models jointly developed between BL and Honda. At the same time, Leyland Trucks introduced the Landtrain , the first in a series of vehicles developed specifically for export markets. A rationalisation of the model ranges also took place around this time. In 1980, British Leyland
1488-460: A strike took place in a Morris' factory which historians have described as a "spontaneous walkout" of approximately 180 workers. William Morris was politically anti-union and had boasted that he would refuse to recognise any unions at his factory, stating "I never allow the trade unions to interfere with me." Although the workers had no specific demands, their reasons for walking out ranged from low wages to terrible working conditions. Upon hearing of
1581-603: A subsidiary of British Aerospace from 1988 to 1994, then was subsequently bought by BMW . The final surviving incarnation of the company as the MG Rover Group went into administration in 2005, bringing mass car production by British-owned manufacturers to an end. MG and the Austin , Morris and Wolseley marques became part of China's SAIC , with whom MG Rover attempted to merge prior to administration. As of 2024, Mini , Jaguar Land Rover , Leyland Trucks , and Unipart are
1674-785: A wave of left wing political activism across Oxford during the 1930s. In May 1938, a serial blackmailer , Patrick Tuellman, tried to kidnap Lord Nuffield for a £100,000 ransom. But Tuellman had an accomplice who betrayed his plan to Oxford City Police . The force briefed Nuffield and planned to catch Tuellman in the attempt. Nuffield took a keen interest in the preparations and insisted on attending every meeting. On 28 May police ambushed Tuellman in Cowley in his car. Officers found him to be in possession of two automatic pistols, ammunition and items of disguise. Birmingham Assizes tried Tuellman and on 22 July convicted him. He served seven years' penal servitude . British Leyland British Leyland
1767-494: A wave of left wing political activism across Oxford during the 1930s. Morris was born in 1877 at 47 Comer Gardens, a terraced house in the Comer Gardens area of Worcester, England , about 2 miles (3 km) northwest of the centre of the city. He was the son of Frederick Morris and his wife Emily Ann, daughter of Richard Pether. When he was three years old his family moved to 16 James Street, Oxford . Upon leaving school at
1860-449: A week but by May 1940, the height of the Battle of France , not one Spitfire had been built at Castle Bromwich. That month Lord Beaverbrook was placed in charge of all aircraft production, Nuffield was sacked and the plant handed over to Vickers , Supermarine 's parent company. Vickers had inherited such a confused construction programme that even by 1942 building work was still going on and
1953-751: Is a leader in the heavy transportation sector within India and has an aggressive expansionary policy. In 1987, the UK-based Hinduja Group bought the India-based Ashok Leyland company. Today, Ashok-Leyland is pursuing a joint venture with Nissan and through its acquisition of the Czech truck maker, Avia , is entering the European truck market directly. With its purchase, in 2010, of a 25% stake in UK-based bus manufacturer Optare , Ashok Leyland has taken
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#17328441435502046-562: Is now Nuffield Health . He took his title from the village of Nuffield in Oxfordshire , where he lived. Initially Morris Motors relied heavily on Oxford's local labour force, and William Morris became the largest employer in the city. However during the 1920s and 1930s, Oxford saw a dramatic size and population increase following large numbers of unemployed people from depressed areas of Britain seeking work in Morris's factories. This time period
2139-601: The Austin Metro (initially named the Mini Metro), a three-door hatchback that gave buyers a more modern and practical alternative to the iconic but ageing Mini. This went on to be one of the most popular cars in Britain in the 1980s. Towards the final stages of the Metro's development, BL entered into an alliance with Honda to provide a new mid-range model which would replace the ageing Triumph Dolomite , but would more crucially act as
2232-492: The Land Rover Group . JRT later split up into Rover-Triumph and Jaguar Car Holdings (which included Daimler ). At the same time the public use of the "British Leyland" name ceased, being abbreviated simply to "BL", whilst the company's "hurricane" logo was redesigned with the central "L" removed. The Austin-Morris division was given its own unique brand identity with the introduction of the blue and green "chevron" logo, which
2325-598: The Simca 1307 (Chrysler Alpine) in 1975. The company also wasted many of its scant funds on concepts , like the Rover P8 or P9, that would never be produced to earn money for the company. These internal issues, which were never satisfactorily solved, combined with serious industrial relations problems with trade unions, the 1973 oil crisis , the three-day week , high inflation and ineffectual management meant that BL became an unmanageable and financially crippled behemoth. "Following
2418-564: The "LC8" project – eventually launched as the Austin Mini Metro in 1980. In 1977, Michael Edwardes was appointed chief executive by the NEB. Edwardes embarked on a massive restructuring of the beleaguered conglomerate, selling off many of its non-core businesses such as Prestcold and Coventry Climax. Edwardes also took on the militant unions head-on, culminating in the dismissal of chief shop steward Derek Robinson in 1979, who had been seen as
2511-484: The 1100/1300 ranges), launched in 1973, gained a similar reputation over its ten-year production life. The company became an infamous monument to the industrial turmoil that plagued the United Kingdom during the 1970s. Action by unions frequently brought BL's manufacturing capability to its knees. Despite the duplication of production facilities as a result of the merger, there were multiple single points of failure in
2604-467: The 1960s with both the Mini and the 1100/1300 , both cars were infamously underpriced and despite their pioneering but unproven front wheel drive engineering, warranty costs had been crippling and had badly eroded those models' profitability. After the merger, Lord Stokes was horrified to find that BMH had no plans to replace the elderly designs in its portfolio. Also, BMH's design efforts immediately prior to
2697-522: The Allegro. The company were aware of the issue but had decided against a recall. They were held liable for damages as they had failed to take reasonable care, because the costs of the recall were deemed in proportion with the potential risks of injury. In 1978, the company formed a new group for its commercial vehicle interests, BL Commercial Vehicles (BLCV) under managing director David Abell . The following companies moved under this new umbrella: BLCV and
2790-665: The British market. By the end of the 1970s, the UK Government had introduced protectionist measures in the form of import quotas on Japanese manufacturers to protect the ailing domestic producers (both BL and Chrysler Europe ), which it was helping to sustain. At its peak, BLMC owned almost forty manufacturing plants across the country. Even before the merger, BMH had included theoretically competing marques that were in fact selling substantially similar badge engineered cars. The British Motor Corporation had never properly integrated either
2883-576: The Empire that requested one; over 1,700 were distributed. He also founded the Nuffield Foundation in 1943 with an endowment of £10 million in order to advance education and social welfare. On his death the ownership of his former Oxfordshire home, Nuffield Place and its contents, passed to the Nuffield College who opened it to the public on a limited basis. Although a sale had been mooted, it
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2976-546: The High Court ended their disagreements by obliging Morris to surrender his and his colleagues' membership of the Pressed Steel board and all Morris holdings and Morris lost all the capital he had invested in the venture. Morris was "the most famous industrialist of his age". On New Year's Day 1938 he was further ennobled as Viscount Nuffield. In September 1938 he bought the bankrupt Riley (Coventry) and Autovia companies from
3069-515: The Land Rover Group later merged to become Land Rover Leyland . In December 1978, British Leyland Limited was renamed BL Limited and its subsidiary, which acted as a holding company for all the other companies within the group. The British Leyland Motor Corporation Limited was renamed BLMC Limited at the same time. BL's fortunes took another much-awaited rise in October 1980 with the launch of
3162-582: The Mini and the 1100/1300 was concentrated at Longbridge , whilst the 1800 and Austin Maxi ranges moved to Cowley , the production of sub-assemblies as well as component suppliers were scattered all over the Midlands which greatly increased the cost of keeping the factories running. BMH and Leyland Motors had expanded and acquired companies throughout the 1950s and 1960s which were in direct competition with each other, with
3255-664: The Morris Ital and the Triumph Acclaim being discontinued, their respective brands were effectively shelved, leaving only the Austin and Rover marques, whilst Land Rover moved into the Freight Rover Group alongside the light trucks division. After the divestment of Unipart and the van, truck and bus divisions in 1987 (see below), leaving just two subsidiaries – Austin Rover (volume cars) and Land Rover (SUVs) this essentially remained
3348-600: The Morris Organizations and at first described itself as The Nuffield Organization, A Cornerstone of Britain's Industrial Structure. The productive businesses were owned by Morris Motors Limited and this corporate structure appears to have been retained until the formation of British Leyland in 1968. An agreement was reached between Morris and The Austin Motor Company in October 1948 amounting to amalgamation in everything but financial structure. The terms included
3441-595: The Riley family selling them to Morris Motors Limited. He had added another personal investment, Wolseley Motors Limited , to the portfolio of Morris Motors Limited in 1935. After he was ennobled as Baron Nuffield instead of the Morris Organization the whole gallery of all his personal enterprises were promoted as the Nuffield Organization . There was no legal substance to either of these groupings. In July 1934
3534-501: The Rover Group, and only retain the Cowley operations and the rights to manufacture the new MINI family of vehicles. Land Rover was divested to Ford , who integrated it with its Premier Automotive Group (of which Jaguar was already a part, therefore reuniting the two former BL stablemates), whilst the remains of the volume car business, including the massive Longbridge complex, became
3627-499: The UK and as DAF in the Netherlands. In 1987, the bus business was spun off into a new company called Leyland Bus . This was the result of a management buyout who decided to sell the company to the Bus & Truck division of Volvo in 1988. That same year, the UK Government controversially tried to privatise and sell-off Land Rover , however this plan was later abandoned. The Austin name
3720-626: The USA), he began to build them at a disused military training college in Cowley, Oxford . The outbreak of World War I saw the nascent car factory largely given over to the production of munitions—including 50,000 minesinkers for the North Sea Minefield —but in 1919 car production revived rising from 400 cars in that year to 56,000 in 1925. Morris pioneered the introduction to the United Kingdom of Henry Ford 's techniques of mass production . During
3813-562: The age of 15, William Morris was apprenticed to a local bicycle-seller and repairer. Nine months later, after his employer refused him a pay increase, aged 16 he set up a business repairing bicycles in a shed at the back of his parents' house. This business being a success he opened a shop at 48 High Street and began to assemble as well as repair bicycles, labelling his product with a gilt cycle wheel and The Morris . Morris raced his own machines competing as far away as south London. He did not confine himself to one distance or time and at one point
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3906-716: The anti-Semitic newspaper Action , and £50,000 in 1930 to finance Mosley's fascist New Party , which was subsequently absorbed into the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Mosley spoke highly of Morris, once regarding Morris as his 'chief backer' and praised Morris as "a good and honest man." Following the deteriorating reputation of the British Union of Fascists, Morris ceased giving any public support to British fascists after 1932. Despite ceasing to publicly support fascism, Morris retained his subscription to anti-Semitic newspapers for many more years. In 1934, Nuffield issued
3999-444: The anti-Semitic newspaper Action , and £50,000 in 1930 to finance Mosley's fascist New Party , which was subsequently absorbed into the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Morris was also a subscriber to anti-Jewish publications, and his personal papers detailed his belief that the government of England was controlled by Jews. Despite Morris's personal political beliefs, the workers employed in his factories contributed to ushering
4092-569: The basic structure of BL and subsequently the Rover Group until the 2000 break-up. In 1986, Graham Day took the helm as chairman and CEO and the third joint Rover-Honda vehicle – the Rover 800 -series – was launched which replaced the ten-year-old Rover SD1 . Around the same time, BL changed its name to Rover Group and in 1987 the Trucks Division – Leyland Vehicles merged with the Dutch DAF company to form DAF NV , trading as Leyland DAF in
4185-501: The company's production network which meant that a strike in a single plant could stop many of the others. Domestic rivals Ford and General Motors mitigated against this by merging their previously separate British and German subsidiaries and product lines (Ford combined Ford of Britain and Ford Germany to create Ford of Europe , whilst GM eventually merged the operations of Vauxhall and Opel ), so that production could be sourced from either British or Continental European plants in
4278-405: The constant interchange of information on production methods, research, design, buying and almost every other aspect of their work. It also envisaged the pooling of factory resources. In July 1949 Morris and Austin announced the end of their scheme, no further steps would be taken to pool production resources and no merger of any kind was contemplated. "Nuffield and Austin broke off arrangements for
4371-589: The country. Although the Treasury initially opposed the idea, having concerns about his control over the design of the project and its costs, the huge "Nuffield Project" was approved at a cost of £1.125 million by the Air Secretary and Morris, now Nuffield, placed in charge of it. Within a year, with the factory still not built, the costs had increased to £4.15 million mainly due to constant changes in site layout and design. Nuffield had claimed he could produce 60 Spitfires
4464-449: The dealer networks or the production facilities of Austin and Morris . This had been done partly to appease poor industrial relations, as decades old rivalries between Austin and Morris workers at Longbridge and Cowley respectively, had persisted after the 1952 merger and creation of BMC. The upshot was that both plants were producing badge engineered models of otherwise identical Austin and Morris cars so that each dealer network would have
4557-588: The development of the Morris Marina and the Austin Allegro . The policy's success was mixed. Since the dealership network was still not sufficiently rationalised it meant that Austin and Morris dealers (which had, in BMC/BMH days, each offered a full range of cars both advanced and traditional) had their product range halved and found that they could no longer cater to many previously loyal customers' tastes. The policy
4650-564: The end of 1976 with the approval by Industry Minister Eric Varley of a £140,000,000 investment of public money in refitting the Longbridge plant for production of the company's "ADO88" (Mini replacement), due for launch in 1979. However, poor results from customer clinics of the ADO88, coupled with the UK success of the Ford Fiesta , launched in 1976, forced a snap redesign of ADO88 which evolved into
4743-562: The establishment of trade unions within Morris' factories. Following this victory, all of the organisations which supported the strike benefitted from increased support. The Labour Party saw a resurgence in Oxford, the Transport and General Workers' Union saw an increase in members, and the Communist Party of Great Britain won the support of the majority of Morris factory workers. The success of
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#17328441435504836-434: The event of industrial unrest. The upshot was that both Ford and Vauxhall ultimately overtook BL to become Britain's two best-selling marques. At the same time, a tide of Japanese imports, spearheaded by Nissan (Datsun) and Toyota exploited both BL's inability to supply its customers and its declining reputation for quality. Continental carmakers including Fiat , Renault and Volkswagen were also achieving strong sales on
4929-500: The exchange of confidential information in 1949 following the revival of long-standing hostilities between their chief executives and the Labour Party's decision not to include the industry in its plans for future nationalisation." Leonard Lord , chief of Austin, had been with Morris from 1923 to 1936, the last four years as Morris's chief executive. They had parted on extremely bad terms. The motoring correspondent of The Times said
5022-797: The first Morris Minor in 1928. The original MG Midget , launched in 1929, was based on the Minor. When major component suppliers had difficulties he purchased them on his own account. His American engines were now made under licence for him by Hotchkiss in Coventry . When in 1923 they were unwilling to expand production Morris bought their business and called it Morris Engines Limited. It would become Morris engines branch when he later sold it to Morris Motors. Again when back-axle manufacturer E. G. Wrigley and Company ran into financial difficulties he bought and reconstituted it as Morris Commercial Cars Limited to manufacture an expanded truck and bus offering. Following
5115-569: The formation of British Leyland . William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield William Richard Morris, Viscount Nuffield , (10 October 1877 – 22 August 1963), was an English motor manufacturer, philanthropist and prominent financier of the British fascist movement. He was the founder of Morris Motors Limited and is remembered as the founder of the Nuffield Foundation , the Nuffield Trust and Nuffield College, Oxford , as well as being involved in his role as President of BUPA in creating what
5208-480: The last of their separate-chassis line — except for the MG Midget TF and MGA, which latter lasted until the monocoque MG MGB of 1962. The bigger Morris and Wolseley cars shared an identical monocoque structure aft of their engine compartments and almost all mechanicals, the Minor's structure was a smaller version of the same monocoque design. However, on Friday 23 November 1951 a joint statement announced plans for
5301-665: The merger had focused on unfortunate niche market models such as the Austin Maxi (which was underdeveloped and with an appearance hampered by using the doors from the larger Austin 1800 ) and the Austin 3-litre , a car with no discernible place in the market. The lack of attention to the development of new mass-market models meant that BMH had nothing in the way of new models in the pipeline to compete effectively with popular rivals such as Ford's Escort and Cortina . Immediately, Lord Stokes instigated plans to design and introduce new models quickly. The first result of this crash programme
5394-488: The most prominent former parts of British Leyland that still exist, with SAIC still operating its UK base out of the former Longbridge site. BLMC was founded on 17 January 1968 by the merger of British Motor Holdings (BMH) and Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC), encouraged by Tony Benn as chairman of the Industrial Reorganisation Committee created by the first Wilson Government . At the time, LMC
5487-486: The new holding company, British Motor Corporation (BMC), of which Nuffield was chairman for its first year. Viscount Nuffield retired as a director of BMC on 17 December 1952 at the age of 75, taking on the title of honorary president instead. Although succeeded as chairman by Leonard Lord , as honorary president he attended his office regularly and continued to advise his colleagues. Morris married Elizabeth Anstey on 9 April 1903. They had no children, and he disbursed
5580-607: The new models that had been introduced by BLMC failed to sell in high enough quantities outside of the home market, despite the UK now being a part of the European Economic Community – with the Allegro and Princess, in particular, having been tailored for European tastes. However, both these vehicles were saloons when the trend in Europe was moving towards family-sized hatchbacks, typified by the Volkswagen Golf in 1974 and
5673-407: The newly independent MG Rover , which collapsed in 2005. However, after suffering severe financial problems and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, Ford decided to dissolve its Premier Automotive Group, and sold off most of its brands, with Jaguar and Land Rover being sold to the Indian automaker Tata Motors by the end of 2008. Ultimately only MINI, Jaguar Land Rover and Leyland Trucks would be
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#17328441435505766-437: The organisation was drastically restructured and the Labour Government created a new holding company, British Leyland Limited (BL), of which it was the major shareholder, effectively nationalising the company. Between 1975 and 1980, these shares were vested in the National Enterprise Board which had responsibility for managing this investment. The original seven divisions of the company were now reorganised into four: There
5859-442: The period 1919–1925 he built or purchased factories at Abingdon , Birmingham and Swindon to add to those in Oxford. In February 1927, in competition against—amongst others—its creator, Herbert Austin , Morris paid £730,000 for the assets of the collapsed Wolseley Motors Limited which became his personal property. Wolseley were at this stage in fairly advanced development of an overhead camshaft 8 hp car, which he launched as
5952-547: The perpetrator of much of the strikes and industrial unrest that had crippled the company throughout the decade. Edwardes quickly reversed the Ryder Report's policy of giving prominence to the "Leyland" brand, and returned focus back to the individual brands. Leyland Cars was thus renamed BL Cars Ltd , consisting of two main divisions; Austin Morris (the volume car business) and Jaguar Rover Triumph (JRT) (the specialist or upmarket division). Austin Morris included MG. Land Rover and Range Rover were later separated from JRT to form
6045-537: The policy of having multiple models competing in the same market segment continued long after the merger – for instance BMH's MGB remained in production alongside LMC's Triumph TR6 , the Rover P5 competed with the Jaguar XJ , whilst in the medium family sector, the Princess was in direct competition with upscale versions of the Morris Marina and Austin Maxi , meaning that economies of scale resulting from large production runs could never be realised. In addition, in consequent attempts to establish British Leyland as
6138-421: The previous year an almost identical number of vehicles. By an agreement between the Nuffield and Austin groups announced in November 1951 a new company was incorporated in February 1952 and named The British Motor Corporation Limited. On 29 February 1952 it offered to buy all the shares in Morris Motors Limited giving in exchange shares in BMC. Holders of the ordinary shares in either Morris or Austin received
6231-521: The project's accounts were not finally signed off by the Treasury until March 1944. As early as 1942, cracks in the brickwork of the principal building were discovered by Vickers, due to differential expansion of the various types of bricks used in the different stages of construction. Possibly as a result of this debacle, in 1941 Nuffield invited Mrs Dorothée Martin ( Dorothée Pullinger ) to join his organisation to advise him on his war work. Morris Motors Limited merged with Austin Motor Company in 1952 in
6324-420: The remaining independent British car manufacturing companies and included car, bus and truck manufacturers and more diverse enterprises including: construction equipment, refrigerators, metal casting companies, road surface manufacturers; in all, nearly one hundred different companies. The new corporation was arranged into seven divisions under its new chairman, Sir Donald Stokes (formerly the chairman of LMC). At
6417-552: The result that when the two conglomerates were brought together into BL there was even more internal competition. Rover competed with Jaguar at the expensive end of the market, and Triumph with its family cars and sports cars against Austin, Morris and MG. Internal politics became so bad that one marque's team would attempt to derail another marque's programmes. Individual model lines that were similarly sized were therefore competing against each other, yet were never discontinued nor were model ranges rationalised quickly enough; in fact,
6510-425: The same number of new ordinary shares in BMC. Holders of preferred shares , because of the four different classes in Austin's capital received various apportionments of new 5% cumulative preference shares related to their market valuations. If BMC's offer had been accepted in full the capital of BMC would have been £9.2 million in preference shares with £4.8 million in ordinary shares. The effective date for exchange of
6603-415: The same policy he bought the manufacturer of SU Carburettors in 1926. Impressed by American all-steel bodies he persuaded Edward G Budd of Budd Corporation to enter a joint venture with him called Pressed Steel Company which erected their large factory at Cowley opposite Morris's own and with a connecting bridge in 1926. At that point the two business tycoons had each met their match. Eventually in 1930
6696-487: The shares was to be 31 March 1952. On 10 April 1952 it was announced that sufficient acceptances had been received to satisfy the conditions of the offer of 29 February. The first published balance sheet of BMC, 31 July 1952 showed: On 8 September 1952 the British Motor Corporation advertised that it included: as well as: The Nuffield Organization and its members retained their individual identities until
6789-645: The strike at Morris' also led to communist political beliefs gaining more widespread acceptance across Oxford. The Supermarine Spitfire was a technically advanced aircraft. Though ordered by the Air Ministry in March 1936 by early 1938 no single plane had been made. Lord Nuffield had offered his own expertise, and that of his Morris Organization , to design and construct a vast new factory at Castle Bromwich , to his own ideas of industrial planning, claiming he would build four times as many planes there as any other factory in
6882-513: The strike, the Communist Party of Great Britain sent the striking workers an experienced trades union activist and strike leader called Abraham Lazarus (aka Firestone Bill), who would later become a key political figure among Oxford's working classes. Before the strike there was very little trade union activity in Morris' factories. On the 11th day of the strike the managers gave way and Morris' factories agreed to increase wages and to permit
6975-523: The surviving automotive manufacturing operations of British Leyland to the present day. Many of the brands were divested over time and continue to exist on the books of several companies to this day. In total, the British Government had invested over £3 billion (not adjusted for inflation) attempting to rescue British Leyland from bankruptcy. Until the 1980s, the Leyland name and logo were seen as
7068-481: The technical know-how and the rights to their Leyland 28 BHP tractor for Auto Tractors Limited , a tractor plant in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh. Established in 1981 with state support, ATL only managed to build 2,380 tractors by the time the project was ended in 1990 – less than the planned production for the first two years. The project ended up being taken over by Sipani , who kept producing tractor engines and also
7161-589: The time of its founding, BLMC was the world's fifth largest vehicle manufacturer after General Motors , Ford , Chrysler and Volkswagen . The seven divisions were: While BMH was the UK's largest car manufacturer (producing over twice as many cars as LMC), it offered a range of dated vehicles, including the Morris Minor which was introduced in 1948 and the Austin Cambridge and Morris Oxford , which dated back to 1959. Although BMH had enjoyed great success in
7254-425: The two concerns were fundamentally different in their structure. The Nuffield Organization under the control of Morris Motors made three Morris models with Wolseley (two), Riley (two), MG (two) as well as Morris Commercial trucks, Nuffield Universal tractors and marine engines. The main factory was at Cowley, Oxford , there were more at Birmingham , Coventry and Abingdon . The Austin business, Austin of England ,
7347-535: Was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd ( BLMC ), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings . It was partly nationalised in 1975, when the UK government created a holding company called British Leyland, later renamed BL in 1978. It incorporated much of the British-owned motor vehicle industry, which in 1968 had
7440-494: Was a highly successful truck and bus manufacturer – as well as owning prosperous car brands Triumph and Rover – whilst BMH (which was the product of an earlier merger between the British Motor Corporation , Pressed Steel and Jaguar) was perilously close to collapse. The government was hopeful LMC's expertise would revive the ailing BMH, and effectively create a "British General Motors ". The merger combined most of
7533-623: Was a subscriber to the Duke of Northumberland 's anti-Jewish newspaper The Patriot . According to Renton, William Morris's personal papers contain several anti-Semitic and pro-fascist comments, including one example which says: 'it is a well-known fact that every government in my England is Jew controlled regardless of the Party in power.' Despite Morris's personal political beliefs, the workers employed in his factories that organised against their low pay and harsh working conditions would contribute to ushering
7626-479: Was also carried out haphazardly: The advanced, Hydragas -sprung Princess began life in 1975 sold as an Austin, a Morris and a Wolseley before being rebadged altogether under the new Princess name. The Princess (and the Mini , which BL also turned into a marque in its own right) was sold across the Austin-Morris dealership network, making any distinction between the two even more vague to many customers. Critically,
7719-651: Was champion of Oxford (City and County), Berkshire and Buckinghamshire for distances varying between one and fifty miles. He began to work with motorcycles in 1901, designing the Morris Motor Cycle, and in 1902 acquired buildings in Longwall Street from which he repaired bicycles; operated a taxi service; and sold, repaired and hired-out cars. He held the agency for Arrol-Johnston , Belsize , Humber , Hupmobile , Singer , Standard and Wolseley cars. In 1910 he built new premises in Longwall Street , described by
7812-478: Was dropped from the Metro, Maestro and Montego by 1988, signalling the end for the historic Austin marque, in a push to focus on the more prestigious (and potentially more profitable) Rover badge. In 1988, the business was sold by the UK Government to British Aerospace (BAe), and shortly afterwards shortened its name to just Rover Group. It subsequently sold the business to BMW , who, after years of investment that ultimately resulted in huge losses, decided to break up
7905-419: Was highly concentrated both in its huge Longbridge factory at Birmingham and in its products: six Austin car models, Austin trucks and marine engines and battery electric vehicles. The nine different cars made by Nuffield using six engines and five (and a half) car bodies of which the "specialist" three were obsolescent, the rest very closely related if not identical. The specialist MGs and Rileys were to be
7998-463: Was later expanded in use when the car manufacturing operations were further consolidated into the Austin Rover Group in the 1980s. In 1978, the company was the subject of an important legal development concerning corporate civil liability . In the case of Walton v British Leyland , the court held Leyland liable for negligence owing to a design defect in the wheel bearings of their new model of
8091-645: Was led by Ray Horrocks ) and the Commercial Vehicle Division (which consisted of Land Rover, Leyland Trucks, Leyland Buses and Freight Rover ) – whose chief executive was David Andrews. The holding company BL plc was now chaired by Austin Bide in a non-executive capacity. Around this time, the BL Cars Ltd division renamed itself Austin Rover , shortly before the launch of the Austin Maestro and Ray Horrocks
8184-470: Was marked with frequent attempts of industrial action protesting against the low pay and poor working conditions in Morris's factories. The first successful strike in a Morris factory was achieved in 1934, led by Communist Party activist Abe Lazarus with support from local Labour Party activists. William Morris was politically anti-union , anti-Semitic , and a key financier of Sir Oswald Mosley and British fascism. Morris gave Mosley £35,000 to fund
8277-703: Was passed to the National Trust and is open to the public on a regular basis. He is also commemorated in the Morris Motors Museum at the Oxford Bus Museum . Morris also has a building named after him at Coventry University , at Guy's Hospital , London and a theatre at the University of Southampton . The Lady Nuffield Care Home in North Oxford is named after his wife. His home in James Street now has
8370-509: Was positive news for BL at the end of 1976 when its new Rover SD1 executive car was voted European Car of the Year , having gained plaudits for its innovative design. The SD1 was actually the first step that British Leyland took towards rationalising its passenger car ranges, as it replaced two cars competing in the same sector, the Rover P6 and Triumph 2000 . More positive news for the company came at
8463-480: Was replaced by Harold Musgrove as its chairman and chief executive. The emergence of the Austin Rover brand effectively put an end to the separate Austin-Morris and Jaguar-Rover-Triumph divisions, since by this time, Jaguar now resided in a separate company called Jaguar Car Holdings and was now led by Sir John Egan , and this was later de-merged from BL completely and privatised in 1984. That same year, with both
8556-688: Was still producing three cars in the large family car sector—the Princess 2 , Austin Maxi and Morris Marina . The Marina was succeeded by the Morris Ital in July 1980 following a superficial facelift, and a year later the Princess 2 received a major upgrade to become the Austin Ambassador , meaning that the 1982 range had just two competitors in this sector. In April 1984, these cars were discontinued to make way for
8649-441: Was the Morris Marina in early-1971. It used parts from various BL models with new bodywork to produce BL's mass-market competitor. It was one of the strongest-selling cars in the United Kingdom during the 1970s; being the second-most popular new car sold in Britain in 1973, though by the end of production in 1980 it was widely regarded as a dismal product that had damaged the company's reputation. The Austin Allegro (replacement for
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