17 replies to this topic

[njathind]

Just been rooting around the tinternet and looking up the old austin/rover/mg/bl/bmc longbridge factory and found this

Old aerial photos of longbridge

Bloody hell I'm really surprised at how big it actually was. I hope that tata surrender the rover name so it can be given back to "rowee" models and then have them re-badged as rovers.

Such a shame to see stuff like this, if only managment got things right

[joe90gt]

It was the same for a lot of british engineering companies and why the bike industry went down the pan early on - we just didn't respond to competition because we were still in the dark ages thinking we were the best in the world and no pip squeak asian country would be better than us..........., investment, innovation and a management who could see beyond their own pension scheme (and a supportive govt) would have meant a hard fight but we could have still been a major player, just look at Nissan in sunderland and Honda in Swindon - those are British workers screwing those cars together, competing with cheap labour in china and still coming out on top.
JCB is a prime example of how to do it right - I blame thatcher (and nutters like red robbo) for most of the decline - seems like they wanted it to fall apart

[project mini chris]

Cowley pics:


Pre WW2:


Notice the speedway track to the bottom right then look above that, the early buildings of Morris Motors, by the 1980's, the fields towards the middle of the page were all BL factories, Rover to the Far left, and Austin-Morris in the centre.

Start of bmw (c.2001) :


Now notice the speedway track down the bottom

Edited by project mini chris, 05 August 2010 - 02:26 PM.

[njathind]

It is a shame that the industry has gone down the pan, but MG's are being built back at longbridge, the replacement tf and soon the mg6 and possibly their new concept hatchback, it's just a little annoying that they dont start building or at least selling the mg 7 at longbridge, oh well hopefully the longbridge site will soon be full of factorys again and a strong british car manufacturer is back, all be it chinese owned.

It was the same for a lot of british engineering companies and why the bike industry went down the pan early on - we just didn't respond to competition because we were still in the dark ages thinking we were the best in the world and no pip squeak asian country would be better than us..........., investment, innovation and a management who could see beyond their own pension scheme (and a supportive govt) would have meant a hard fight but we could have still been a major player, just look at Nissan in sunderland and Honda in Swindon - those are British workers screwing those cars together, competing with cheap labour in china and still coming out on top.
JCB is a prime example of how to do it right - I blame thatcher (and nutters like red robbo) for most of the decline - seems like they wanted it to fall apart

[njathind]

Some interesting photos, LETS KEEP THEM COMING PEOPLE

Cowley pics:


Pre WW2:


Notice the speedway track to the bottom right then look above that, the early buildings of Morris Motors, by the 1980's, the fields towards the middle of the page were all BL factories, Rover to the Far left, and Austin-Morris in the centre.

Start of bmw (c.2001) :


Now notice the speedway track down the bottom

Edited by njathind, 05 August 2010 - 02:46 PM.

[Redbaron6969uk]

This makes my heart sink..............hard to believe its gone.

My company have told me I can have the BMW 320 m sport and I cant do it.........nice car but I still can't forgive them.

[TimmyG]

Check out how big Port Talbot steel works still is! 6 miles by 2miles!


http://maps.google.c...r...mp;t=h&z=13

And then check out the roof of my mini (metallic blue) in the powerplant car park!

http://maps.google.c...r...mp;t=h&z=20

Edited by TimmyG, 05 August 2010 - 05:52 PM.

[njathind]

BLOODY HELL, so much for maggie thatcher stamping out britains mining industrie, that place is bloody massive.

Check out how big Port Talbot steel works still is! 6 miles by 2miles!


http://maps.google.c...r...mp;t=h&z=13

And then check out the roof of my mini (metallic blue) in the powerplant car park!

http://maps.google.c...r...mp;t=h&z=20

[mab01uk]

Quote:
"During the end of February 2007 Michael Scott of Photo Addiction visited the Longbridge plant to get an idea of the current state of the place. It must be stressed that although official entry was not used, he, and many others that visit the site just want to look and will take nothing, leave nothing and damage nothing. The result of Michael’s visits are some absolutely stunning photographs of the state of the plant now."
These have been posted before but there are some interesting pictures inside Longbridge including the tunnels, taken a while back in 2007 by 'Urban Explorers"
Links:
http://www.28dayslat...ight=longbridge

http://www.28dayslat...read.php?t=9321

How it happened............
BMW had poured money into Rover to develop the desperately needed new models like the Rover 75 and new MINI to secure the long term future of Rover, that previous British owners like BAE had failed to finance or invest in. BAe had bought state owned Rover for £150 million from the goverment in 1988 then asset stripped the properties and sold off factory sites and large chunks of the Cowley Oxford plant for property development for their own gain before selling what was left of Rover and its outdated range of cars to BMW in 1994 for £800 million cash making a further vast profit for BAe in the process.................

The brand new MINI production line financed by BMW had actually been fully installed and tested by Rover engineers at Longbridge in 1999/2000 and was making the first bodyshells, when the change of plan came and the major job of swapping MINI from Longbridge and Rover 75 from Cowley Oxford started. The entire body in white facility and assembly line for the MINI had to be moved 70 miles south while the entire Rover 75 facilities moved 70 miles north. It took 9 months, cost £230 million and delayed the launch of the MINI into showrooms until 2001.
The first 15-20 pre-production MINI's were all built at Longbridge. The book New MINI by Graham Robson has the full fascinating story and the reasons behind what happened all in detail.

BMW had bit of far more than they could chew (in world car company terms they are actually a small company) and left too much of Rover under control of bad British management and then started to haemorrhage money which threatened to bring down the previously profitable BMW Group with it. BMW eventually sold Rover in March 2000 for just £10 to John Towers British management Phoenix team with £500 million pounds as a goodwill gift and the 4 British directors spent the last 5 years of MG-Rover trying to sell out to the Chinese and lining their own pockets for their own short term personal gains..............as was proved in the recent inquiry, needless to say they are all now rich men living in luxury mansions never needing to work again!
http://news.bbc.co.u...ess/4574603.stm

[njathind]

You couldn't have hit the nail on the head any better, besides if bmw had sold to the other bidder who planed to ax jobs and scale down production AS WAS NEEDED then I do believe we may still have rover here in one form or another, I do appreciat that the failur can not be pin pointed down to one single decision but I do believe to sell to the pheonix consortium was the final nail in the coffin, and if only the new mini had been made by mg rover group then I do believe that model alone could have kept the company going a little longer which would have resulted in more money comming into rover and therfore having more time to put their concepts into production and for them the kill off their aging model range. I can tell you know though if the MG-7 coupe gets put into production and they make it in right hand drive then I am importing one no matter what.

Quote:

How it happened............
BMW had poured money into Rover to develop the desperately needed new models like the Rover 75 and new MINI to secure the long term future of Rover, that previous British owners like BAE had failed to finance or invest in. BAe had bought state owned Rover for £150 million from the goverment in 1988 then asset stripped the properties and sold off factory sites and large chunks of the Cowley Oxford plant for property development for their own gain before selling what was left of Rover and its outdated range of cars to BMW in 1994 for £800 million cash making a further vast profit for BAe in the process.................

The brand new MINI production line financed by BMW had actually been fully installed and tested by Rover engineers at Longbridge in 1999/2000 and was making the first bodyshells, when the change of plan came and the major job of swapping MINI from Longbridge and Rover 75 from Cowley Oxford started. The entire body in white facility and assembly line for the MINI had to be moved 70 miles south while the entire Rover 75 facilities moved 70 miles north. It took 9 months, cost £230 million and delayed the launch of the MINI into showrooms until 2001.
The first 15-20 pre-production MINI's were all built at Longbridge. The book New MINI by Graham Robson has the full fascinating story and the reasons behind what happened all in detail.

BMW had bit of far more than they could chew (in world car company terms they are actually a small company) and left too much of Rover under control of bad British management and then started to haemorrhage money which threatened to bring down the previously profitable BMW Group with it. BMW eventually sold Rover in March 2000 for just £10 to John Towers British management Phoenix team with £500 million pounds as a goodwill gift and the 4 British directors spent the last 5 years of MG-Rover trying to sell out to the Chinese and lining their own pockets for their own short term personal gains..............as was proved in the recent inquiry, needless to say they are all now rich men living in luxury mansions never needing to work again!
http://news.bbc.co.u...ess/4574603.stm

[Redbaron6969uk]

I blame Maggie for selling British Aerospace in the first place really.
I still cant bring myself to have a Beema though...............but to keep all fair and above board...............
I won't buy an Airbus either....lol

[chrisb12]

Interesting pictures.

[Bean]

Old aerial photos of longbridge

I can see a Mini!

[mikeb 16v]

i went to longbridge as an apprentice for the day and got shown around the place , it was massive and was told that you could have fitted wembley stadium into the site 26 times , its sad to think that its gone

[Bungle]

when we went to the IMM last year it seemed most of it was flattened and now sold off for building plots