Making Cars At Longbridge - The Shaping Of A Community

Making Cars At Longbridge

What makes a car factory tick? How many people worked there in its heyday? What were its most famous cars? How many football pitches did it cover? How many meals a year did it produce? Discover some fascinating facts about one of the British motor industry's most famous names.

Longbridge was one of the oldest and longest surviving car factories in Britain. Founded in 1905 in agricultural countryside eight miles from Birmingham, it closed just a few weeks short of its 100th birthday. In that time it went through many changes - from 'The Austin' to the British Motor Corporation, from British Leyland through to its final incarnation as MG Rover. Drawing on our extensive Longbridge Archive, ten picture boards tell the story of the people, the buildings and the cars. A film compilation begins in the aeroplane assembly halls of World War One and ends with the groundbreaking robots of the Metro body-assembly line in 1980. The last Rover 75 is also here, with a special banner illustrating its progress through the Car Assembly Building during the summer of 2005 to become the last car off the line in the era of British mass-production at Longbridge.