- ^ a b "1994: MPs condemn sale of Rover". BBC News. BBC. 1 February 1994. Retrieved 2008-03-19.
- ^ BBC News
- ^ The Page Turner (16 January 2008). "Armed gang raid cafe". Oxford Mail. Newsquest Oxfordshire. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
Plant Oxford located in Cowley, Oxford, is the central assembly facility for the MINI range of cars. The plant forms the Mini production triangle along with Plant Hams Hall where engines are manufactured and Plant Swindon where body pressings and sub-assemblies are built.
In 1912, William Morris bought the former Oxford Military College in Cowley, Oxford. Moving his company into the new site, from 1914 onwards Morris pioneered Henry Ford-style mass production in the UK, by building what became affectionately known as "the old tin shed." To facilitate more efficient production, the Great Western Railway opened Morris Cowley railway station to serve the thousands of workers commuting to the factory. In 1933, they built a railway goods yard beside the line to bring supplies into the factory and take completed vehicles away. This railway yard still exists today and serves the current vehicle-manufacturing plant, though the railway to High Wycombe and beyond has long been lifted.
As Cowley expanded into a huge industrial centre, it attracted workers during the Great Depression looking for work. This resulted in the need for new housing, including from the 1920s Florence Park, built mainly by private landlords. Like many contemporary industrialists of the time, Morris wanted to provide for the whole life of its workers, and so developed the Morris Motors Athletic & Social Club on Crescent Road, which still exists today.
Approached in 1935 by the Air Ministry about the factories ability to change to aircraft industry production, additional capacity was built into the factory through the shadow factory scheme from 1937. During World War II the factory produced the de Havilland Tiger Moth training aeroplane. Also developed on site was the No 1 Metal and Produce Recovery Depot run by the Civilian Repair Organisation, to handle crashed or damaged aircraft, and even the processing of wreckage from enemy Luftwaffe aircraft. Artist Paul Nash was inspired to paint Totes Meer based on sketches he made of the recovery depot.
Despite successive company mergers and name changes, "Morris's" is still often used as the name of the car factory to this day:
By the early 1970s, over 20,000 people worked in Cowley at the vast British Leyland and Pressed Steel Fisher plants. After re-organisation, PSF became part of the reorganised Austin Rover, while parts Unipart was floated of in a management-buyout, but still has its global headquarters next to the Morris plant. Like the rest of the company at this point, industrial action was high as successive management teams tried unsuccessfully to drive through reform of the British Motor manufacturing industry. The local workers became well known for not accepting wage cuts, union-busting, with national trade union militants including local Alan Thornett.
The Morris marque abandoned in 1984, when production of the Longbridge-built Morris Ital finished. By this time Cowley was producing the Austin Maestro and Montego, which continued in production until 1994. The plant then took over total production of the Rover 600 and 800.
Having been owned by British Aerospace, latterly in co-operation with Honda, on 31 January 1994, BAe announced sale of its 80% majority share of Rover Group to BMW.[1] On 21 February, Honda announced it was selling its 20% share of Rover Group, resulting in problems in Rover's supply chain which was highly reliant on Honda.[1]
These models were replaced by the Rover 75 in late 1998. The car factory is known today as Plant Oxford and is now owned by BMW and has been extensively redeveloped. It remains the largest industrial employer in Oxfordshire employing more than 4,300 people.[2] It was the original base of Morris cars when the marque was founded in 1912, and production continued at the factory until 1982, although
BMW broke up the Rover Group in 2000 and Rover 75 production moved to Longbridge, while BMW retained ownership of the Cowley plant to build the all-new MINI that was launched in the spring of 2001. It has been the best selling car to be built at the plant since the Maestro and Montego in the 1980s.
The business park has attracted a large David Lloyd fitness centre and offices of numerous companies including the European headquarters of Harley-Davidson Motorcycles and the headquarters of international aid charity Oxfam GB.
Until 2009 on Watlington Road, opposite the MINI factory, stood Johnson's Café, which fed thousands of Morris Motors workers in the past. It was founded decades ago by Len Johnson and until its final day its interior was decorated with bold murals of early speedway stars. Len's son Joe Johnson was an international motocross star in the 1960s until he settled down to take over the family café. The café remained in the family to the end under Len's grandson Bob Johnson. This cafe suffered an armed robbery on 16 January 2008[3] and closed in 2009. The building is now occupied by Oxford Spin & Fitness centre.
