Britain’s Rootes Group had a very different infrastructure compared to many other manufacturers. The company’s key assembly plant was at Ryton, just outside Coventry; engines were built in Coventry itself; spares distribution was from the old Singer works in Birmingham; there was assembly and casting for the Hillman Imp in Scotland in the 1960s and steel pressing, some body assembly and luxury trim and finish in west London, through British Light Steel Pressings (BLSPL) and the old Thrupp and Maberley works in Acton. But Ryton had no pressing facility, and the group was dependent upon a complex supply chain for much of its steel pressing and body assembly, notably through Pressed Steel based at Cowley in Oxford and BLSPL.
All this led to a complex network of vehicle and train movements. I hesitate to describe these trucks as transporters, as the bodies are clearly just that, and stacked on stillage units loaded on a prepared flat bed truck. Date wise, we’re looking at 1958, based on the grilles being Minx Series III, but given the variety of grilles Hillman used and minor tweaks that occurred, I may be a year out. These Hillman Minx convertibles will be travelling to BLSPL Acton, for final assembly with the drivetrain and interior, after being pressed, assembled and painted at Pressed Steel.
Meanwhile, this load of Minx saloons and Husky hatchbacks(?) will be travelling from Oxford to Coventry for final assembly.
Here we have a batch of Humber Hawk and Super Snipe bodyshells, moving from Acton to Coventry, for paint and assembly. In each case, the truck is a Rootes built Commer.
In 1965, BMC bought put Pressed Steel and merged it with Fisher and Ludlow to create Pressed Steel Fisher. BMC then broke up PSF, effectively forcing Rootes to buy the Scottish plant that built the unfinished Hillman Imp and take on all the Rootes work from Cowley. This all contributed to Rootes’s existing need to find a strong partner, in Chrysler, and was a factor in the company’s ultimate fate.
My only knowledge of Pressed Steel is they were contracted to provide the first series of P1800 bodies for Volvo, as the Swedes lacked the production capacity. But apparently that was at a Pressed Steel factory in Scotland, where the QC was so awful that Volvo ended the contract early and took the financial hit.
Exactly, the quality of the bodies from Pressed Steel in Linwood was not good. These bodies got to Jensen who built up the P1800 for the first years.
Jensen is often quoted as the one that delivered bad quality. But it was the amount of work needed by Jensen to be done to correct the bodies that eventually caused the contract with Volvo to be broken.
Pressed Steel Linwood also built the bodies for the Hillman Imp (which had its factory also in Linwood).
Thanks for making it clear as Jensen has always been blamed for Volvo cancelling the contract and go in-house for years. Linwood went on to assemble the Ford Escort…. Say no more
Seeing the 4-door sedans on that setup is what brings it home. Contracting out and trucking bodies for convertibles, wagons and other relatively low-volume models was common throughout the auto industry all over the world back then, but the core sedans were almost always stamped at the home plant. Almost.
As an aside, what gives with the “missing” 2-door post sedan in the Audax series? They did just about every other body style – 2 and 4 door wagons, 4 door sedan, 2 door hardtop coupe, convertible, even a panel van.
Given Britain never had a taste for midsize or larger 2-door models it would’ve made most sense as a short wheelbase car, a stopgap while the Imp was being developed.
Yep. The UK market considered a two door large car wasteful and impractical hence whilst you could buy a two door Granada in Europe you could only get two doors in the top of the range Ghia Coupe . A collector car today.
Nothing to do with cars, but the mention of the Singer; of course most people probably know them for sewing machines, fewer for cars, but for all 4 of my undergraduate years I relied on a Friden calculator for my work..the wiki on Friden mentions calculator with RPN notation, but the one I owned was algebraic. Friden apparently was owned by Singer too.
Singer Cars was a British company and a totally separate business to Singer sewing machines. Singer cars were bought out by Rootes in 1956, and badge engineered for the domestic market between the basic Hillman, sports Sunbeam and luxury Humber
Interesting. I didn’t know that BLSP did any assembly. Of course, the Imp was only made in Scotland because of government planning; hadn’t Rootes wanted to expand in Coventry instead? What a mess.
BMC’s purchase of Pressed Steel also screwed Standard-Triumph, didn’t it? If ever there was a case for antitrust….
Wow, that just seems inefficient. Once you get yourself into a situation like this as a business, it’s just a matter of time before things go south, I guess. Great pictures though!
More Rootes vehicles, a bit more varied and with series II grilles so ’57-’58, in transit. The tractor is a British Road Services vehicle, though still a Commer (from a British Transport Commision booklet “Freight Transport”).
Great shots, the first one is a scene I’d like to step into.
At least these Minxes are painted, I recall reading about some bodies (Volvo P1800 or Jensen Interceptor??) that were shipped unpainted, and if it was raining that day the factory received pre-rusted bodies.
Not very different from what was going on at Hudson and Nash, as we’ve documented here a number of times. But maybe these Rootes trips were longer distance.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/car-carriers/vintage-car-carriers-federals-hauling-hudson-bodies-already-painted/
Clearly, yes similar. Indeed, I was prompted to post these by your posts of Detroit’s transporters.
Distance wise, Acton to Coventry is a bit under 100 miles; Oxford (Cowley) is perhaps half that.
So was there a steady trudge of lorries carrying half bult cars through the Cotswolds every day? 8 bodies wouldn’t keep a car factory going for long.
Most Cowley-Oxford transfer was by rail – these must be extras or adapting to a rail strike or similar
Sadly no hatchback for the Husky wagon or Cob van just a side swung door, the Minx wagon got a split tailgate, I miss my 3A Audax car though its replacement is a much nicer car, which being English assembled must have gone through this process or the newer version being a 66 built car
Those trucks would have probably had the TS3 ‘knocker” diesel engines, the screaming 2 stroke nobody really misses.
For ZWEP – Friden Calculator? Oh what noise those machines made! And how they moved from level to level calculating. Fun memories. As for the English auto, oh, dear!
so that grey-blue colo(u)r was pretty popular, then, was it?
😉
Rootes also used rail to connect their Coventry and Linwood plants. By the late ’60s basic shells were transported Southwards on double decked pallets and container trains ran both directions: panels, sub-assemblies and gearboxes Southwards, engines and transmission units Northwards. The British Dodge in the photo might be recognised from the long-lived Matchbox cattle truck model.
Ford also used rail to transport complete bodyshells (for the Corsair) between Dagenham and Halewood (now the Jaguar Land Rover plant).
Great pictures of those Commer lorries.
Not sure they used the 3 storey Commers in the UK?
Ahhh, Fisher and Ludlow. I remember seeing the logo on various stamped steel bodies for British cars, but instead of being marked Fisher and Ludlow, they were marked “Fisholow”. I always wondered who made the decision to call the company product by the rather odd name of Fisholow?
Here is a photo of a blank Fisholow body number ID plate