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Solihull Plant
Solihull plant is a car manufacturing factory in Lode Lane, Lode Heath, Solihull, UK, owned by Jaguar Land Rover. The plant sits on a 300-acre (121-hectare) site and employs over 9,000 people in manufacturing. Shadow factory: 1936–1945 Originally two farms, Wharhall and Fordrove, were purchased in 1936 by the British Government on which to build a shadow factory in preparation for any potential war with Nazi Germany. Construction was started almost immediately, with the factory complete as a shell and placed in mothballs in late 1938. At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the factory was allocated to the Coventry-based Rover Company, who were assigned the task to build Bristol Hercules engines. Named No.2 Solihull, after starting fitting out initial production was undertaken in Acocks Green, with machined parts supplied from Drakelow. Rover took possession of the fitted-out factory in January 1940, and produced the first Rover-built Hercules engine in October 1940 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solihull
Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe in the Forest of Arden area. Solihull's wider borough had a population of 216,240 at the 2021 Census. Solihull itself is mostly urban; however, the larger borough is rural in character, with many outlying villages, and three quarters of the borough is designated as green belt. The town and its borough, which has been part of Warwickshire for most of its history, has roots dating back to the 1st century BC, and was further formally established during the medieval era. Today the town is famed as, amongst other things, the birthplace of the Land Rover car marque, the home of the British equestrian eventing team and is considered to be one of the most prosperous areas in the UK. History Toponymy Solihull's name is commonly thought to have deri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bristol Hercules
The Bristol Hercules is a 14-cylinder two-row radial aircraft engine designed by Sir Roy Fedden and produced by the Bristol Engine Company starting in 1939. It was the most numerous of their single sleeve valve ( Burt-McCollum, or Argyll, type) designs, powering many aircraft in the mid-World War II timeframe. The Hercules powered a number of aircraft types, including Bristol's own Beaufighter heavy fighter design, although it was more commonly used on bombers. The Hercules also saw use in civilian designs, culminating in the 735 and 737 engines for such as the Handley Page Hastings C1 and C3 and Bristol Freighter. The design was also licensed for production in France by SNECMA. Design and development Shortly after the end of World War I, the Shell company, Asiatic Petroleum, commissioned Harry Ricardo to investigate problems of fuel and engines. His book was published in 1923 as “The Internal Combustion Engine”. Ricardo postulated that the days of the poppet valve were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Motor Holdings
British Motor Holdings Limited (BMH) was a British vehicle manufacturing company known until 14 December 1966 as British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC). BMH was created as a holding company following BMC's takeover of both Jaguar Cars and the Pressed Steel Company in that year. Thirteen months later, on 17 January 1968, under direct pressure from its national government, BMH merged with Leyland Motor Corporation (Standard-Triumph, Rover and Alvis cars, Leyland trucks and buses, Alvis fighting vehicles) to form British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC). History 1964 The Wilson government takes control The Wilson Labour Government (1964–1970) came to power at a time when British manufacturing industry was in decline and decided that the remedy was to promote more mergers, particularly in the motor industry. Chrysler was already buying into the Rootes Group, Leyland Motors had acquired Standard Triumph in 1961 (and would buy Rover in 1967) and had become a major automotive f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leyland Motors
Leyland Motors Limited (later known as the Leyland Motor Corporation) was a British vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 and 1967, respectively. It gave its name to the British Leyland Motor Corporation, formed when it merged with British Motor Holdings in 1968, to become British Leyland after being nationalised. British Leyland later changed its name to simply BL, then in 1986 to Rover Group. After the various vehicle manufacturing businesses of BL and its successors went defunct or were divested, the following marques survived: Jaguar and Land Rover, now built by Jaguar Land Rover owned by TATA Motors; MG, now built by MG Motor, and Mini, now built by BMW. The truck building operation survived largely intact as Leyland Trucks, a subsidiary of Paccar. History Beginning Leyland Motors has a long history dating from 1896, when the Sumner and Spurrier fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rover P6
The Rover P6 series (named as the 2000, 2200, or 3500, depending on engine displacement) was a saloon car produced by Rover and subsequently British Leyland from 1963 to 1977 in Solihull, Warwickshire, England, UK. The P6 was the first winner of the European Car of the Year award. Development The P6 was announced on 9 October 1963, just before the Earls Court Motor Show. The vehicle was marketed first as the Rover 2000 and was a complete "clean sheet" design intended to appeal to a larger number of buyers than earlier models such as the P4 it replaced. Rover had identified a developing market between the standard '1.5-litre' saloon car class (such as the Ford Consul and the Singer Gazelle) and the accepted 'three-litre' large saloon cars (typified by the Wolseley 6/99 and the Vauxhall Cresta). Younger and increasingly affluent professional workers and executives were seeking out cars that were superior to the normal 1.5-litre models in style, design and luxury but which offer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rover P4
The Rover P4 series is a group of mid-size luxury saloon cars produced by the Rover Company from 1949 until 1964. They were designed by Gordon Bashford. Their P4 designation is factory terminology for this group of cars and was not in day-to-day use by ordinary owners who would have used the appropriate consumer designations for their models such as Rover 90 or Rover 100. Production began in 1949 with the 6-cylinder 2.1-litre Rover 75. Four years later a 2-litre 4-cylinder Rover 60 was brought to the market to fit below the 75 and a 2.6-litre 6-cylinder Rover 90 to top the three-car range. Several variations followed. These cars are very much part of British culture and became known as the 'Auntie' Rovers. They were driven by royalty including Grace Kelly and King Hussein of Jordan whose first ever car was a 1952 75. The P4 series was supplemented in September 1958 by a new conservatively shaped Rover 3-litre P5 but the P4 series stayed in production until 1964 and their rep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heritage Motor Centre
The British Motor Museum in Warwickshire, England holds the world's largest collection of historic British cars, with over 300 cars on display from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust and the Jaguar Heritage Trust. History The creation of the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BL) in 1968 saw the bringing together of multiple motor vehicle companies and marques (Austin, Jaguar, Morris, MG, Riley, Rover, Standard Triumph, and Wolseley). With many of the companies having their own collections of historic vehicles, in 1975 a centralised ''Leyland Historic Vehicles'' department was created to manage these. As the collection got ever larger, in 1983 BL created charitable trusts to ensure that these important collections, not only of vehicles, but of company archives too, would be preserved for the nation. The ''British Motor Industry Heritage Trust'' (BMIHT) was created, and under its umbrella, so were the ''Austin Rover Group Heritage Trust'' and the ''Jaguar Daimler Herita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longbridge Plant
Longbridge plant is an industrial complex in Longbridge, Birmingham, England, currently leased by SAIC as a research and development facility for its MG Motor subsidiary. Vehicle assembly ended in 2016. Opened in 1905, by the late 1960s Longbridge employed around 25,000 workers, building cars including the original Mini. In the Second World War, the main plant produced munitions and tank parts, while the nearby East Works of Austin Aero Ltd at Cofton Hackett produced Short Stirling and Hawker Hurricane aircraft. Since the collapse of MG Rover in 2005, part of the site has been redeveloped for commercial and residential use. History of Longbridge car industry Foundation White and Pike: 1895–1901 The original site and factory development was undertaken by Birmingham-based copper-plate printers White and Pike Ltd. Looking to consolidate a number of small sites around Birmingham, and diversify into new areas, they chose a series of 20 agricultural fields in Northfield eigh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cofton Hackett
Cofton Hackett is a village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove District of north east Worcestershire, England. It is southwest of the city centre of Birmingham and northeast of Worcester. In 2011, the village had a population of 1,893 but with housing development on the former Austin Rover site, this is expected to double over the five years to 2023. The village is served by two main bus services, these being the 20 (Cofton Hackett – Queen Elizabeth Hospital) and 145/145A (Longbridge – Droitwich) operated by National Express and Diamond Bus respectively. History Early history Cofton Hackett is an ancient settlement mentioned in historical documents dating back to 780 AD. ''Coſtune'' (Costune) was among places granted by King Offa to the minster of St Peter, Bredon in 780. The bounds for this estate probably covered the parishes of Alvechurch and Cofton. The spelling of the name has varied over the centuries: for many centuries, the usual spelling was Coston. Howeve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Austin Motors
The Austin Motor Company Limited was an English manufacturer of motor vehicles, founded in 1905 by Herbert Austin in Longbridge. In 1952 it was merged with Morris Motors Limited in the new holding company British Motor Corporation (BMC) Limited, keeping its separate identity. The marque Austin was used until 1987. The trademark is currently owned by the Chinese firm SAIC Motor, after being transferred from bankrupt subsidiary Nanjing Automotive which had acquired it with MG Rover Group in July 2005. History 1905–1918: Formation and development While running the original Wolseley business, which had a highly cyclical sales pattern, Herbert Austin searched for products with a steady demand. Starting in 1895, he built three cars in his free time. They were among Britain's first cars. The third car, a four-wheeler, was completed in 1899. By 1901 his fellow directors could not see future profit in motor vehicles and so with their blessing and the backing of the Vickers broth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Stirling
The Short Stirling was a British four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It has the distinction of being the first four-engined bomber to be introduced into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). The Stirling was designed during the late 1930s by Short Brothers to conform with the requirements laid out in Air Ministry Specification B.12/36. Prior to this, the RAF had been primarily interested in developing increasingly capable twin-engined bombers, but had been persuaded to investigate a prospective four-engined bomber as a result of promising foreign developments in the field. Out of the submissions made to the specification, Supermarine proposed the Type 317, which was viewed as the favourite, whereas Short's submission, named the S.29, was selected as an alternative. When the preferred Type 317 had to be abandoned, the S.29, which later received the name Stirling, proceeded to production. In early 1941, the Stirling entered squadron service. During its use as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Handley Page Halifax
The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester. The Halifax has its origins in the twin-engine ''HP56'' proposal of the late 1930s, produced in response to the British Air Ministry's Specification P.13/36 for a capable medium bomber for "world-wide use." The HP56 was ordered as a backup to the Avro 679, both aircraft being designed to use the underperforming Rolls-Royce Vulture engine. The Handley Page design was altered at the Ministry to a four-engine arrangement powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine; the rival Avro 679 was produced as the twin-engine Avro Manchester which, while regarded as unsuccessful mainly due to the Vulture engine, was a direct predecessor of the famed Avro Lancaster. Both the Lancaster and the Halifax emerged as capable four-engined strategic bombers, thousands of which were bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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