Car industry in Coventry - Past, Present and Future

Hi all, I'm working on a personal project to create a podcast celebrating Coventry's important place in the UK car industry. I will look at the history of the sadly long-lost factories of the mid 20th century through to the cities role today in advanced R&D for new automotive technology. The idea isn't just to take a look at the forgotten past, but to paint a positive picture that the city is still an important place in the modern car industry and that it has gone through a period of boom, bust and rebirth. If anyone on the forum has memories of working in the historic factories (or perhaps family memories of growing up around them), involvement in local car clubs or museums, or if you're part of the industry now, I'd love to hear from you. If you fancy a chat or think you could share something interesting for an episode please let me know. Thanks Rob

Rob, you might be interested to know that the Gaydon Motor Museum is undertaking a similar project. They are interviewing via the internet, where in-person interviews are not possible and using AI to create physical summaries for display. A good place to start might be ARONLINE. Seek out John Batchelor he seems to be holding a lot of things together, and is writing a lot about Rover Group's model development from the 80s onwards.

Hi, thanks for the info - I haven't seen anything on the motor museum's social media promoting this, are they still in production phase rather than having released it? Great tip on ARONLINE and John Batchelor - I will do some online stalking to try and track him down! Thanks again

Rob, I'm pretty certain that the Museum are still assembling things. As far as I know, it's an ongoing project to capture memories from Rover group whilst people are still around. You might want to contact Vince Hall, as I think he's running it.

Is this the project you mean? https://volunteers.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/2024/03/the-british-motor-museum-oral-history.html I will ty and get in touch with Vince Hall, I am at Gaydon quite regularly so may be able to get a meeting in there. Thanks!

I think that's it Rob, though I was dragged in via contacts who were taking part. Another local name you might want to seek out is Barrie Wills. He had a lot to do with DeLorean, and I think he lives Kenilworth way. My history is largely with ARG and subsequent companies. If you think I can help in any way, please ask. Best of luck.

Barrie Willis is in Meriden I think bohica. Definitely a good person to talk to though - as mentioned he was the Sales & Marketing Director for DeLorean. If you search on the forum Rob you will find some images of their office in New Union Street. I was a trainee at Ryton just as Peugeot came in in 1986. It was a mix of the old Talbot stock and the then new 309 under development and then in to production. I worked on the dealer launch of that car. As part of the training I spent time at Ryton, Stoke, the IT centre on Torrington Avenue, deliveries to Hills Precision where the seats were done in Hillfields and at International House in Marston Green which at that time was the Peugeot-Talbot HQ. I remember being amazed that at the Stoke plant they still had an old cable connection telephone switchboard - in 1986! I'm also friends with Mike Kimberley who is a proud Coventrian, starting as an apprentice at Browns Lane and went on to become the boss at both Lotus and Lamborghini. Although most production has now moved out from Coventry there is still many a parts/supplier chain going here and Jag still at Whitley - Peugeot now have a new HQ on the old Stoke plant site. One of my son's also works in Automotive at Aston Martin.

Many thanks for the positive replies! I have managed to find email addresses for both John Batchelor and Barrie Wills, reached out to them both to gauge some interest. Neil, Many thanks for your message, would you be interested in a face to face conversation to chat about your experience with Peugeot? I am hoping to have someone from Stellantis involved to talk about their continued presence in the city, it would be great to contrast this with your stories. If you are able to put me in touch with Mike Kimberley as well, that would be amazing. Happy to move to emails/PM to discuss further if you are?

Bohica Thanks for your help! By ARG do you mean Austin Rover Group? It would be great to hear about bit more about this - were you based at Longbridge?

Rob, yes, ARG is Austin Rover Group. I was at Canley from 82 until 91, then moved to Solihull, where I stayed until I took redundancy around 2005. My father worked at Canley from 63 until 81. Prior to me joining ARG I was at MIRA. I have many tales to tell, most are not complimentary about the organisation (ARG). I was also contracting at Peugeot on the final day of production. I saw genuine tears that day.

Barrie Wills is on Facebook as well, I am pretty sure he lives in Warwick.

RobC, I can certainly recommend talking to the British Motor Museum (formerly the Gaydon Heritage Centre) at Gaydon, they are very involved in the heritage of Britain's motor heritage. They also have a large selection of the former Bedford & Vauxhall collection once based at the Vauxhall plant, Luton. BMM also host a heritage certificate for confirmed authenticity of historical vehicles. https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/ I'm not sure how involved the Coventry Motor Museum is these days, but they used to be very good and informative. One of the key things my son took away from their exhibits, was the origin of the term "On the box", as a term for off work on the sick. https://www.transport-museum.com/ In the days before SSP and its official predecessors became a financial lifeline, what used to take place on pay day, was a collection into a box to help support those who had to take time off work for sick leave, and they would be offered some money from that box. Hence when someone was off work sick, the term "On the box" was commonplace" Another import organisation in supporting workers generally when on sick leave before SSP, was the Clubs and Institute Union, CIU. The origins of that was also to support workers financially, whilst off for sickness. I will add, my recollection of the full detail is very rusty, and I would strongly recommend fact checking thoroughly to obtain the full detail. Also, have a look at many of the former, logistics and supply factories based in and around Coventry, Coventry Motor Sundries (Spon End), Coventry Radiator & Presswork (Canley Road) to name a couple that spring to mind. Another piece of interesting info, the former Massey Ferguson factory on Banner Lane (now a housing estate) was a former Standard Triumph shadow factory before Massey Ferguson moved in. Also what is now the Leadec building on Torrington Avenue, was a former Standard Triumph site, later becoming a Unipart facility before other businesses used the site. And of course, not forgetting the many topics here, too numerous to mention individually, but worth a look through. I wish you luck in what will be a very interesting and fascinating journey.