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Longbridge plant
The 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. Whilst vehicle assembly ended in 2016, the Longbridge plant currently serves as the MG Motor Technical Centre which is responsible for checking each MG vehicle which was assembled in China before being sold in Europe. Opened in 1905, by the late 1960s, Longbridge employed around 25,000 workers, building cars including the original Mini, but by April 2025, had fallen to just 46 employees.
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.
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 eight miles to the south of the city on the Bristol Road at Longbridge. The site was bounded by Lickey Road, Lowhill Lane, the Midland Railway's main Birmingham to Gloucester mainline, and the Halesowen Joint Railway with the Great Western Railway. The purchase also included Cofton Hill, which rose 70 feet (21 m) above its surroundings. Designed by Stark & Rowntree of Glasgow and constructed by James Moffatt & Sons of Camp Hill, the factory was built at a cost of £105,000, opening in the first quarter of 1895. Unfortunately, the venture failed, and the site was repossessed by the bank in 1901.
Herbert Austin, who was born in Buckinghamshire and raised in Yorkshire, escaped his intended railway engineering apprenticeship and learnt his trade under an uncle in Melbourne, Australia. He returned to England in 1893 as manager of an Australian company relocating to Birmingham. In 1901, with the Vickers brothers, he founded and ran Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company, which became Britain's largest car manufacturer.
In 1905, he fell out with the Vickers brothers, and looking to found his own motor car company, Herbert Austin undertook numerous exploratory rides around Birmingham in his Wolseley 7.5-horsepower. On 4 November 1905, he found the derelict printing works, owned by a financier, E A Olivieri. Friends came forward with financial help, and with additional invoice financing from Frank Kayser of Kayser, Ellison and Company, and William Harvey du Cros of the Dunlop Rubber Company, enabled Austin to buy the site and an additional 8 acres (3.2 ha) from Olivieri for £7,500 on 22 January 1906.
Austin and his initial workforce of the Austin Motor Company had, in fact, moved into the derelict buildings before this date, as Austin was so focused on showing his new car at the British Motor Show, to be held in November 1906 at Olympia, London. On paper, the first Austin was described as a 25-30 h.p. high-class touring car with a four-speed gearbox and a chain-driven transmission. Each car had a material and quality guarantee and the first car was produced at the end of March 1906, at a price of £650. Some 50 hands were employed during the first year and they produced about a dozen cars.
By 1908, 1,000 workers were at a factory, which covered 4 acres (1.6 ha); a night shift was introduced to help create adequate supply to meet the rising demand for products. By September 1912, workshops covered more than 8 acres, output was running at 1,000 cars a year and employee numbers were 1,800. Austin built their own bodies and their coachbuilding department was one of the largest in the country. They built their own artillery wood wheels and made the hubs for wire-spoked and pressed-steel wheels. In February 1914, the company was floated as a public company and £250,000 of new preference shares were issued to the public and listed on the stock exchanges.
The new funding paid for the construction of additional workshops and the transition of the plant from mechanical drive with its great shafts and belts to electric drive. Two four-cylinder vertical gas engines of 200 horsepower (150 kW) each, designed by the Anderson Foundry Co. of Glasgow, coupled to three-phase alternators built by Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget of Sweden, provided the electricity.
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Longbridge plant
The 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. Whilst vehicle assembly ended in 2016, the Longbridge plant currently serves as the MG Motor Technical Centre which is responsible for checking each MG vehicle which was assembled in China before being sold in Europe. Opened in 1905, by the late 1960s, Longbridge employed around 25,000 workers, building cars including the original Mini, but by April 2025, had fallen to just 46 employees.
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.
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 eight miles to the south of the city on the Bristol Road at Longbridge. The site was bounded by Lickey Road, Lowhill Lane, the Midland Railway's main Birmingham to Gloucester mainline, and the Halesowen Joint Railway with the Great Western Railway. The purchase also included Cofton Hill, which rose 70 feet (21 m) above its surroundings. Designed by Stark & Rowntree of Glasgow and constructed by James Moffatt & Sons of Camp Hill, the factory was built at a cost of £105,000, opening in the first quarter of 1895. Unfortunately, the venture failed, and the site was repossessed by the bank in 1901.
Herbert Austin, who was born in Buckinghamshire and raised in Yorkshire, escaped his intended railway engineering apprenticeship and learnt his trade under an uncle in Melbourne, Australia. He returned to England in 1893 as manager of an Australian company relocating to Birmingham. In 1901, with the Vickers brothers, he founded and ran Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company, which became Britain's largest car manufacturer.
In 1905, he fell out with the Vickers brothers, and looking to found his own motor car company, Herbert Austin undertook numerous exploratory rides around Birmingham in his Wolseley 7.5-horsepower. On 4 November 1905, he found the derelict printing works, owned by a financier, E A Olivieri. Friends came forward with financial help, and with additional invoice financing from Frank Kayser of Kayser, Ellison and Company, and William Harvey du Cros of the Dunlop Rubber Company, enabled Austin to buy the site and an additional 8 acres (3.2 ha) from Olivieri for £7,500 on 22 January 1906.
Austin and his initial workforce of the Austin Motor Company had, in fact, moved into the derelict buildings before this date, as Austin was so focused on showing his new car at the British Motor Show, to be held in November 1906 at Olympia, London. On paper, the first Austin was described as a 25-30 h.p. high-class touring car with a four-speed gearbox and a chain-driven transmission. Each car had a material and quality guarantee and the first car was produced at the end of March 1906, at a price of £650. Some 50 hands were employed during the first year and they produced about a dozen cars.
By 1908, 1,000 workers were at a factory, which covered 4 acres (1.6 ha); a night shift was introduced to help create adequate supply to meet the rising demand for products. By September 1912, workshops covered more than 8 acres, output was running at 1,000 cars a year and employee numbers were 1,800. Austin built their own bodies and their coachbuilding department was one of the largest in the country. They built their own artillery wood wheels and made the hubs for wire-spoked and pressed-steel wheels. In February 1914, the company was floated as a public company and £250,000 of new preference shares were issued to the public and listed on the stock exchanges.
The new funding paid for the construction of additional workshops and the transition of the plant from mechanical drive with its great shafts and belts to electric drive. Two four-cylinder vertical gas engines of 200 horsepower (150 kW) each, designed by the Anderson Foundry Co. of Glasgow, coupled to three-phase alternators built by Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget of Sweden, provided the electricity.