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THE ARCHIVE OF THE BRITISH MOTOR INDUSTRY HERITAGE TRUST
The British Motor Industry Heritage Trust was formed in 1986 to safeguard a unique collection of historic vehicles, most of which had been the property of the Companies which had combined to form British Leyland in 1968 - Austin, Morris, MG, Riley, Wolseley, Standard, Triumph and Rover. These vehicles are now the core of the museum display at Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon. Over the years, however, the historic vehicles were joined by a vast collection of priceless archive material gathered from the various sites which came under the wing of British Leyland. These have recently been joined by the archives of Aston Martin and Lucas. Today the Trust can justifiably claim to have one of the finest archives of motor-industry related material in Europe covering a span of almost 100 years, as old as the industry itself.
There are workshop manuals, handbooks and sales brochures which contain not just important technical information but also a wealth of social history in their style and illustration. The collection of historic engineering drawings is one of the largest in existence and contains an important record of product development and engineering innovation over the years. They feature many prototypes which never reached production from a steam-drive Mini engine to a 4-wheel drive Austin Ant as well as less predictable subjects such as marine engines, aircraft, munitions, fridges, and factory plans. The collection of motoring magazines documents the technical and social developments of motoring and the comprehensive accumulation of production records details the history of millions of individual vehicles.
Then there are the business records - ledgers, minute books, financial accounts, accident records, general correspondence - which contain the raw material for the history of all the Group's constituent companies. There are also more personal records of the life and work of three of the industry's most important figures - Herbert Austin, William Morris and Alec Issigonis. These papers come not only from within the Company, but also from friends, family and colleagues who have entrusted us with the care of these fascinating documents, photographs and artefacts.
Finally, the pride and joy of the archive is one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of photographic images anywhere illustrating the social and industrial development of the twentieth century. Each factory originally had its own photographic department whose negatives have gradually been transferred to the Trust. Our sources include Cowley (Morris & MG), Solihull (Rover & Land Rover), Canley (Standard-Triumph), Foleshill (Riley), Adderley Park (Wolseley) and Longbridge (Austin). The earliest glass plate negatives date from the 1900s and some of the moving film goes back to the 1920s. There are, of course, images of the products - cars, commercials, motorbikes, cycles. Then there are the production scenes from the time of hand made vehicles through the introduction of mass production to the era of the robot. There are the people who created and laboured in the industry - founding figures like Austin and Morris, designers like Issigonis, Spen King and the Wilkes brothers, businessmen like Lord Stokes and Michael Edwardes and ordinary workers on the factory floor. There are celebrities, personalities and politicians - Edward VII, Winston Churchill, Amy Johnson, Eva Peron, General Franco and many others. There is the immense variety of war production from both wars - aeroplanes, airships, tanks, shells, guns and much more. There is also a photographic record of the changing face of the towns dominated by these factories - Birmingham, Coventry and Oxford.
In short, the archive is a unique record of the social and industrial history of twentieth century Britain and this CD gives a brief glimpse of some of the treasures it contains.
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