Page 24 - link magazine

Swindon Wide

Motown of the south

Swindon Link has been marking London-born. motoring ‘claims to fame’ link back
Swindon175 by writing about Cars have now reigned supreme to the railway. Both Henry Morgan, Read the full story
businesses and industries that in Swindon for more than half a who founded the Morgan Car
built Swindon. This month Graham century, with Honda the town’s Company, and local man Kenneth
Carter of Swindon Heritage tells biggest private employer, second Howse, designer of the classic
how the town has been a driving only to Swindon Borough Council, Sunbeam Alpine sports car in the
force in the British motor industry. while BMW’s Mini Plant is also a 1960s, were trained by the Great
cornerstone of the town’s economy. Western Railway in Swindon.
Everybody knows Swindon was a The Mini bodies produced by BMW After buying his first car in
railway town, but there are plenty link neatly with motoring history, Swindon, Morgan was bitten by the
of reasons to re-christen itself since it is almost certain that motoring bug, and returned home
‘Motown,’ 60 years after Pressed the panels for the original Mini, to Worcester to found his iconic
Steel’s new plant produced its first launched in 1959, were pressed in car company, despite being offered
body panels on New Year’s Eve, Swindon. a permanent job with the GWR in
1955. But two of Swindon’s other Swindon.
However, the story really began
three years earlier, when Swindon
was chosen as an official overspill
for Londoners displaced by the
Second World War. The Autumn 2016 edition of
This paved the way for major new Swindon Heritage includes an
alternative industries to be brought interview with former STEAM
to the town and it took less than ten museum curator Tim Bryan who
years for Pressed Steel to overtake switched from railway to cars in
the declining railway industry as the 2004, when he became a senior
area’s leading employer. manager and archivist at the British
Research into the era also dispels Motor Museum.
the myth that the original car plant The new edition is packed with
was mostly staffed by skilled former insights into the town’s history,
railwaymen. Although its higher intriguing stories and interviews
wages did eventually attract lots and insightful images. Find out how
of workers from British Railways, The first ever Mini, built in 1959. Although there are no records to prove to subscribe to Swindon Heritage or
for the first ten years more than it, the body parts for this pioneering car were probably made in Swindon. buy individual copies at:
90 per cent of the workforce were (Courtesy of the British Motor Museum) www.swindonheritage.com

24 swindonlink.com n October 2016

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