Well, what can I say, this site holds some of the strongest emotions of any of the UE sites I have seen. The story of Herbert Austin's motor company is a long and twisted one, a story of highs and lows, high ideals and lost directions, a stagger from crisis to crisis with ocasional flashes of genius.
From the early days of a green field factory through the conglomeration of the british motor industries into committee mismanagement and the dark unionised days of the 60's and 70's, the snubbing of honda and the raping by BMW, the light at the end of the tunnel and the ultimate self interested take over and crash of Pheonix, this place has seen it all, made headlines throughout and bears the scars of it all.
You could see it and feel it all, from the flaking green camouflage paint to the final closure memo's. The memories of the West Works lie crushed within the acres of crushed brick, the rest of the site to follow suit.
True, there are sparks of life in the rejuvenated MGF production line and I'm sure we will see the 75 back in some form but the heart has well and truly stopped beating.
RIP Longbridge, for the short time we knew you, we had the time of our lives.
January 18th, 2007, 21:48
MG Rover, Longbridge, Birmingham
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