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Reprise – IOTW no.1 from July 2009
This new feature will interchange with the COTW slot and provide an option to display some of the interesting images from the PWMN archive.
This first photograph is appropriate as it shows one of the assembly shops in Cowley through which two production lines pass. On the first track many workers are busy assembling what looks like a large six cylinder car, these chassis finishing up at the end of the line as an Oxford, Isis or Major. On the second such track sit eight OHC Minor chassis where it can clearly be seen that steering column, firewall, fuel tank, steering wheel and radiator have all been progressively fitted to the cars. As to where the workforce have gone is another matter as not one individual appears to be working on this line, in direct contrast to the six cylinder line. In the centre background are three apertures which look to be exits from what can only be a chassis painting area. One such chassis has exited this area which marks the end of the tracked line; the cars now being re-wheeled with rubber tyre artillery wheels for ease of movement elsewhere within the factory, next stop being the Body Shop. In the top right hand corner of this photograph can be seen two completed cars one of which already has a white label attached to is windscreen prior to it being moved away for final testing. The interior of the former Morris Motors Cowley Works could not contrast more with that of the current BMW Mini works located on the same site. I doubt that there are any upturned wooden ‘Morrells Ham’ crates doubling as workbenches or that fire extinguishers would be located so high up on a wall as to be next to useless in the event of a fire. What is most intriguing for the writer is that appearing somewhere in this 1930 photograph could be one of the Minors that 80 years later sits in a mid Suffolk garage not too far from where this article is being written!
