Oxford is home to one of our ancient universities, until a century or so ago committed to the teaching of the classics and theology. The university stood up against any suggestions that railways may come to the city, indeed although passed by the House of Commons, the university used its influence in the House of Lords to kill the first railway bill. In time of course the railways came and began to link the city to London and other industrial centres.
The Corporation of the city had been enthusiastic when GWR suggested that they might locate their workshops in the city. Once again the university protested that they didn’t want mere mechanics. It seems they were content to accept the population of tradespeople and servants who enabled the university to run. These people were faced with poverty when the colleges broke for their annual long vacation. No wonder the city wanted to attract other employment.
Employment did come in the wake of the First World War when William Morris set up Morris Motors. I drew on the biography of Lord Nuffield to write about Morris motors in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World.
In her book, A History of the City of Oxford, Ruth Fasnacht offers some insightful asides. Before Morris set up his garage in 1908, the population of the City was 50,000. By 1921 it had risen to 67,000 and by 1951, 97,000.
Morris began by sourcing components largely from other companies. He obtained the axle from E.G. Wrigley and pressed steel wheels from Sankey. White & Poppe of Coventry supplied carburettors and would have built engines except that those from America were cheaper. When that supply ceased Morris turned to Hotchkiss in Coventry. Other components were obtained from two small companies, Smiths of London and Lucas of Birmingham. In time Morris made their own engines but continued with Smiths and Lucas.
In 1939 Morris employed 3,700 people and its subsidiary Morris radiators 1,000. The Pressed Steel Company, which set up alongside Morris to provide all steel bodies for the cars, employed 5,000. Morris also had operations in Coventry where the heart of motor industry was. They undertook work that required skilled labour in Coventry, leaving less skilled assembly to Oxford. In 1938/39 Morris was making one quarter of all British made cars and employed 40% of Oxford’s workforce.
Villages surrounding the city were transformed as workers migrated to the area for work with Morris. Interestingly, the people of Oxford didn’t suffer unemployment in the depression years because Morris’s performance kept pace with the availability of labour. It therefore came as a shock when production ceased on the declaration of war and didn’t resume with war work until a year later. In 1945, the transition to peacetime conditions was relatively smooth until raw material shortages hit in the early fifties. Pressed Steel diversified into refrigeration with PressCold and Morris merged with Austin to become BMC in (1951). In 1950, Morris had manufactured 150,000 cars compared with Austin at 166,000. Ford was the UK leader at 185,000 vehicles.
Of course Morris (and Pressed Steel) weren’t alone. There was the Eagle Iron Works and the Oxford University Press.
BMW now manufacture Mini in Cowley. I write of the story in Vehicles to Vaccines.
The University has spun out many successful companies from its research. Oxford University is a valued collaborator in manufacturing most recently with Astra Zeneca in vaccines but further back with Oxford Instruments which was the first commercial spin out from Oxford University in 1959.
Further reading:
Ruth Fasnacht, A History of the City of Oxford (Oxford: Blackwell, 1954)
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