Although he was born in Berkshire and had lived in Rotherham before he started The Austin Motor Co, Herbert Austin worked for the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company in Australia. Eventaully he returned to England when he was made manager of the new Wolseley Motor Co in Adderley Park Birmingham.
Soon he decided to start his own company and with the aid of a couple of financial backers he bought new premises at Northfield which was then part of Worcestershire on the outskirts of Birmingham in 1906 . By 1908 he was producing 17 different models. Its interesting to note that in 1917 he was employing 3000 Belgian refugees.
The Austin motor company went from strength to strength over the years, but eventually it went the same way as all our British motor Companies and now even the buildings are gone.
No comments:
Post a Comment