History of British Leyland

It's probably fair to say that the name 'British Leyland' conjures up mixed associations these days – pride in the postwar boom years of British motor manufacturing, to be sure, and in some iconic individual cars such as the Range Rover and Jaguar XJ-S; a pride diluted somewhat, however, by memories of crippling 1970s industrial disputes and some models (hello Morris Marina and Austin Allegro!) that didn't set the world alight.

That said, both those cars have started to acquire quite the cult following now. We're happy to provide classic car insurance for a great variety of cars, and these two British stalwarts are as welcome to the 'classic' designation as any other.

The car company can trace its roots back, in fact, to the end of the 19th Century – and takes in a fair few mergers and rebrandings, as well as epoch-defining cars, along the way. Strap in, then, for the British Leyland story.

Origins: 1896-1930

We can trace the British Leyland story all the way back to 1896, when the Lancashire Steam Motor Company was founded in Leyland, Lancashire. The company's first products included a steam-powered van and lawn mowers: throughout its history until 1968, however, it would be best known for its buses and trucks.

The next few decades saw a plethora of new arrivals into the British motor industry, and the launch of the various names that would later come together as British Leyland.

Our next key date, in fact, is 1904, when the Rover Company – thus far a producer of bicycles and motorcycles – produced its first car, the Rover Eight, from its Coventry factory. The following year, 1905, saw the founding of the Austin Motor Company, as Herbert Austin began car production at a former print works in the village of Longbridge, Worcestershire.

Fast forward to 1912, and we find one William Morris beginning to build cars at his factory, a disused military training college in Oxford.

The 1920s was a busy decade for all these nascent British marques. 1922 witnessed the launch of the Austin Seven, the small car which revolutionised the British car market – it was the first affordable car for many families. That same year, the Swallow Sidecar Company was founded in Blackpool, producing motorcycle sidecars and later passenger car bodies. We'll come back to them in a minute…

In 1923, meanwhile, Coventry's Triumph, which had been turning out bicycles for almost two decades, manufactured its first car, the 10/20. Coventry played a huge part in Britain's car industry for decades – we looked at a few iconic Coventry cars.

This was a busy decade, meanwhile, for Oxford's Morris Motors, which by 1925 was responsible for 42 per cent of British car manufacture. The previous year, Morris employee Cecil Kimber began building sporting versions of Morris cars, labelling them MG – these were such a success that, very soon, they needed their own factory, at Abingdon just south of Oxford.

Mergers and acquisitions: 1930-1968

As we head into the 1930s, mergers, acquisitions and name changes start to proliferate, and the beginnings of the future British Leyland start to appear. During that decade, for example, Morris Motors acquired the British marques Wolseley (1935) and Riley (1938).

By 1945 S.S. Cars, now based in Coventry, had become Jaguar Cars, while 1946 saw Austin producing its millionth car (an Austin Sixteen). Talking of millions, Austin's rival Morris made a key breakthrough in 1948 with the introduction of the Morris Minor economy car: between 1948 and 1972, 1.6 million Minors would be produced.

In fact, Britain's postwar motoring landscape looked healthy. In the years after the Second World War, Britain could proudly proclaim itself Europe's biggest car maker – in 1950, Britain was the world's second largest producer (after the US) and biggest exporter. In particular, the MG, Jaguar, Rover and Rolls-Royce marques carried huge prestige, symbols of Britain's engineering know-how and industrial clout.

In 1952 Austin and Morris joined forces, creating the British Motor Corporation – a British car giant that aimed to rival Ford. Probably the key car to emerge from the BMC era was 1959's Mini, a hugely successful and iconic small car – though we shouldn't ignore the huge-selling Austin / Morris 1100.

The 1960s was a time for mergers, culminating in the creation of British Leyland itself. The decade began with Leyland Motors' acquisition of the Triumph Motor Company in 1960; Leyland's second acquisition of the decade, and its last under its own name, would be the acquisition of Rover in 1967.

On the other side of the soon-to-be British Leyland divide, in 1966 BMC (Austin and Morris as was) merged with Jaguar to form British Motor Holdings.

The wider 1960s picture, though, was of Britain's once-dominant automotive industry being overtaken by those of the US, France, and Germany.

Strikes and range overcrowding: British Leyland, 1968-1979

Harold Wilson's Labour Government of 1964-70 believed that the way to reassert Britain's automotive dominance was via the amalgamation of some of our major motoring marques. And so, in 1967 Tony Benn, chair of the Industrial Reorganisation Committee, encouraged Britain's big two, Leyland Motors (now owners of Triumph and Rover, and still a successful producer of lorries and buses) and British Motor Holdings (Austin, Morris, MG and now Jaguar) to merge.

The architects behind the merger hoped to generate a motoring powerhouse that could turn out more than a million cars a year – and thus allow Britain's car sector to take on the American-owned Ford and Vauxhall. Or, to look at it another way, that the amalgamation of various marques under one umbrella would give us something like a 'British General Motors'.

British Leyland Motor Company came into existence on 17th January 1968. The merger combined most of the remaining independent British car manufacturing companies and included car, bus, and truck makers, themselves at the centre of a diverse range of products from construction equipment to refrigerators – taking in nearly 100 companies in all.

Under its new chairman Sir Donald Stokes (previously chairman of Leyland), the new conglomerate had seven divisions, including Austin-Morris for the high-volume car marques (Austin, Morris, MG, Riley, and Wolseley). Then there was the Specialist Division, which was more the former Leyland side of things – the sports/luxury marques such as Leyland's Rover, Land Rover, Alvis and Triumph, and BMH's Jaguar.

Other arms included Leyland Truck and Bus, the original commercial vehicles business; and Pressed Steel Fisher (PSF), which made car body shells for both BLMC and other manufacturers.

BMH was the UK's largest car manufacturer at the time, making over twice as many cars as its Leyland partner – but the former's offerings, including the now 20-year-old Morris Minor and 1959's Austin Cambridge / Morris Oxford pair, were dated.

It had enjoyed some success with the Mini and the Austin 1100/1300 (aka 'land crab'), but both of these models were underpriced and had generated large warranty costs, eating into their profitability. Without enough exciting new models, BMH's UK market share dropped to 27% in 1967, the same year the company announced a £3 million loss.

Be that as it may, in 1968 the British Leyland plant at Longbridge was the world's biggest car plant, employing about 250,000 people. The newly-formed British Leyland controlled 40% of the UK car market. But there were problems from the start: the Longbridge factories were over-staffed, while the model range was ageing – and also featured too much duplication and crossover.

Cars such as the Morris Marina, Wolseley Six, Triumph Dolomite and Austin Maxi were all direct competitors, all coming out of the same factory.

Another big challenge was industrial action. Production regularly ground to a standstill because of mass walkouts as the unions wrangled over pay and conditions.

By 1975, British Leyland was facing collapse, and Harold Wilson's second Government saved it with £2.4bn of public money. The National Enterprise Board took control of BL, planning to get the company back in the black by 1981.

It was a hugely expensive bailout – but the only alternative would have been the closure of British Leyland, and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs across the Midlands – most of them in marginal seats that Labour either held with a slim majority, or felt they could win, and thus where votes were hugely valuable.

So, British Leyland came under state ownership, and when a new Austin, Mini or Rover came out, it wasn't just the board of directors watching the sales graphs – but the UK Government too. 'Buy British' was the mantra – even if the suspicion was that the likes of the Marina and Allegro were not the best options out there.

For one thing, a lot of that cash, which was supposed to be earmarked for product development, was spent on trying to keep the strikes under control.

1977 saw some fairly brutal spring cleaning at the company, as the South African businessman Michael Edwardes was brought in by the Government to streamline the overstaffed, underperforming company.

Edwardes moved or sacked hundreds of senior managers, advised that 12,000 jobs would have to be cut from the workforce, and in 1978 closed BL's factory at Speke in Liverpool – Britain's first large car factory closure since 1948. That year also saw British Leyland's rebranding as the more concise BL.

Tie-ins and takeovers: 1979-2005

Hopeful signs appeared on the horizon in 1979, when BL entered a new deal with Japan's uber-reliable Honda. The latter were to supply their Ballade saloon cars in kit form: these would be assembled at the Cowley plant in Oxford (the original Morris Motors plant) and rebadged as the Triumph Acclaim, the replacement for the popular Triumph Dolomite.

BL and Honda also announced a joint venture of small and medium cars for the 1990s. The new models would be badged as the Rover 200 and 400 hatchbacks (aka Honda Concerto), 600 family saloon (Accord) and 800 exec saloon (aka Honda Legend).

BL's fortunes got a boost in 1980 with the launch of the Austin Metro (initially named the Mini Metro), a modern, practical update on the much-loved but ageing Mini. This went on to be one of the most popular cars in Britain in the 1980s, and was joined by its fellow Austins, the Maestro hatchback and Montego saloon.

We're getting towards the end of the British Leyland story now, though, and in 1982 the mass-market car-producing arm of BL (i.e. the Austin, Morris, Jaguar, Rover and Triumph marques) was rebranded as Austin-Rover, the British Leyland name having become tainted in the public eye by the 1970s' industrial unrest and some underwhelming models.

The Morris marque breathed its last in 1984 with the retirement of the Marina's update, the Ital: the Acclaim, which also bowed out in 1984, was the last car to bear the Triumph name.

Austin, Rover and MG were now the remaining marques under the Austin-Rover umbrella.

The wider British Leyland company ceased to exist in 1986, when it was renamed as the Rover Group. This group, in turn, became a subsidiary of British Aerospace (BAe) from 1988 to 1994. Then, in 1994, BMW bought 80 per cent of the Rover Group from BAe (allowing it, most significantly, to produce the hugely successful second iteration of the Mini).

The last surviving incarnation of the company, the MG Rover Group, went into administration in 2005 – the final straw for mass car production by British-owned manufacturers.

And which of the original British Leyland marques survive to this day? Those would be Jaguar and Land Rover, now built by Jaguar Land Rover and both thriving; MG, now built by MG Motor; and Mini, now built by BMW. Leyland, now under the Paccar umbrella, continues to build trucks.

So there it is: a whistlestop journey through the British Leyland story. An eventful and sometimes complex tale of mergers and rebrandings, yet also a reminder of a time when a huge number of the cars seen on Britain's roads had come out of our own factories. And yes, there were some automotive near-misses along the way – but there were some great cars to come out of the BL stable too. Speaking of which…

Five British Leyland cars to be proud of

MG MGB (1962-1980)

Great-looking, fun to drive, affordable wind-in-your-hair motoring: think 'classic roadster' and it's likely the brilliant, perennially popular MGB that springs to mind. The MGB is one of the cars for which we most often provide classic car insurance – and yes, MGB drivers, we totally commend your choice.

Austin / Morris 1100 (1963-74)

Its cuter sibling, the Mini, might be seen to epitomise the Swinging 60s – but Britain's best-selling car from 1663-66 and 1968-71, was the less distinctive but well-loved 1100.

Range Rover (1969-96)

Something of which the British car industry can be hugely proud: a revolutionary mix of upmarket interior and go-anywhere abilities, and an influence on SUVs and crossovers to this day.

Jaguar XJ12 (1972-73)

Or, what happens when you take an already-brilliant sporting saloon (the 1968 XJ6) and cram 12 cylinders under the bonnet. A beautifully refined, monstrously quick luxury saloon, and a fair bit cheaper than Italian rivals.

Triumph Dolomite Sprint (1973-80)

The Dolomite was a great car in its own right – an elegant, fine-driving sporting saloon. Triumph wanted a bit more fizz under the bonnet, though, to rival the likes of the BMW 2002 – and so the Sprint was born, with its two-litre, 16-valve engine. How Many Left tells us that there are still 303 Sprints fizzing around Britain's road network – all underpinned, we hope, by the classic car insurance they deserve.

Classic car insurance to suit you

These are just a handful of the cars from British Leyland's history that we can take pride in. If you're the lucky owner of any of these BL icons, we like to think that you'll be protecting your slice of British automotive history with some good classic car insurance.

With our 35 years of experience in the classic car insurance field, we can certainly help. Contact us today for a quote.

Policy benefits, features and discounts offered may very between insurance schemes or cover selected and are subject to underwriting criteria. Information contained within this article is accurate at the time of publishing but may be subject to change.