Filed Under: News
I find it utterly amazing that there are people whose education has been stunted, have gone on in life and made a fortune.
One man I knew could neither read nor write, did this stop him, no. He drove a very special roller, oh alright, Rolls Royce, with a very unusual bodywork, a fastback, he was a scrap metal dealer by profession, there must be a lot of money in that.
Frequently these day’s it is more profitable to use a car for spares rather than restore it, which is a great shame. A specialist BMW breaker reckons he will take in over 600 cars a year for spares, some will even import from abroad, madness.
Well today we are talking big money, and power. It all started way back in the mists of time 1877 to be precise, Little William Morris popped into the world on 10th October at Comer Gardens in Worcestershire, at the age of three the family moved back to Cowley in Oxfordshire, it is on the old A40 the Oxford ring road, apparently generations of Morris’s had farmed in the area and of course owned land, which would have increased in value considerably as Oxford expanded.
Well William attended the local Cowley school and at 15 left to make his way in the world, it is said he undertook no further education. He was very adept at using his hands and had ability to take mechanical things apart, I did at one time, unlike me he managed to put them back together again.
Another of the dodgy facts, apparently his parents suffered from ill health and William had to get a job and become the family bread winner.
Like so many moguls of the automotive industry William started work in a bicycle repair shop, remember this is 1893, William left the bicycle shop after asking for a one shilling rise, which he didn’t get, 60 years on I only earned £2.50 a week, so the owner of the shop must have thought he was out of his mind asking for such a large sum.
In those days it seems bicycles were the in thing, so our intrepid engineer started his own business, with four quid and a shed behind the house, he could hardly make frames etc in a shed so, he purchased parts made by others. It seems demand was such that he had to find premises in Oxford City.
Our lad then decided to have a go at motorcycles, which again he must have purchased parts from outside sources, so now he had two businesses on the go, was he satisfied, grief no, he turned his hand to car repairs, well he was riding on the crest of a wave, he than though well, repairs, what about selling the cars and motorcycles as well, he actually needed partners for this, that is a surprise how did he find time to eat.
But after a year the business of car sales folded, acrimoniously apparently, it doesn’t actually say but it rather looks like William wanted things his own way. Did that stop him? No of course not he started up on his own, well with the help of a bank loan. It seems in those days the banks were helpful.
The business took off and he specialised in electroplating and stove enamelling, the motorcycles and the bike businesses were sold off, but determined to keep more than one iron in the fire he started a taxi business and chauffer driven cars, very popular it says.
Ah, then he decided what a good idea to make the cars, now it is giant leap ion anyones book from repairing and selling cars to actually making them. William got financial backing from one the Earl of Macclesfield, how his relationship with the Earl came about is not mentioned, anyway the business WRM Motors was formed,
It seems it only took a year to produce the first car, 1913, he used his experience as a Garage man to weed out weak points in other peoples cars, using a KISS principle, i know what does it refer to, Keep it simple stupid. Naturally to manufacture car parts was a no no, so he done what any sensible person would do, buy them in, and do an assembly job.
It is recorded that he had an assembly plant in what had been a military college, though there seems to be a lot of cash sloshing around for all of this.
He decided to show the WRM at the London motor show, but was thwarted by the late delivery of the engines from white and Poppe, you don’t need a car, so off he went to London with drawings of the car, apparently this resulted in 400 cars being ordered, it doesn’t seem plausible that someone with just a set of drawings can actually sell 400 unseen cars.
The Morris Oxford as it was called became reality, it was well liked for reliability and being economical, not that the later would have been a major problems for those who could afford a car in those days. The car did well on trials and hill climbs is enough said. It goes without saying that in Britain the class system was in full swing, and the Morris,s appear not to be in the lower ranks.
Then world war 1, like everyone else manufacture was abandoned for the war effort, it was in 1920 cars became the norm, unfortunately Morris’s engine supplier White and Poppe decided they were not going to supply any more engines.
There was a deal on the table with the American manufacturer Continental but at the last minute they back out, luckily Hotchkiss had moved from France to Britain fearing the German’s might take their factory, yes, William was in luck so early Morris cars have a Hotchkiss engine, now who would have given this a thought, the engines were put together with metric thread’s.
I am not saying, but William produced a sidevalve engine that was much simpler design and greater reliability. Was the Hotchkiss engine a problematic motor, we know it was an overhead cam and it was kept in production until 1932, there seems very little other info on it’s construction.
Our Mr Morris was a shrewd cookie, the 1920’s were a time of recession, people could not really afford the luxury of a car, so William started discounting the cars, naturally demand went up, but could his suppliers keep up with the production, the canny old fox took no chances, he purchased the companies.
During this time he continually updated the Cowley and the Oxford, the Bullnose Oxford as one of the most well known models. It had to come in somewhere the story of the MG and the famous Abingdon factory.
It must have been an exciting time, in 1929, The Isis was introduced, by the way named after the river that runs through Oxford, a bit of local knowledge, and no I didn’t go to the university, but i have rowed, well that’s not strictly true I was the cox, however I do support 0xford in the Boat Race.
Back to the car it became the first pressed steel body as a result of a tie up with an American firm Budd.
You can see why this man made money, he wasn’t satisfied with just making cars, Commercial vehicles, he had the engine plant and the ability to make the bodies, and not forgetting Britain was up to its neck in colonialism, there was a huge market to be exploited.
Soon all manner of vehicles were rolling out of the factories, Vans, Taxi-cabs, ambulances, double deck buses, tank carriers, six wheeled all terrain vehicles, so one can understand why Morris became a world wide name.
Naturally other car makers were feeling the effect of Mr Morris and his cut price cars, one of these Wolseley was in dire trouble, along came the saviour and it was purchased and became part of the Morris empire eventually, not before he had stuck the Wolseley Overhead cam engine into a minor, the very first Morris minor, though in 1931 a sidevalve engine was substituted, our minor achieved 100mph, 100mpg and cost 100 pounds, the overhead cam engine was phased out in 1931.
At this point we are leaving the history of Mr Morris and his empire, oh yes by now he was Lord Nuffield.
In 1935 a very important small car was introduced by the company, The Morris eight, series 1, it was the fore runner of the iconic Morris minor, technically it had a 918cc four cylinder side valve engine, with a three bearing crankshaft and a solitary SU Carb, this was mated to a three speed gearbox which lacked synchro on the first gear, stopping by way of Lockheed hydraulic brakes, electrics in those days appears to be 6 volt.
There was an open tourer or a saloon, four door with the inevitable suicide doors, and a van, anyone who worked for the Post Office in the UK will know about the van, the telephone people used them the postman had them, small shop keepers had them, every time the Post office upgraded it’s fleet – the market was flooded with Green telephone vans or red post office models.
The minor was not fast, the tourer would tear along at a stately 58 mph but you would have done it very cheaply getting something like 45 to the gallon, the saloons were it says slightly slower, but you had real leather seats and a sunshine roof.
You could if you so wished have a bare chassis for £95, sort of an early kit car perhaps, however buying a whole car gave you a whole range of instruments and proper windscreen wiper’s, well you might wonder about that, Ford used the rotten vacuum wiper’s, unless you have driven a car with vacuum wiper’s you might be at a loss on this.
I, my first car was a Ford 100E, with vacuum wiper’s, we lived in a valley, that is important, well it was to me, because if it was raining by the time I had reached the top of the hill the wiper’s had ceased to function, at the time I never fully understood why. The new little Morris had 8inch drum brakes.
Come 1938 and such things as easy clean wheels were fitted the radiator surround came painted, then later in the year, major changes, a proper boot, before access had been from inside, a parcel tray and full width dashboard. Mechanically the engine was upgraded, despite being still sidevalve anew cylinder head was fitted, the crankshaft was counter balanced and shell type bearings fitted.
The gearbox was now four speed with the first gear being unsyncromeshed, which was about par for the course in those days, batteries were still 6 volt, Mr Lucas electrics prevailed.
The look of the car was altered by putting the headlights in the wings and fitting a dummy grill.
Strangely the Morris was still being built during hostilities, just in case we might upset our friends across the channel, we won’t mention “War”.
So our Morris was built up to 1948, there was also a plant in Australia, the USHM engine as it was known continued to be produced right up to 1953, as a marine or stationary unit, and as an auxiliary unit for some of the tanks being made.
So we come to the time of Sir Alec, no not Ferguson, Issigonis, however William Morris’s legacy lives on in the classic world, perhaps Lord Nuffield really did not do justice to a man of such vision and determination, I reckon he was or should have been St Billy. RIP my friend you will never be forgotten.
Ted Lay
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