Morris Motor Company
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Morris Motor logo, from a UK Royal Mail van. The badge shows an Ox crossing a river- a reference to the company's hometown, Oxford. |
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1953 Morris Minor Series 2 |
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1971 Morris 1000 Traveller |
The
Morris Motor Company was a
British car manufacturing company. After the incorporation of the company into larger corporations, the
Morris name remained in use as a
marque until
1983.
The
Morris Motor Company (MMC) was started in
1910 when
bicycle manufacturer
William Morris turned his attention to car manufacturing. A factory was opened in 1913 in
Cowley, Oxford, England, and the company's first car, a 2-seat version of the
"Bullnose" Oxford was introduced. Nearly all the major components were bought-in, with only final assembly being undertaken in the MMC works. In 1914 a coupé and van were added to the line-up but the chassis was too short and the 1018 cc engine too small to make a much-needed 4-seat version of the car.
White and Poppe, who made the engine, wanted more money for a larger version than Morris was prepared to pay so Morris turned to
Continental of
Detroit, Michigan, USA for supplies of a 1548 cc unit.
Gearboxes and axles were also sourced in the United States. In spite of the outbreak of the
First World War the orders were maintained and, from mid-1915 a new larger car, the 2-seat and 4-seat
Cowley was introduced.
After the war the Continental engine was no longer available, so Morris arranged for the French company
Hotchkiss to make a near-copy in their
Coventry factory. This was used to power new versions of the basic
Cowley and more up-market
Morris Oxford cars. With a reputation for producing high-quality cars and a policy of cutting prices, MMC continued to grow and increase its share of the British market and, in 1924, MMC overtook
Ford to become the UK's biggest car manufacturer, holding a 51% share of the home market. There was also a policy of buying up suppliers with, for example in 1923, Hotchkiss in Coventry becoming the
Morris Engines branch. In 1924 the head of the
Morris sales agency in Oxford,
Cecil Kimber, started building sporting versions of
Morris cars, called '
MG' after the agency
Morris Garages. The later-to-be-famous MG factory was in
Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England.
The small car market was entered in 1928, with the
Morris Minor, using an 847 cc engine from the
Wolseley Motor Company, a company which became part of MMC in 1927 when William Morris bought it, and this helped get them through the depression years. The Minor was replaced at the 1934
London Motor Show by the
Morris Eight, a direct response to the
Ford Model Y and heavily based on it. In 1932 Morris appointed
Leonard Lord as Managing Director and he swept through the works, updating the production methods including a proper moving assembly line, but they fell out and Lord left in 1936, threatening to "take Cowley apart brick by brick". Also in 1936 Morris sold
Morris Commercial Cars Limited, his enterprise, to Morris Motors. In 1938 William Morris became Viscount Nuffield, and the same year he merged MCC (already incorporating
Wolseley) and
MG with newly acquired
Riley to form a new company the
Nuffield Organisation.
Production restarted after the
Second World War, with the pre-war
Eight and
Ten but, in 1948 they were replaced by what is probably the most famous
Morris car, the
Morris Minor designed by
Alec Issigonis (who later went on to be famous for the design of the
Mini) and reusing the small car name from 1928. Alongside it was the
Morris Oxford of 1948, styled like a larger version of the
Minor. This was the basis for the design of India's famous
Ambassador automobile.
In
1952, the
Nuffield Organisation (incorporating
Morris,
MG,
Riley and
Wolseley) merged with its old rival the
Austin Motor Company to form the
British Motor Corporation (BMC) with Leonard Lord back in charge, accounting for Austin's domination of the organisation. Badge engineering came with the new company and, for several years,
Austin,
Morris and the other BMC names would be seen on similar vehicles. In 1968, the
Morris marque transferred to the
British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), and subsequently, in 1975, to the
nationalised British Leyland Limited (BL).
The
Morris marque was used until the early 1980s on cars such as the
Morris Marina. The facelifted
Marina, the
Morris Ital, was the last Morris-badged passenger car until its demise in
1984. The last
Morris was a van, based on the
Austin Metro. The former MMC assembly plant in Cowley was turned over in the early 1980s for the production of
Austin and
Rover badged vehicles.
The rights to the
Morris marque is currently owned by
MG Rover, who have inherited the remains of BMC and BL. The Cowley assembly plant is now owned by
BMW, who use it to assemble the new
MINI. With
MG Rover currently in receivership, it is not clear who will buy the
Morris marque.
*Morris Oxford (Bullnose) 1913-1926
*Morris Cowley 1915-1935
*Morris Oxford 1926-1935
*
Morris Minor 1928-1932*Morris Major 1931-1933
*Morris Isis 1930-1935
*Morris Twenty-One/Twenty-Five 1933-1939
*Morris Twelve 1935-1939
*Morris Fourteen 1935-1939
*
Morris Eight 1935-1948
*
Morris Ten 1933-1948
*
Morris Minor MM 1948-1952
*
Morris Minor 1952-1956
*
Morris Minor 1000 1955-1971
*
Morris Oxford MO 1948-1954
*
Morris Six MS 1948-1953
*
Morris Oxford1954-1969
*
Morris Isis 1955-1958
*
Morris Cowley 1954-1959
*
Morris Mini Minor 1959-1969
*
Morris 1100 1962-1971
*
Morris 1300 1967-1971
*
Morris 1800 1966-1975
*
Morris Marina 1971-1984
*
Morris Ital 1980-1984
*
List of British companies*
MG
