Pressed Steel Company
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
car body manufacturing company founded at Cowley
Cowley, Oxford
Cowley in Oxford, England, is a residential and industrial area that forms a small conurbation within greater Oxford. Cowley's neighbours are central Oxford to the northwest, Rose Hill and Blackbird Leys to the south, New Headington to the north and the villages of Horspath and Garsington across...
near Oxford in 1926 as a joint venture between William Morris
William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield
William Richard Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield GBE, CH , known as Sir William Morris, Bt, between 1929 and 1934 and as The Lord Nuffield between 1934 and 1938, was a British motor manufacturer and philanthropist...
, the Budd Corporation
Budd Company
The Budd Company is a metal fabricator and major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and was formerly a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars during the 20th century....
and an American bank. Today at what was the company's Cowley
Cowley, Oxford
Cowley in Oxford, England, is a residential and industrial area that forms a small conurbation within greater Oxford. Cowley's neighbours are central Oxford to the northwest, Rose Hill and Blackbird Leys to the south, New Headington to the north and the villages of Horspath and Garsington across...
plant, the BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...
new MINI
MINI (BMW)
Mini is a British automotive marque owned by BMW which specialises in small cars.Mini originated as a specific vehicle, a small car originally known as the Morris Mini-Minor and the Austin Seven, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959, and developed into a brand encompassing a range of...
is assembled, this site is known as "Plant Oxford". At the company's Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
plant, the BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...
subsidiary Swindon Pressings Limited has been established. Swindon produces parts for the new MINI and is known as "Plant Swindon".
Motor industry
Morris had seen the potential of pressed steel car bodies being developed at Budd in the U.S. The new venture started up by supplying car bodies to Morris Morris Motor CompanyMorris Motor Company
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 1984 when British Leyland's Austin Rover Group decided to concentrate on the more popular Austin marque...
(MMC), with its plant being located alongside that of MMC. By 1935 Budd had withdrawn and the company was fully independent, and also producing car bodies for competitors of MMC. By the late 1950s the company was making bodies for most of the major car companies in the UK including Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
, Rootes, and Standard-Triumph
Standard Motor Company
The Standard Motor Company was founded in Coventry, England in 1903 by Reginald Walter Maudslay . The Standard name was last used in Britain in 1963, and in India in 1987.-1903–1914:...
. In 1956 PSC opened a new plant in Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
to provide extra capacity, and in 1961 they opened their Linwood, Scotland plant alongside the new Rootes Linwood plant to provide bodies for the new Hillman Imp
Hillman Imp
The Hillman Imp is a compact, rear-engined saloon car that was manufactured under the Hillman marque by the Rootes Group from 1963 to 1976...
being produced there.
The company also produced panels for Volvo and complete bodies for Rover and Ford.
Pressed Steel was a major manufacturer of press tooling for Morris, Hillman, Rover and Rolls Royce and car companies across the world including Vauxhall, Alfa Romeo etc.
Under the Prestcold
Prestcold
Prestcold was a British refrigerator manufacturer, established by the Pressed Steel Co. Ltd of Oxford in 1934. Prestcold operated several manufacturing plants in the UK including Theale and Crymlyn Burrows in Wales...
name Pressed Steel was leader in quality refrigerators for the home, industrial cold rooms and marine installations. The Domestic Refrigeration Factory (DRF) was located within the Cowely site for many years before transferring to Swansea in a government sponsored regeneration scheme with an ill fated venture with Rolls washing machines. So ended the Prestcold domestic appliances. The industrial side was to continue for many years operating out of the Theale site nr. Reading.
For a short time the Pressed Steel was involved with light aircraft through its Beagle Aircraft
Beagle Aircraft
Beagle Aircraft Limited was a British light aircraft manufacturer of types such as the Airedale, Bassett, Husky and Pup. It had factories at Rearsby in Leicestershire and Shoreham in Sussex...
division.
The R&D function which was set up at the Cowley site in the early 1960s, and later transferred to the company's development site at Gaydon, was a centre of excellence for the industry with many new processes including the development of electrophoretic painting (electrocoat), full mould casting, robotic welding and assembly, robotic adhesive and sealant application and robotic painting amongst many other firsts in the industry. In the late 1960s, and the early 1970s, the R&D function pioneered the use of Finite Element Analaysis for the body structure, and developed computerised crash simulation techniques for the complete vehicle, the occupants and the pedestrian.
British Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation, or commonly known as BMC was a vehicle manufacturer from United Kingdom, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
(BMC) and the company set about combining the company with its existing body making subsidiary Fisher and Ludlow
Fisher and Ludlow
Fisher and Ludlow was a British car body manufacturing company based in Castle Bromwich near Birmingham.-Operation:A high volume operation, Fisher and Ludlow built finished and trimmed car bodies which were then trucked to the "manufacturer"'s works to be fitted with all the...
, acquired by BMC some twelve years earlier, thereby creating Pressed Steel-Fisher (PS-F). At the time of the merger Pressed Steel Company was the largest independent manufacturer of car bodies and car body tooling in the world http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/rep_pub/reports/1960_1969/fulltext/028c04.pdf.
In the third quarter of 1966 BMC completed its takeover of Jaguar Cars On 14 December 1966 BMC shareholders approved the change of its name to British Motor Holdings
British Motor Holdings
British Motor Holdings Limited was a British motor company known until 14 December 1966 as British Motor Corporation Limited .-History:...
(BMH) and it took effect from that moment.
Early in 1968 BMH merged with the Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC) to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), By this time PS-F had become the world's largest independent car body and car body tool manufacturer, and supplied bodies and tools not only for the British motor industry but also for Volvo
Volvo
AB Volvo is a Swedish builder of commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses and construction equipment. Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems, aerospace components and financial services...
, Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...
and Hindustan Motors
Hindustan Motors
Hindustan Motors is an automobile manufacturer from India. It is part of the Birla Technical Services industrial group. The company was the largest car manufacturer in India before the rise of Maruti Udyog....
.
Under BLMC the Pressed Steel-Fisher business became the Pressed Steel Fisher division.
In 1975 BLMC was nationalised and became British Leyland Limited.
When BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...
acquired Rover Group
Rover Group
The Rover Group plc was the name given in 1986 to the British state-owned vehicle manufacturer previously known as British Leyland or BL. Owned by British Aerospace from 1988 to 1994, when it was sold to BMW, the Group was broken up in 2000 with the Rover and MG marques being acquired by the MG...
in 1994 they became owners of the former PSC's Swindon pressing plant. Although BMW disposed of much of Rover Group's assets in 2000, they retained the Swindon pressings plant and set up a subsidiary, Swindon Pressings Limited (SPL), there in 2000. SPL now provides most of the body panels and body sub-assemblies for the MINI
Mini
The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers...
models produced by BMW's MINI subsidiary in Cowley, at what was the Pressed steel site.
Railway industry interests
An existing engineering factory in LinwoodLinwood
Linwood is a small town in Renfrewshire, Scotland, 14 miles south-west of Glasgow.Linwood is a commuter town, with proximity to Glasgow International Airport and the M8 motorway to Glasgow and Edinburgh...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, was acquired by PSC in 1947 where they manufactured railway rolling stock. A peak of production was reached in the late 1950s - early 1960s. The types of rolling stock produced were of standard British Railways design, and included: standard carriages, British Rail Class 117
British Rail Class 117
The British Rail Class 117 diesel multiple units were built by Pressed Steel from 1959 to 1961.When first introduced, these three-car units were all based with the similar Class 121 single carriage units on British Railway's Western Region for suburban work out of London Paddington, as well as...
Diesel Multiple Unit
Diesel multiple unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
s, British Rail Class 303
British Rail Class 303
The British Rail Class 303 electric multiple units, also known as "Blue Train" units, were introduced in 1960 for the electrification of the North Clyde and the Cathcart Circle lines in Strathclyde...
"Blue Train" Electric Multiple Unit
Electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages, using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number of the carriages...
s, and specialist vehicles like restaurant cars.
With the completion of the changeover to diesel trains and modern carriages in the early 1960s, Pressed Steel received few orders after this.
Other interests
In 1960 PSC formed British Executive and General Aviation LimitedBeagle Aircraft
Beagle Aircraft Limited was a British light aircraft manufacturer of types such as the Airedale, Bassett, Husky and Pup. It had factories at Rearsby in Leicestershire and Shoreham in Sussex...
(BEAGLE) for the manufacture of aircraft with facilities at Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea is a small town, port and seaside resort in West Sussex, England. Shoreham-by-Sea railway station is located less than a mile from the town centre and London Gatwick Airport is away...
and Rearsby
Rearsby
Rearsby is a village and civil parish in the Charnwood district of Leicestershire, England. The parish has a population of about 1,000. It is on the A607 road between Leicester and Melton Mowbray, and is just south of the River Wreake. Nearby places are East Goscote, Thrussington and Rotherby...
airfields.
Pressed Steel was a supplier to entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
John Bloom's Rolls Razor
Rolls Razor
Rolls Razor Limited was a British company known for its manufacture of a sophisticated safety-razor and an "affordable" twin-tub washing machine.-Origins: razor:...
company, and after the company went into liquidation
Liquidation
In law, liquidation is the process by which a company is brought to an end, and the assets and property of the company redistributed. Liquidation is also sometimes referred to as winding-up or dissolution, although dissolution technically refers to the last stage of liquidation...
in July 1964, Pressed Steel was owed $1,200,000.