What happened to Leyland Motor Works?

[Sandieh]

The last time I was in Leyland about 1977 I think Leyland Motor Works was still under that name or maybe British Leyland, My Dad worked at North works till about 1968. my Uncle and brother-in-law worked at Farrington and my Husband worked at Chorley Motors then at Commonbank in Chorley, can anyone tell me what happened to all those factories?[] PS. Happy New Year to everyone![]

[William R]

Hi Sandieh, Leyland Motors just went the way of all the other famous Companies, taken over, re-named, dispersed, forgotten and consigned to history. I worked at Leylands pre=war and left in 1958 and finished up in Yorkshire.

Lived next to Chorley Works in Lighthurst Lane, when it was the big Service Depot - Remember, they used to make fire engines once with brass radiators. All history now. I`m sure you will get many replies to the question you ask, I`ve put lots of articles on the Forum about the old firm, Martin may be able to help you there.

Keep posting, it keeps us going. William R.

[anacortesdamp]

It's a long and complex story, Sandie. The short version is that it was forcibly merged with the old BMC (Austin, Morris, etc.) by the Labour government (early 1960s)to make British Leyland. With that millstone round its neck, it just mis-managed its way to bankruptcy.

The bus division was bought out by Volvo and operates a plant in Scotland. The truck division merged with DAF and then went bust again. Leyland DAF and Foden are now merged and owned by the US company PACCAR (Peterbilt, Kenworth). It still operates from the Centurion Works in Farington.

South works was destroyed by fire, North works was demolished and houses built on the site (my sister lives there). The Thurston Road canteen buiding was also demolished. The factory building on King St. is now the Commercial Vehicle Museum.

Frank Damp

[Sandieh]

Thanks William and Frank, its so hard to imagine North Works no longer being there, it was all such a main part of Leyland, I remember walking to Wellfield (Leyland Secondary Modern) and always checking the clock at North Works to see if I was late.
Whatever happened to the new works at Commonbank in Chorley did that also close? best wishes Sandie.

[Martin]

I remember a sea of blue as I used to walk down Hough Lane during the day. That's all gone now.

[kevin]

Having worked at "The Motors" for around 13-14 years it was a crime the way it was allowed to sink into history.Yes it was over manned,mis managed and abused in many ways.But it once was the pride of British motor engineering.The spinning wheel logo reflected the impact that Leyland Trucks and Buses had over world transport. As for the works,you could once walk all the way from the then ultra modern and state of the art assembly plant,thru spurrier works up the road to BX plant(?)on to North works into the middle of Leyland and onto South works.When we were kids,because my dad worked there we went to the Christmas parties in the canteen.In the summer there used to be a summer event and Dad used to come home with a pack of tickets which allowed you to games of bingo,races,drinks and food.This summer event was held at the social club which had big dance floors,stage 2 or 3 full size snooker tables and every other type of pub/club game going.
When I started work I went straight to the assembly plant which was impressive.Cabs for trucks started at one side of the plant,while the chassis started at the other to be joined up somewhere in the middle.
I also worked for awhile at the test center where competitors vehicals were brought and amongst other things stripped down to the last bolt to see how they worked. This was Leyland Motors at the forefront of technology and design,it is a pity it got lumbered with too much baggage with the car sector.

[anacortesdamp]

Although I never worked "at t'Motors", I lived in Leyland from birth to almost 30 and witnessed many of the debacles of the later years.

When it was a Lancashire company, there weren't many labour disputes. I don't recall many strikes or lockouts before the Birmingham/Coventry union attitudes took hold. The Leyland national plant in Scotland raised a few hackles, but the long association with Scotland through Albion evenutally sttled things down.

Many problems resulted from increased competition from European vehicle manufacturers after the formation of the EEC resulted in the dropping of tariffs on imported vehicles. I think Leyland missed an opportunity in the USA when government funding of city transit operations began in the 1970s. There are tens of thousands of German (MAN), Italian, Scandinavian (SAAB-Scania) buses running all over the US, all purchased with government subsidies. It seems particularly odd to see Scania vehicles in Hawaii. The Japanese (Hino, Misubishi-Fuso and Isuzu) gobbled up most of the intermediate truck market.

Even with ownership of Foden-Leyland-Daf by PACCAR, we haven't seen any of those brands here, except a few running on test from the PACCAR engineering center about 8 miles from where I live. PACCAR (originally a railway wagon maker called Pacific Car and Foundry) is based in Seattle and makes the big tractor trailer rigs under the Kenworth and Peterbilt names.


Frank

[William R]

Welcome Kevin, Interesting contribution on Leylands. Many Forum members know that I have been very proud to have been associated with Leyland Motors Limited as an apprentice Toolmaker, joining them before the War started. I was proud to be a Leyland Motors Apprentice, and that was something we had in those days, pride in our work. With the coming of the War, things changed, pride in your work disappeared, a false pride developed. The pride to hate the Enemy, to help to build a tank which was going to be used to kill people. We made bombs with messages on showing our hatred, we made Oeriken shells which were going to be used to kill more people. After the War, we were given a false sense of belonging to a country which had beaten the Enemy, we were proud of the mayhem and death which had been spread by our hands, the rest of the world now "owed us" a living. The Company declined, take-overs, mergers, we were getting away with it, the Victors taking the spoils of war demanded recognition, sat down and let others overtake them. Too late, we woke up, the world didn`t owe us a living, and we were reluctant to fight for survival, but fight we had to do. We had to recover that which we had squandered, history will record if we succeeded. Pride was beaten by apathy, I have written a lot on this subject, but we in Leyland, were not alone in self destruction, it happened all over the country, we thought we were owed a living, sadly, we weren`t. William R.