MG Car Company Ltd.

The MG Car Company Ltd. was established in 1930 as a privately owned company by W. R. Morris, to take over the business of making and selling MG cars from The Morris Garages Ltd. of Oxford. The managing director from 1930 to 1941 was Cecil Kimber. The new company was installed in a factory at Abingdon-on-Thames acquired for this purpose (previously, MG cars had been made at different locations in Oxford). In 1935, MG was sold by Morris to Morris Motors Limited, and at this time MG's competition activities ceased, while over the next 18 months, the product range was completely altered to re-align it with Morris and Wolseley. Although the MG Car Company Ltd. as such became dormant, the MG factory at Abingdon survived as an operational unit into the British Leyland era. In the late 1970s it became part of British Leyland's Jaguar Rover Triumph subsidiary. From time to time the Abingdon factory also produced other makes of car for BMC/BL, such as Riley (1949-1957), Austin-Healey (1957-1971), some Morris Minors (1960-1964) and Vanden Plas 1500s (1979-1980). On the other hand, MG saloon cars from 1959 onwards were manufactured at Cowley (and later Longbridge) rather than Abingdon. With the discontinuation of the MG Midget and MGB models in 1979-81, the factory was closed, and the Abingdon property disposed of.

Reference: Anders Ditlev Clausager, BMIHT Archivist.