Abingdon MG car company. Abingdon's heritage weekend

Here is an Abingdon (so local to me, a walk) activity I did with little notice.
I was told about this 3 hours before we were there, did not know this was open.

This was a good activity mum told me about in the morning.

Weekend of 14th/ 15th September 2024.
Abingdon Heritage weekend.

https://www.abingdonheritage.org.uk/

https://maps.app.goo.gl/GFvXBJ9vhHqzx...

Photos at 22:07

Cecil Kimber (12 April 1888 – 4 February 1945) was a motor car designer. He is best known for his role in having been the driving force behind The M.G. Car Company.

Kimber was born in London on 12 April 1888 to Henry Kimber, a printing engineer and his wife Fanny.

Kimber was killed in the King's Cross railway accident on Sunday 4 February 1945, having boarded the 6:00 p.m. express to Leeds. Shortly after leaving the station and entering Gasworks Tunnel, the locomotive's wheels started slipping on a newly replaced section of rail laid on the rising gradient. In the darkness, the driver failed to realise that the train was no longer moving forward and had started to roll back at a speed of some 6–7 mph (9.7–11.3 km/h). The signalman noticed this and attempted to avert a collision with another train in the station by switching the points to an empty platform but was too late. The rear carriage was derailed, rolled onto its side and was crushed against the steel support of the main signal gantry. The first-class compartment where Kimber had been sitting was demolished; he and one other passenger was killed.


M.G. Car Company (1930–1972).

William Morris's Morris Garages in Longwall Street, Oxford, was the Oxford agent for his Morris cars. Cecil Kimber joined the dealership as its sales manager in 1921 and was promoted to general manager in 1922. Kimber began promoting sales by producing his own special versions of Morris cars.

Debate remains as to when MG car production started, although the first cars, rebodied Morris models that used coachwork from Carbodies of Coventry and known as "Kimber Specials", bore both Morris and MG badges. Reference to MG with the octagon badge appears in an Oxford newspaper from November 1923, and the MG Octagon was registered as a trademark by Morris Garages on 1 May 1924. Morris Garages assembled its cars in premises in Alfred Lane, Oxford. Demand soon caused a move to larger premises in Bainton Road in September 1925, sharing space with the Morris radiator works. Continuing expansion meant another move in 1927 to a separate factory in Edmund Road, Cowley, Oxford, near the main Morris factory, and for the first time, it was possible to include a production line.

In 1928, the company had become large enough to warrant an identity separate from the original Morris Garages, and The M.G. Car Company was used from March of that year. In October, for the first time, a stand was taken at the London Motor Show. Space soon ran out again, and a search for a permanent home led to the lease of part an old leather factory in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1929. A limited liability company named M.G. Car Company was incorporated on 21 July 1930.

Kimber stayed with the company until 1941, when he fell out with Morris over procuring wartime work and was summarily dismissed. Kimber was tragically killed in the February 1945 King's Cross railway accident.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_K...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_cars...

His home, Oxford Road, North Abingdon. Now a pub, nice food!
https://www.greeneking.co.uk/pubs/oxf...

   • Car shows  

   • Abingdon or close by  

   • Abingdon or nearby building history