Jaguar World Monthly Magazine

2 December 2014

What an upheaval the move from Blackpool to Foleshill must have been for the young William Lyons and the few Swallow Coachbuilding staff that followed him. Arriving on a cold, November weekend, one of Lyons’ workers described his first view of the West Midlands as cold and murky. Not a great start. Yet Lyons knew if he was to grow his business he’d have to leave his native Blackpool – the seaside town isn’t known for its coachbuilding skills. It’s fair to say that without heading south his company might not have survived, becoming a mere footnote in the history of British car manufacturing. It also started an association with the area that lasts to this day. Lyons’ next factory was the famous Browns Lane plant at Allesley, just three miles from Coventry’s city centre. This was sold as part of Ford’s cost-cutting exercise in the mid-2000s, but Jaguar’s cars are still produced nearby, both at Castle Bromwich and Solihull, where the XE is to be made. Jaguar’s head offi ce and technical centre remains at Whitley, a stone’s throw from Browns Lane. More importantly, JLR’s new engine facility, Jaguar’s first brand-new factory (the rest were converted from existing buildings) is up the road at Wolverhampton, securing the company’s presence in the area for the foreseeable future. But then it needs to. Jaguar’s image is as much to do with the West Midlands, the UK’s centre of automotive excellence, as Ferrari is with Maranello. It’s part of its charm, its history and its culture. Yes, XFs are now being built in India (but from knockeddown kits produced at Castle Bromwich) and JLR has just opened a factory in China (which it needs if it’s to conquer this enormous market), but Jaguar knows where its home is. “The Engine Manufacturing Centre represents all that is great about British engineering,” said Dr Ralf Speth, JLR’s CEO at the engine plant’s offi cial opening by HM The Queen in October. Your E-type, XJ6, XK and my S-TYPE might appear to have little in common with each other apart from their badges, but there’s a connection between them that’s more than skin deep. As for Lyons himself, even after his retirement in the Seventies he stayed in the area, his roots too deep to go anywhere else. More than 70 years after he moved there, the same can still be said for his company.