THE picture above was taken in the very early days of car production at Cowley.

It shows workers assembling the famous Morris Oxford – nicknamed the Bullnose Morris – in 1913.

It is part of a collection belonging to Peter Forbes, of Headington.

William Morris’s first Bullnose – so named because of the distinctive shape of its radiator – came off the production line on March 28, 1913, or thereabouts.

Memory Lane this week

Historians disagree on the date – some say it was March 28, others March 29. History, after all, was the last thing on the minds of the men who started the car industry.

There are also differing accounts of whether the first car was collected by or delivered to the buyer.

London motor traders Stewart and Ardern had placed a large order for the car (some say 250, others 400) and paid a deposit of £1,250 on the strength of drawings on display at the 1912 Motor Show.

Some accounts suggest that Morris personally drove the first Bullnose to London, but others claim that Gordon Stewart, a senior member of the firm, came to Cowley to collect it – and was not too impressed.

He made two attempts to drive the car to London, but both times, the universal joints snapped.

William Morris pointed out to the suppliers, White and Poppe, of Coventry, that cast iron was too rigid to withstand the shocks of driving on a bumpy road.

Phosphor-bronze universal joints were substituted and there were no more failures.

The two-seater, 8.9 horse-power Morris Oxford, while not the cheapest car on the market at £165, was on its way to becoming a world-beater.

William Morris’s rise as an entrepreneur is well documented, from running his own cycle business at his parents’ home at 16 James Street, East Oxford, and in High Street, then moving into car manufacturing in Longwall Street and eventually at the former Oxford Military Academy at Cowley.

Some 1,300 cars were built in the run-up to the First World War when the Cowley factory switched to the manufacture of munitions.

It was not until the 1920s that Morris was able to fulfil his ambition to become Britain’s biggest car producer.


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