An Eerie Place

Most of you that followed the tragedy that MG-Rover became know that the venture ended in bankruptcy and the remains were sold off to a Chinese firm. The manufacturing site at Longbridge was also part of the property that changed hands.

This factory - and its predecessors - has been the home of car makers for almost 100 years. Built by Herbert Austin for his Austin concern, the factory later built Austins, Morrises and all manner of badge engineered vehicles under the British Leyland regime. The last cars built there (before the property was sold) were Rovers and MGs.

A recent and growing hobby is 'urban exploration'. The hobby's enthusiasts enter old derelict buildings and 'explore' the property. They have a code that, in part, states that nothing will be taken but photos. What you're seeing here is a photo of an urban exploration in the MG-Rover Longbridge plant. The photos are sad evidence of the people who spent their lives there building the cars that we value so much today. Even more heartrending is the fact that a lot of the buildings you see in the photos are gone - torn down to make way for a new shopping center. A small portion of the assembly buildings are still in operation building a token number of MGTFs.