Press Release 19/03/2010

 The Pride of Longbridge, 17^th April 2010

 This year’s Pride of Longbridge will take place in Cofton Park Longbridge on Saturday the 17th of April from 9.30am until 4pm. This is the nearest Saturday to the date on which the majority of the Longbridge workforce was made redundant five years ago.
Wholly organised by the Austin Federation, this year’s event uses a slightly different format than in previous years. In this the Austin Federation acknowledges with thanks the financial support of the Longbridge and Northfield Wards of Birmingham City Council.

There will be no large convoy to the event. However, if participants wish to meet friends and travel to Cofton Park together the Avoncroft Museum (B60 4JR) and coffee shop will be open from 9.00AM to serve as a brief gathering point and refreshment stop before participants travel on to Cofton Park by a very attractive route. Austin Federation marshals will be on hand with a route map from Avoncroft Museum to Cofton Park until 10.30AM. Avoncroft Museum cannot provide space for people to wait for a long period of time for others to join them.
All vehicles with a Longbridge connection are welcome, from Austin 7s to Rover 75s, MGFs to Austin Devons, MGBs to Vanden Plas Princess Limousines. Famous makes likely to be involved include, Vanden Plas, Morris, Wolseley, Riley, Honda and MG, as well as the core Longbridge brand of Austin.

Please join us in Cofton Park, opposite the Longbridge plant, to mark the fifth anniversary of the closure of MG Rover.

Longbridge closed abruptly in 2005, making a whole community redundant. Since then the Longbridge area has gone through enormous change, with workers retraining and much of the area being redeveloped for a new future in modern industries and education. The plant is producing cars again, albeit on a much smaller scale, but the community as whole remains both optimistic and proud of the century of innovation and mobilisation ‘The Austin’ (as locals will often call it) fathered between 1905 and 2005. No other UK plant is as significant to British and world motor industry history and no other car maker produced iconic egalitarian cars that motorised the masses and revolutionised the very idea of what a car could be, twice, in 1922 and 1959.
The Pride of Longbridge rally is a celebration of those great achievements and a chance for the community to gather in Cofton park alongside the plant and enjoy the vehicles they and their ancestors created.

Please come and join us if you have a vehicle with a Longbridge connection (remember the factory built engines for cars as diverse as MGBs and Jensen 541s) and be part of an event that is as much a pilgrimage as a car rally.
Or just come and enjoy the range of vehicles attending, Cofton Park is a public space and will remain so on the day of the event, something which helps give Pride of Longbridge its unique community feel.

Contact Details -austinfederation@btinternet.com

 http://www.avoncroft.org.uk/

Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings, Stoke Heath, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, B60 4JR

 Cofton Park, Low Hill lane, Longbridge, B31 2BQ Birmingham

       In recent years the name 'Austin' has been noticeably absent in the arena of British  car  making.  In  fact, no Austin's  have  been   manufactured at Longbridge or anywhere else since 1986, although car production at Longbridge was continuous until 8th April 2005. 

        The name  of 'Austin', surely one of the greatest in British and International motoring that gave  the world a  complete  range  of  automobiles  from 'motoring for the millions' to 'carriages for the gentry' is in danger of sinking   into   obscurity.   The   time  is  right   to  bring together    all    interested     parties    into   the    Austin Federation to ensure that the great name lives on.
    

The  above  words  were  written  in  the  spring of 2001, and were circulated to all likely interested parties,  resulting  in  an inaugural meeting being held later   that   year  at  the  MG-Rover  Visitors  Centre  to discuss  the  formation  of  an  Austin  Federation, and how the  1955  Golden  Jubilee  Celebrations could be recreated   in   July   2005   to   mark   the
Centenary of 'Austin.  Attending the  meeting  were  representatives  from many Austin Car   Clubs,  the  Austin  Ex-Apprentices  Association, and  the  Austin  Village  Trust.   At  a  later  meeting in 2002,  the  Federation  of Austin Clubs, Registers, and Associations was voted into existence. 
     

The  primary  Objectives  of  the  Federation are to Preserve and Promote the Name and former Products of the 'Austin Motor Company'. One way in which this was achieved was by re-creating the 1955 golden Jubilee Celebrations by staging  the largest gathering of Austin products at Cofton Park (opposite the main gate of the Longbridge works) for the Centenary Celebration in July 2005.  Other aims are the sharing of technical information  amongst  members , and  the publication of a Federation Newsletter to be circulated to all members.
 

Responsibility  for  the  day to day management of the Federation  is  in  the  hands  of it's elected committee. An  annual  general  meeting  is  held  in  April  of each year.  In   addition,   there   are   generally   three  other meetings   to   discuss   progress  with  the Centenary Event, and other matters. 

In early October 2004 the Federation became a limited company. More information on this will be published here as it becomes available.
 

Principal Committee Members are:

Chairman,                                  Rev Colin Corke.

Vice Chairman,                        Ernie Jacson.
  

Secretary,                                  Chris Tallents.
 

Treasurer,                                  Mike Lashford.
                                        

 Membership of the Federation is open to all clubs, Registers, and  Associations  whose purposes include the perpetration of the 'Austin' marque and  the preservation of the products and history of the 'Austin Motor Company'.   The cost of annual membership is   £25 for clubs, or £5 per individual - payable/renewable on April 1st.  If you or your club  would like  to become a member, then please get in contact by email, or click the link to view and print a Membership Application Form.

Austin 1800.  Photo thanks to Ken Green.
 Landcrab Owners Club.

Metro 1.3L. Owner Harry Parker. 

Austin A35 Owner Roy Chamberlain,
A30 / A35 Owners Club.

Maxi 1750 HL. Photo thanks to Denise
Holloway.  Maxi Owners Club.

Princess HLS, owned by Keith Wilson.
 Princess and Ambassador Owners Club.

Mini.  Photo supplied by Tamworth
 Mini Centre.

Ambassador VDP.  Photo thanks to Alex
 Sebbinger. Princess and Ambassador
 Owners Club.

Montego.  Photo thanks to Jonathan Sellars,
  Maestro and Montego Owners Club.