56 Hours, 7 Cowley Built Cars, One Shopping Centre and me

[maestro dave]

Hi there,

Just browsing about and found this thread, so had to join up to say thank you and well done to the people who organised it.

I know the shopping centre and the general area and it is certainly a very deprived area.

It is easy to forget what a big place Cowley used to be, how many people it employed once upon a time and how it positively affected the local economy.

The guy above, "Well, Well Well Walter", would have been working on the 800 line at the time of the pass, which was in Cowley North Works. His pass is for B Block and B Block was North Works.

Quite sad somehow seeing this.

How did we end up here?

My view of how did we end up here? is , too many british people turned there backs on cars like ours because they believe the Big myth that British Leyland / Austin Rover cars are rust heaps and unreliable , but we all know if cared for and serviced they are very reliable , to me they are no worse than any other foreign car of there time just look how datsun`s rusted . Another reason is a lot of people just can `t think for themselves its a case watching too much Top Gear and having to keep up the Jones`s ie lets get a german car because Clarkson likes them and the neighbours have just got one and we can`t be out done. When I grew up in the 1970`s / 1980`s marina`s metro`s and all the rest where on every street and I don`t ever recall any of my family or friends family calling BL as they bought BL cars time after time , and people like us still love them that`s why we still have them just look at BL day at Peter`bro , rant over .