Worcestershire's Motoring Heritage From Austin to Morgan

Worcestershire can proudly boast that it is the home of the British motor industry. Barely three years after Karl Benz had built the world's first motorcar, the Santler brothers had developed their internal combustion engine-powered four wheeler in Malvern. It was the start of something big, and although the Santler brothers never made a success in the motor industry, the county was the site of some of the biggest motor manufacturers in the UK and still is a major motorsport centre with the hill climb speed trial at Shelsley Walsh being run from 1905 to the present day. Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris and MG was born plain old William Richard Morris in a terraced house in Worcester and between himself and Lord Austin built up the two largest motor manufacturers in Britain, which combined in the 1950s to become the British Motor Company. Martin Watts, author of Classic Camper Vans, tells the story of the county that made Britain's motoring industry.