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Company founder William Morris began building cars in 1913 at Cowley, Oxford, and his firm would play a big part in bringing motoring to the masses.
Less well-known is the key role that Morris played in bringing motor buses to the streets. In the same year that he opened the Cowley works, he started operating the first motor buses in Oxford, in competition with horse-drawn trams. He had bought 12 buses from Daimler in Coventry, and the vehicles’ bodies were acquired from the London General Omnibus Company.
Oxford City Council had blocked the introduction of electric trams, and also refused to grant Morris a licence to operate. He got around this problem by selling books of bus tickets at newsagents instead of letting passengers pay when boarding. Morris sold his buses to the local tramways company in 1914.
Given this early association between the great pioneer of the car industry and buses, it is appropriate that the Oxford Bus Museum and the Morris Motors Museum should share the same site at Long Hanborough, a few miles to the north-west of the city. And it’s appropriate too that the building that houses the Morris museum was brought there from the Cowley factory.
Perhaps the most fascinating exhibit is a series of evocative, vintage photos of the Morris shop floor. The company opened its first assembly line as early as 1914, allowing efficient production as the workers stayed in one place while the vehicles progressed along the line.
Another set of photos tells the story of the firm’s service during the Second World War when, like many manufacturers, Morris turned its factory over to making products for the forces. It made mines, tanks and Tiger Moth aircraft, and repaired damaged planes.
Morris also built a curious-looking two-man amphibian vehicle, the Salamander Raider, a sort of armoured car with a turreted 360º gun. It reached 50mph on land and 6 knots on water. Two demountable floats were carried on a trailer with a propeller at the rear. The floats were fixed to the sides of the vehicle before it went into the water.
Other exhibits include cars and vans, old documents and working drawings, and items connected with the firm’s fire brigade. You can inspect these while listening to music, played to recall the fact that the Morris workers formed a brass band, which had its own bus for transport to concert venues.
Any children visiting the museum are sure to look longingly at the Morris 1000 pedal car, one of only 56 made in 1963. Launched at the London Motor Show, it attracted much interest but was never built in large numbers as, at £800, it was too expensive.
In the Oxford Bus Museum in the next-door building, the first exhibit is a 1949 AEC Regal 32-seater coach. It’s a wreck, and is shown to demonstrate how decrepit some of the vehicles are when the museum acquires them. It’s been in the collection awaiting restoration since 1979.
The museum has a busy workshop where five or six repair jobs are under way at any one time. Any retired engineer with time on their hands might find a rewarding role here. The museums are entirely run by volunteers and are keen to recruit more.
The rest of the exhibits, a group of buses that show how the vehicles evolved over the years, are in much more impressive condition. They range from 1920s charabancs to a 1990s electric model. Some of the old buses are used in the summer to take visitors on rides.
A model of Cheltenham coach station in the 1950s has a sign alongside it saying that it “seeks to awaken a happy nostalgia” in the viewer. That sums up the pleasant feeling that a visit to these twin museums evokes.
The museums have limited opening times, so check the website:
www.oxfordbusmuseum.org.uk
Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.